Rosie Sherry

Where You Live: Brighton
Company: DrivenQA
Job Title: QA consultant and co-founder

Describe your job/role?
My role involves improving the overall quality of IT projects. This generally means improving existing processes, implementing new ones and testing the system for errors. The aim is to improve communication, be more efficient and generally improve the quality of IT applications through expert testing.

What is the best thing about your job?
The best thing about my job is being in control of what I am doing and seeing it implemented into the project. Within QA testing one of my strong points has always been on improvements and trying to do things correctly which is also something that I very much enjoy.

What attracted you to it?
My first proper job was working in a bank where I was always at the forefront trying to work my way up. This meant that I was always given extra jobs to do including QA testing other people's work. I used this experience to get my first job as a software tester.

What schools did you go to and what subjects did you take?
This is a bit of a difficult one since I grew up in London but at the age of nine my parents decided to move abroad .We lived in Indonesia for a while and then moved to Colombia and I didn't return to the UK until I was about 18. The school systems in these countries are very different to the UK. The best and most affordable option for me at the time was to work full time and study part time. I opted for doing courses with the Open University, which was great and provided the flexibility that I needed.

What was your favourite subject and why?
I have always quite enjoyed Business, IT and sports.

What was your first job?
My very first job was working in a café, clearing tables and washing up.

What does your career path look like?
I'm keen on sticking with Quality Assurance and Software Testing, expanding DrivenQA, and doing some research into this area.

Which women have inspired and influenced your career?
The first person who springs to mind is my mum. When I was younger she had to take over running the household from my dad. On top of that she battled cancer a couple of times and looking back on my childhood I have realised that what she managed to do was rather amazing.

What would you say is your strongest attribute/s?
I would say that I am hardworking, dedicated and persistent on improving.

What do you think is the most exciting/interesting thing about working in the digital media industry?
The most exciting thing is the emergence of new technology and meeting new interesting people, but also the constantly ongoing networking which allows you to get to know other industries.

What advice would you give to people who consider entering the digital media industry?
Meet people and get talking! Specialise in an area that you enjoy. Companies often have a unique selling point and people should have that too and that is what could make you stand out in the crowd.