QA Test Engineer Review

My role is a QA engineer for one of the Siemens Simcenter CFD products, in general it's my responsibility to test any features in development before they're pushed forward, investigate customer issues and spot bugs within the software/ test and approve bug fixes. On a daily basis I am using the Siemens's CFD software Flotherm, mainly with the freedom to create my own test cases which will either target specific features of the software or creative non-conventional cases to try and spot errors/bugs in areas which would not obviously be spotted. With test cases, I am verifying results whilst working alongside developers to raise any issues gauge what areas need investigation. I will often have tasks where I have to reach out to members in other teams and learn new areas of the software and job weekly. I am in constant communication with my team about my progress, finding and what they're all working on. As the only QA for my specific product, I get a large amount of responsibility as often I will be the one to give a new feature the green light before it gets merged into the main product. I also get time weekly to work on my own project using the available Simcenter softwares

The main skill developed is definitely communication. I've improved my technical communication skills as I've learnt to present my results and findings in a clear way that can be easily understood by those who aren't familiar at all with what I'm working on. My confidence in communication has also had a massive boost as I am reaching out and working with others daily, whilst also participating in weekly meetings with both general and technical discussion. I've had the opportunity to attend training and learning days, getting the chance to learn about my own strength and personality type and how best to work with others. There is also a large amount of resources for self-development e.g presentation skills, leadership and project management

As the only QA on my team, a lot of development needs my validation before it is eventually put into the final product and released to the customers, in this sense I felt a lot of responsibility as the work I was doing was essential to the process and the teams genuinely needed my feedback and help. Current interns also get to help within the recruitment process for the next set of interns, this is a great experience in itself but also a very important one as we have a say in who is a good fit for certain teams for an entire year.

A good amount, the first 6 weeks of my placement was a handover period where I would work alongside the intern I was replacing, I found this very useful as I wasn't thrown in at the deep end and was gradually given work until I was fully ready to take on the whole role. Even after the training period my team leader was always more than happy to help and explain things as well as anyone who I reached out to.

Although Siemens is a very large business, the division I work in has around 30-40 people, there are chats with all of us to have general chats with most. Over the year I've got to meet most of the team and all have been super friendly, I would have liked to meet more in person however covid has impacted this quite a bit. The role is hybrid based so you will get to interact with others depending on whoevers in on those days.

I have really enjoyed the placement, It's a big change from university work and I'd say a much better one. The team is very understanding and workflow is always checked on so you're never overworked or underworked, this was great as at no point in the year did I ever feel stressed about certain tasks or felt like it was ever too demanding. It was great introduction to see how a software company work in general but also see different sides in a lot of detail, such as how they interact with customers to how releases work and all the processes in between. It's been great getting to work with other interns with similar interests which is very helpful if you don't know anybody in a new area.

Yes

It is very helpful to have good understanding of CFD software such as how to use it in general and have an idea about what's going on in the background during a simulation. It's also great to have good knowledge in heat transfer and airflow, as this is very helpful when looking at many simulations and being able to spot when they're behaving as they should. I would research into the different products that we offer and know the history of our division as it is important to know the company aims and what we offer.