International Women’s Day 2018 #IWD2018

I’ve always been a staunch supporter of diversity and inclusion in life (this very fact was part of the reason for my choice to join eBay.

I recently tweeted to reflect on the women who inspire me in my career for various reasons, however I didn’t have the opportunity on Twitter to go into the details of why these amazing #WomenInTech inspire me. This blog post will hopefully add some context to the tweet and encourage you to take a look at their profiles to see if you’ll benefit from their expertise as I have.

So without further ado…

@auberryberry

@auberryberry I only met Aubrey a few short months ago but in that time she’s inspired me to take more charge when something seems to be spinning it’s wheels. Her confidence, dedication to her career and regular public speaking is truly inspiring and there’s never been an instance where she hasn’t dropped what she’s doing to help, no matter how big or small the issue is. You’re a girl of action and an inspiration. Thank you @auberryberry #DevOps #TakeCharge #PublicSpeaking

@Deborah_Reid19

@Deborah_Reid19 Deborah is a consummate test engineer, self-motivated and has a keen eye for identifying improvements in processes or the way teams work. Her passion for her craft is infectious and it’s clear that she will be a #WomenInTech trailblazer in the not-too-distant future. My inspiration from Deborah is an unwavering drive for quality. You’re truly an inspiration, so never forget that @Deborah_Reid19. #ExploratoryTesting #Quality #Modesty #Passion

@testobsessed

@testobsessed Elisabeth was one of the first people I was introduced to (internet-ically) by James Bach when I attended his RST and RST Management courses in 2006. From that point onward I found her to be knowledgeable, honest and no-nonsense with her views on quality and testing. Her book “Explore It!” Is one of my go-to books for anyone who asks me what Exploratory Testing is and there are a multitude of ideas from the book that shape my daily work. Thank you @testobsessed. #ExploratoryTesting #Quality

@techgirl1908

@techgirl1908 Angie is a veritable force in automated testing. From the perspective of someone who can code (well, cannibalise existing code and hacking it to work for me at least!) I’ve found her tweets, blogs and conference talks to regularly leave me sitting at my desk thinking, “maybe I DO like coding but I forgot. I’ll give it a go again soon” – I’ve even been inspired to buy several Udemy courses to be able to immerse myself and learn, based solely on Angie’s passion for her craft. Thank you and keep doing what you’re doing @techgirl1908 #Coding #Tooling #AutomationInTesting #Blogging #PublicSpeaking

@katrina_tester

@katrina_tester I’ve literally lost count the number of times I’ve read, re-read, bookmarked, read again, shared and been hugely inspired by Katrina’s blog posts. Her writing style is free-flowing and easy to read and understand, even for less technical readers. Her knowledge of what she blogs about is superb and is a breath of fresh air compared to the many wishy-washy blog posts that people churn out (I’ve been guilty of this in the past too!). Katrina’s book on Testing in DevOps (http://katrinatester.blogspot.co.nz/p/testing-in-devops.html) is such an amazing resource that after buying it on day 1 of release, I paid to get it printed and bound for daily inspiration at work. Thank you @katrina_teste 🙂 #Testing #KnowledgeSharing #Writing #Blogging

@maaretp

@maaretp Maaret is inspirational when it comes to advocating the benefits of pairing and mobbing between development and test engineers. Her ability to verbalise those benefits in a way to impassion others is inspiring to me and has lead me to asking the question, “is mobbing or pairing an integral part of your dev process” in interviews. Coupled with the above she’s a lovely person face-to-face and happy to talk testing with anyone. You are definitely an inspiration @maaretp! #Testing #KnowledgeSharing #MobTesting #PairTesting #PublicSpeaking

@Tweet_Cassandra

@Tweet_Cassandra The first time I met Cassandra was almost a year ago to the day, at UKStar conference in London. She was talking about Hiring and Getting Hired as a tester. Her enthusiasm for me was inspiring, as was her confidence and delivery. Being relatively junior in the realms of testing but having a great knowledge, enthusiasm for the craft and wanting to meet and engage with people made me want to overcome my natural quietness around people and be more confident so I now go out of my way to force myself into conversations and public speaking. Thank you @Tweet_Cassandra #PublicSpeaking #Blogging #Bravery

Across ALL industries around the world we are surrounded by amazing women and it’s our responsibility to stand up and remind people of that fact, as often as possible, and as passionately as possible.

Let’s #PressForProgress