At intive, we encourage our people to constantly develop their skill sets and make the most of the benefits of intive’s internal mobility program. Read the following interview with Filip Donigiewicz, a QA Engineer, who has recently made a successful switch into a Junior Project Manager at intive.
Filip, tell us your story: Why did you decide to start working at intive 5 years ago?
I applied to intive at the recommendation of my friend, who was already working here. Initially, I joined the BlackBerry project, where I took the position of the QA leader. With time, my team grew and I myself had more and more responsibilities. Then I worked on Esprit and TomTom projects, where I enjoyed an opportunity to build my teams from scratch.
How would you describe your work as a QA engineer at intive? What was most interesting about this job?
QA work is not just about testing – it is about taking care of the quality of the application as a whole. For me, contact with people has always been the most satisfying part of my work. I enjoyed working closely with developers and encouraging them to take actions to improve the performance of the applications we were working on. After all, not just a QA - but the entire team is responsible for the quality of the digital product. An interesting experience was also the development of application testing processes, test strategies, and participation in the work on the application release processes.
Besides my day-to-day duties, it was great to have a chance to share my knowledge: both in the company guild and during various training courses or conferences where I was a speaker.
What were your reasons for wanting to change your job position and what was that career-change process like?
QA position gave me a lot of joy, but had its limitations – working as QA manager, I had little impact on the work of the entire project team. As I have never been afraid of responsibility and new duties, I decided to pursue Project Management as a natural direction in my professional development.
The process itself was not very formal. First, I just told my Line Manager about my desire to change the position. Then, there were a few more talks with my future Line Manager, and the process of collecting opinions and recommendations from the Project Managers I had worked with in the past. After that, together with my current and future Line Managers, we developed a role-changing plan: starting with me assisting other PMs in their projects, gaining the necessary experience and knowledge - until I was finally ready to run a project myself.
What was the biggest hurdle you had to face in switching from QA role into project management?
The biggest obstacle in the process of changing positions was COVID-19. I remember that there was a lot of uncertainty in our lives as well as around our projects at the beginning of the pandemic. Under these conditions, changing the career path was not an easy task and I think it also extended the entire process.
However, I had no major problems when it came to assuming new tasks and responsibilities, I’d had enough time to acquire new knowledge and master new processes with an amazing support from other PM colleagues. My experience as a QA manager has also turned out to be very useful.
What brings you joy at work at the moment?
I love working with people. As it happens, intive employs so many great people: skilled and talented specialists who are always ready to help and share their knowledge. Working with them is pure pleasure.