Life at cloudtamer.io: Kip

Last updated on February 16th, 2023 at 5:37pm

Meet Kip, a member of our Engineering team, who talks testing solutions, kickstarting the day with chai, and wise fatherly advice.

1. Tell us about your role at cloudatmer.io.

I'm a QA Automation engineer in our Design and Engineering department, where I work with amazing and highly capable individuals. The QA team is responsible for both automated and manual testing of the application. We recently started using TestRail as our test case management tool. TestRail helps us manage our manual test cases, as some of our existing features still require manual testing. This tool helps us quickly create milestones and test plans for each release, and the dashboard enables us to compare passed and failed tests for each release. We also use Cypress to run e2e and CI/CD tests, with the results for our e2e tests populated in TestRail. These tools have helped increase our test coverage as we strive to squash all bugs before release. There's never a dull moment here; I've had the opportunity to work with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, and also test some amazing features currently used by our customers.

2. How did you find cloudtamer.io?

Through a Glassdoor search. I checked the reviews and then visited the website. I read some articles on the blog, watched "Reimagine the Public Cloud Experience with AWS Governance@Scale" that featured our CEO, watched some introductory videos on the cloudtamer.io YouTube channel, and went through the success stories. I was amazed by what the company had accomplished in a short time. By the time I was done, I just knew that I wanted to be part of cloudtamer.io. I know I made the right decision to join the company.

3. What behavior or personality trait do you most attribute your success to and why?

I am open to trying new things, pay attention to details, handle stress well, and I am extremely patient. I also like reviewing past actions and finding ways of improving. These traits allow me to easily adapt to any situation.

My work involves testing features, bug fixes, documenting test cases, and test guides, and scripting e2e tests, and these personality traits fit perfectly into my current role.

I always wonder if personality traits change with age, roles, or situations. Over time, I have grown more conscious of how my personality impacts the people around me.

4. How do you prefer to start your day?

I like easing into the day. I spend about 10 minutes meditating before planning my day. I check to see if some of my favorite podcasts have some new episodes. A hot cup of chai gets me going as I listen to market news. Once I have a few sips of the second cup of my glorious chai, I check my Slack messages, emails, and tickets assigned to me.

5. What's one thing you're learning right now and why is it important?

Google Cloud has been on my radar, and I'm planning on preparing to get a Google Cloud certification in Q4. On the few occasions that I have accessed the console, I noticed that the experience was somewhat different compared to AWS and Azure. Learning more about Google Cloud is important to me because it will help me better understand potential issues our customers may face if they have Google Cloud enabled in their environments. It would also be great to pass down that knowledge to future team members who join us.

6. Okay, on to the fun stuff. What's your most recently played song?

Daga Da – Sammy Virji

7. What's your favorite way to unwind after a long week?

Weekends are for spending quality time with family. I enjoy cooking something spontaneous when the weekend schedule is not packed. I recently bought some canvas and paint, and am looking forward to painting with the kids.

8. What's your favorite Slack channel at cloudtamer.io?

This is a hard one....my top three would be #nobodycaresaboutyourcar, #personalfinance, and the #random channel.

9. If you could snap your fingers and be an expert at anything, what would it be?

I'd like to speak more languages than I currently do. Being able to communicate with people in a language that resonates with them always helps to drive the message home. Another would be to have the ability to see into the future.

10. What's the best advice you've ever received and who was it from?

First, let me apologize in advance to my dad, who I received the advice from, in case he reads this. There is a high chance that I will butcher the meaning and weight by translating it into English. It goes something like this: "You eat the grasshopper head as you wait to feast on the bull". The key lesson here is to learn to manage the little you have. You should never stop making progress and you should always be patient. Always start small and grow.

Another classic piece of advice from him goes something like this: "Never spit what you cough". My son's reaction to this would be 'Yuck!' The hidden meaning in this gem is that you should not waste what you have because tough times are always around the corner.

Want to join Kip on the Design and Engineering team? We're hiring!