QA is a destiny

She has nurtured her dream of working in this field since she was in college, with a passion for learning and research. She is especially passionate about classes on processes, object orientation, and software models, rather than lectures on programming.

At that time, QA was still a relatively new profession in Vietnam. "QA workers in Japan must have at least 10 years of experience and have held PM and Tester positions before switching to QA. QA is a "super" position in the software industry because they must be results-oriented, how the project succeeds, not focusing on code." This sentence from her teacher 15 years ago was deeply engraved in her mind and motivated her to pursue this path.

Writer Paulo Coelho once wrote: "When you desire something, the whole universe conspires to help you”. True to this, Mrs. Hai Ha's path in the QA field, though not always easy, has been persistent. She has experienced every position in the QA industry, from project QA, QA Lead for a project, SEPG Lead, ISMS Lead, Deputy QA Lead, and now QA Manager.

"The special feature of the QA profession is that it always brings new knowledge and experiences, never stopping. This is a profession that requires a lot of brainpower. QA professionals always face new challenges, from customers to specific requirements in the technology industry," Mrs. Hai Ha shared.

The appeal of the QA profession for Mrs. Hai Ha is the opportunity to understand the entire process of the software industry, from project to organizational level. It allows her to participate in any stage of the project and switch to another position.

Mrs. Hai Ha firmly believes in the importance of processes, despite the perception that they may be unnecessary and redundant. She has spent hours arguing with a famous PM in the company to convince him of the importance of QA. She believes that understanding QA standards is necessary, just like learning English and obtaining IELTS and TOEFL certificates. When you understand the nature of standards, even if customers change their requirements, you can still advise and support them effectively.

Steadfastness is the source of strength

Everyone possesses their unique passion and ambition, but maintaining that drive is a challenging task. Mrs. Hai Ha was fortunate to have discovered her passion early, but she realized that to achieve her goals, she needed not only the fire of passion but also inner strength and perseverance. 

On her journey to becoming an excellent QA Manager, Mrs. Ha emphasized the importance of continuous learning. She believes that if you want to accomplish things quickly, you must invest a lot of effort and have clear objectives. From the beginning, she has always inquired why the process is necessary and sought to comprehend the principles of the process and standards. 

When she first entered the industry, she spent the entire Saturday at the company researching documents from her project's process to other projects, looking for links and root causes of problems. With each project, she inspected reality and compared it with theory. 

Mrs. Ha still remembers the most significant challenge that made progress in her career in 2018 when she first moved to a new company and had only five months to prepare for the CMMi certification exam, one of the industry's most valuable certifications. Although she was confident in her knowledge, she had never had experience implementing significant projects under such short time pressure. 

Perhaps once people have found their passion, they are ready to plunge into a whirlwind of storms to live with that passion. Mrs. Ha "locked herself" in a small conference room of only 5 square meters for a month and a half with headphones and rock music to keep her spirit awake. With determination and effort to the end, from 5-6 QA members, Mrs. Ha gathered a team of more than twenty people from participating units and achieved impressive results in just three months. 

She chose to stay with NTQ Solution because she saw steadfastness and perseverance in the people there. She said that NTQ is like the character Thanh Giong in Vietnamese folklore. During her two years working at NTQ, she always felt the enthusiasm and zeal of the members, not only in QA but also in other departments. 

Mrs. Ha affirmed that if she could go back to the old days, she would still continue to put in efforts and dedication to grow quickly. Because she knows that this not only helps the company, but also herself.

Concerned about the next generation

Mrs. Hai Ha's career goal is to inspire and be passionate about her profession to the next generation, rather than pursuing the pinnacle of her career after many years of studying and accumulating a certain "standing." 

The words of the old QA Manager left a lasting impression on Mrs. Ha: "Humanity is the most difficult and most important of the three elements: rule of law, rule of technology, rule of humanity." As she rose to higher positions, she absorbed this philosophy more. She prefers to be a pioneer rather than a boss or manager of the QA department, leading the members to develop. 

Mrs. Ha believes that if the members develop, the QA industry will develop, and NTQ will develop. Even if she is no longer with the company in the future, there will still be a bright factor in the industry. 

Mrs. Ha recounted the time when she participated in the ISO 27000 certification exam project on information security, an area outside of her expertise. She had to read many documents on information security, IT standardization, and directly inspect system and network lines in the server room. Despite the difficulty, she was lucky to have an ISO consulting partner who shared more theory and practice experience with her. 

Mrs. Ha hopes that she can "conveniently" guide others like her ISO consulting partner did for her. Just helping one more friend feel less "surprised" with the profession is happiness for her. She is willing to answer questions, send private documents, and advise "newbies" so that they can better understand the gaps and find the right direction for themselves. 

Mrs. Ha hopes that with her experience, she can support the next generation to develop steadily and methodically in an industry as young and lacking in human resources as QA.

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*This article is part of the series: "NTQ Rubik - series about NTQ people across the globe." 

As a Global IT Service Provider, NTQ Solution aims to create a working environment that brings together diverse technological talents with a shared passion, ambition, and unity to innovate and propagate numerous values. At NTQ Solution, we empower our employees to "shine" by providing them with a diverse, free, and flexible space to hone their skills and conquer the global market.