Enough is Enough for ISTQB Review!

Imagine these bulk of papers I'm reviewing for the ISTQB Certification exam! Yup, I read these reviewer printouts to pass the examination! And thanks God I did it!

Last Monday, September 10, 2012, we took the said certification exam in Amorosolo, Makati City. The four of us who were wearing red all passed the exam! We were all nervous before going to the examination place but suddenly turns all happy as we leaved the place!

Before I took the exam, I had a one week preparation. But it was on weekend when I had a full blast of review. I read all these printouts, study the principles stated, and answered the 500 ISTQB questions! I even got lack of time blogging because I was occupied by reviews.

I was so thankful now that I already passed one of the most difficult board exams I took. I am now waiting for our certification to be awarded on us 6 to 8 weeks from now.

Many thanks also to my company who shouldered the expenses for this international board exam. The amount of the examination worth $170 or more or less Php8,000.

Now I have the guts of training my co-workers since I am now a Certified Software Test Engineer! Great!

I kept all those reviewers in proper place. I cherished them more now that I passed the exam. Some other days, I may use them. c",)

Red Spells a Lucky Charm!

We are Team Red! It's such a coincidence that the four of us were all wearing red yesterday, during the day that we took the ISTQB Certification exam.

Me and my three teammates took together the said examination on the same batch. We were surprised seeing each other wearing the same color - red!

Even the wall in the examination room is also painted in red! That's why right after the exam and right after we passed, we had our souvenir photos.

Here is our picture-taking lucky moment right after we passed the International Software Testing Board:

They say that red is a lucky color. And that proves to be true based our own experience!

Actually red is my favorite color since birth! I love the color of red. It symbolizes different things such as love, courage, life, and of course lucky charm! The last term is true in our case! Thanks God!

It also seems that we attended a red carpet premiere night because of our common red attire. Remember, most of the premiere nights I have already attended have actors wearing red?! Nice!

Now the four of us wearing red in the picture were all Certified Software Engineers! Thank you Lord for your blessings! c",)

I Am Now an ISTQB Certified Software Engineer!

September 10, 2012 is another milestone in my career. This is the date when I passed one of the important board exam and certification in our profession. This is the ISTQB or the International Software Testing Qualifications Board! This is an International Certification in the field of software testing engineering!

All the hardships in terms of time pressure, peer pressure, and overnight reviews during weekends were now turned to a sweet fruit that I'm starting to enjoy!

I had a very little time to have my own review for this certification. We had a month-long Monday review sessions for this certification but because of my too busy schedules, I wasn't able to attend most of the sessions! I've just got a serious review last week, one hour every after work and a full blast last Saturday and Sunday!

Thank God, I didn't only passed the exam, I even got a high score!

The examination is a computer-based exam consisting of 40 difficult questions. The passing score is 26 points or 65%. I got an overall correct answer of 30 points or 75%! Wow!

Above were the pictures of my examination result right after the exam. My certification will be given to us six to eight weeks now!

ISTQB certification is an International Board Exam! It is recognize all over the world in our field of Software Engineer. Certification represents recognition of a particular individual’s professional competence. It is prestige for the individual and a competitive advantage over non-certified individuals in the same field. Many companies consider ISTQB certification as a plus point for employees during appraisals. And during employee recruitment here and abroad, many companies prefer certified employees over non certified employees!

On my next post, I will share with you more of my success story pertaining to this prestige international certification. Thank you Lord for this another great blessing! c",)

VISA Approved!

Just this morning, I applied for my VISA and it was successfully approved by the consul!

Yup, I am required to be sent outside the country (I won't disclose the country for the meantime) initially for a minimum of three months.

Below is my VISA confirmation which is an initial process for the application. Sorry, I blocked some important details for security purposes! :)

My target date of travel will be on the first week of August. And I am so excited to be in one of the world's most beautiful country!

I hope I can immediately return to the Philippines by the start of the BER months since I have lots of event lineups for the said months!

For now, I will just enjoy this great opportunity given by my beloved company! Thank you! Hope to see more international stars in that country! c",)

November 2011 - "Looking Back and Looking Forward to My Corporate Stories!"

This month of November 2011 is really a great transition to my corporate career. I am facing a new career in the different company and at the same time leave my present.

Yup, I already filed my resignation to my present company last October 14, 2011 and will take effective on November 17, 2011. In other words, I will leave this company 15 days later.

After 3 years and 9 months of fruitful career, I decided to leave my current company to look for a better opportunities and greater career growth! As they say, for "greener pasture!"

For this month of November 2011, I like to pay tribute to this company. I will share with you some of my memorable experiences here. I'll share with you my ups and downs here, all the challenges and success I have with it for the past 3 years and 9 months!

What are the opportunities I got here?! What is my golden age and my dark age here in my present company?! How about the sweet love lives I had?! Who are the friends I had with and of course the 'kontrabidas' who made my corporate life miserable?! All these things pertaining to my present employer will all be yours as my special feature for this month of November!

And of course, I will also give you a glimpse to the new career I will have in my new company. So exciting...!!! Oh yeah!

So what are you waiting for?! Stay tune this month of November here in The Rock Land for our special corporate edition! Cool! c",)

Passed or Failed?!

Is it a Passed or a Failed?! What do you think?!

Every year specially every month of April, we are like students here in our company waiting for class cards. Some are excited, some are afraid! Mixed emotions for our annual performance appraisal!

Performance appraisal or PA in short is the annual evaluation of each employee's performance for the whole year. We are being evaluated by our manager. If you got a higher evaluation, therefore you got a higher merit increase or increase in our respective salary.

The increase takes effect on the last day of April pay period. But until now (as of this writing), we on the night shift didn't yet know our evaluation. We didn't yet had a one-on-one with our manager talking about our last year's performance. My other teammates (from the day and mid shifts) already discussed their PAs. We on the night remained hanging!

What do you will be my PA for this year (the fruit of my performance last 2010)?! Will it be a passed or a failed?! Make your wildest guess the way we are doing now! c",)

At Home With Our New Employee Lounge!

On February 11, 2011 the same day of my third year anniversary here in my company, our newly developed and redesigned company pantry was inaugurated and now officially called as "Employee Lounge".

Would you like to see how our employee lounge looks like? Well, here's how:

These were just two of my photos taken in our new pantry/employee lounge. I didn't yet took photos of the whole lounge including the videoke area. Yup, in my next post, I will share with you different photos of our whole employee lounge!

As you can see, the pantry or the employee lounge is now looks like a bar or a coffee shop. The chairs were very luxurious! The area where I'm siting is the side which depicts a coffee shop. It is composed of yellow sofas with glass coffee tables in the middle. The sinks and the drawers for the plates and utensils were even redesigned to make it more elegant!

And our favorite place here in the employee lounge is the videoke room! Yes, there is an enclosed videoke room! This is the place where we hang-out every break time. We enjoy singing different songs in it! I already sang many songs here! On my next post, I will share with you how our luxurious videoke room looks like!

So, consider this only as a teaser of my next exciting posts regarding our elegant employee lounge! Have a good day to everyone! c",)