Argyler Spotlight: Dan Skigen
Hey Dan! Can you share a bit about your role at Red Argyle and what your day-to-day looks like?
At Red Argyle, I work as a Staff QA, which effectively means my job is to try and break things. Before work ever makes it to a client, the engineers at Red Argyle pass the work they do to people in QA like me. Our job is then to throw whatever we can at the thing the engineer built to try and find any potential bugs, issues, or oversights. This can include things as minor as a small typo, or as major as a permission oversight that could lead to a security issue. Ultimately, my goal is to ensure that the work we present our clients with is always of the quality they expect from Red Argyle.
What inspired you to pursue a career in QA?
When I was a student at the Rochester Institute of Technology, my Computer Science courses were mostly focused on developer work. Our usual assignments would be being given a problem, and then having to find a solution to the problem that met certain criteria for acceptance. What I often found to be the most enjoyable part of this process was testing the bounds of my proposed solution – I may have created a program that meets the basic requirements of the assignment, but may miss the mark when fed bad data, or data outside of the normal boundaries. This led me to be particularly interested in learning more about QA while searching for co-op opportunities as a part of the 5-year Computer Science program at RIT, which led me to working here! I ended up enjoying it so much that I came back as soon as I was done to keep working in Red Argyle’s QA department.
What’s your favorite part of the QA process?
I really enjoy trying to think of different ways to test a feature that are not necessarily part of the requirements. Generally, the requirements for a feature define a set “positive path” for the test – if you perform steps A, B, and C, then this should happen. However, the “negative path” can be more than one thing – if you try to perform steps A, B, and C as a different type of user, does it still work? Should it still work? Getting to this part of the testing is extremely satisfying because it encourages you to think laterally and test ideas that may not have been considered when the feature was being developed.
Do you have pets? Tell us about them!
I don’t have my own pets, but when I stay with my parents I help take care of their dog, Gracie. She’s a basset hound who looks a lot like an oversized dachshund. She spends a lot of her day sleeping, but the time she doesn’t spend sleeping she spends being by far the most energetic basset hound I’ve ever seen. Despite her stubby legs, she’s quite speedy when it comes to chasing down birds, chipmunks, squirrels, and whatever other small animals she can find. Even though she clearly has hunting dog instincts, she’s exceedingly gentle and has never bitten anyone, human or animal.
What emoji do you use most on Slack?
Use most? 👍
Favorite? 🐀
How do you balance your career at Red Argyle with your personal life?
Red Argyle offers many great opportunities to have a healthy work-life balance thanks to the flexible hours and work-from-home style – I personally really appreciate being able to take my work wherever I want, and the ability to sometimes step away when I feel like I need it. This means that if it’s a particularly nice day out, I can take my work outdoors to enjoy it, or if I need to do something like walk my dog, I can safely step away knowing I can make up my time flexibly. It makes it a lot easier to maintain a stress-free balance between work and personal life.
Can you share a memorable moment or a fun fact about your time at Red Argyle?
During my first day onboarding, I went into the office. The day was overall about what I expected – I was given the hardware I’d need to work, spent time meeting the people I would be working with, and started getting myself set up on my laptop. However, midway through the day someone heard quacking outside, causing a few people to head outside and find a baby duck all by itself. This led to the second half of my first day at Red Argyle being watching a baby duckling inside a milk crate to ensure it didn’t escape while others in the office got in touch with a veterinarian to see if someone could take in the duck. Ultimately someone was found, and it made for an extremely memorable first day.
Outside of work, what are your passions or hobbies? How do you like to unwind?
My hobbies right now are split between cooking and gaming. I’ve cooked for myself and others fairly regularly for almost 10 years, and find the process both relaxing and rewarding! I often share pictures of the food I make, and if I visit the office I usually do so with some sort of baked goods to share. In terms of games, I’ve been playing games on my PC for almost 13 years at this point. My tastes are all over the place, but I’m currently really enjoying fighting games, TEKKEN in particular. There’s a required mix of strategic thinking and hand-eye coordination that’s really rewarding to improve at, and encourages challenging yourself. I managed to pick one of the more difficult characters to get into the series with, but I’m still really enjoying the learning process!
What do you think is the key for success in a role like yours?
Think outside the box! A lot of Quality Assurance is in trying to approach something new from multiple perspectives – it’s not too hard to test if something works as expected when you test it in the most expected way, but you need to consider how things work when used by different kinds of users. For example, a user who has never used a feature before may input things into fields that are nonsensical – does the system fail when fed that information, or does it tell the user where they may have made an error in input? What about malicious users looking to exploit security vulnerabilities? Could someone have improper access to the new feature, allowing them to see information they aren’t supposed to see? Being able to think of testing in this manner helps ensure a high quality product for the end user.
What is your favorite thing about Red Argyle’s culture?
To me, the best part of Red Argyle’s culture is that there is a genuine investment in growing both as individuals and as a company. You are not only recommended to obtain more certifications while at Red Argyle, you’re actively rewarded for going out of your way to do so. In addition, coworkers will help you learn things you may have never known before. In situations where you need help from someone else to solve a problem, you’ll not only get the help you need, but the information you need to handle any time the problem arises in the future. This helps create a culture in which asking questions is encouraged and actively grows your knowledge, which is fantastic for professional growth.
