Patrick has worked for 10 years in the finance sector as a tester, when driven by a desire to move on, he decided to train with OpenClassrooms online courses. Today, with his qualifications from a web integrator course and his 15 OpenClassrooms course credits, he has risen through the ranks to become an analyst. Despite his misgivings, he has overcome prejudice: the company and his peers have placed their trust in him despite his professional background that did not even include A-levels.
Patrick’s story:
- Montreal region, Canada
- 10 years in the same company, in the financial sector
- 15 OpenClassrooms courses and credits, 1 web integrator course.
- Took his first steps into development aged 16
- 3 boys who he hopes to inspire with his passions (7, 4 and 1 and a half).
- Reached 200km/h on a supercar circuit
“The end of the spaghetti code!”
OpenClassrooms appeared on the scene at the time when Patrick wanted to update his skills to move on in his company and realise his ambitions.
“I designed my first Internet site at around 17, (HTML 3.0, JavaScript, Netscape Navigator. Over the years, I had ignored HTML5, as I insisted on developing Internet sites by just using tables (shame on me *MDR*). But one day I decided to update my skills!”
What attracted me was the quality of the training and the videos as well as the trainers “They are fantastic! People with a passion who can make difficult topics accessible for everyone!”.
“My efforts got me noticed”
Building on his skills and his determination, Patrick has progressed within his company and within the QA team. As an analyst he decides the strategy of testing, writes up and maintains the test suites and manual regression suites and develops automated regression suites. He provides support to the project manager and his fellow testers. The company and his manager recognised the progress he had made and gave him the means to prove himself.
“I also wanted to become involved by designing courses”
During his free time, Patrick shares his knowledge on OpenClassrooms. He is currently preparing two courses, one on software lifecycle, the other on automation of tests in C# with Selenium WebDriver. “OpenClassrooms provides a lot of courses on software development and I think it is equally important to introduce courses on quality assurance and the development of automated testing”
Patrick’s advice:
“With the emergence of mobile devices (smartphones, tablets) and connected devices, the IT domain has significantly evolved over the last few years. For those who want to go into app development, whether it be apps for desktop, mobile phones or connected devices I think now is the best time to join this new movement.”