Amandine Douguedroit

A bit more about my professional journey

From my first passion to the start of my professional life

At eleven years old, a friend told me that our school offered free theater classes. We decided to participate, and I instantly fell in love with acting. I wanted to make it my career. I spent years studying theater, first in a club, then in high school and conservatory. I went on to study Performing Arts at the University of Artois in Arras, where I earned a bachelor’s degree. I acted in two plays with the Vanguard Theater company, founded by a fellow student. My professional career began with a part-time job as an usherette at the Tandem National Theater in Douai and Arras.

During my university years, I realized that I did not want to pursue acting as a career. I made a life change and moved to Bordeaux, where I completed a fulfilling civic service at Cap Sciences, a cultural center focused on science and technology. There, I discovered bouldering and became passionate about it. I started climbing regularly at Arkose and eventually applied to work as a front-desk host. That year provided me with valuable professional experience, strengthening my adaptability, interpersonal skills, and responsiveness in a dynamic environment.

New Direction!

My discovery of web development

I later moved to Marseille to join my partner. A new chapter in my professional life! It was 2020, the height of the COVID pandemic. Lockdown had just begun. I was living with my partner, a passionate web developer, who encouraged me to explore web development. As soon as the lockdown ended, I enrolled in a professional training program equivalent to an associate’s degree at École Pratique. During that year, I learned:

• How to integrate into an Agile development team
• How to design user interface mockups and model their flow, particularly considering accessibility, using Figma
• How to develop static user interfaces with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• How to make interfaces dynamic with React
• How to set up a relational database with MySQL
• How to develop SQL and NoSQL data access components
• How to build business logic components on the server side using Java
• How to document the deployment of a web or mobile web application
• How to test program functionality using JUnit

Testing: A Pleasant and Unexpected Discovery

During my training, I interned at ITSO Technologies in Avignon, and the experience turned out to be quite surprising. My final project was supposed to be based on my internship work and needed to include both front-end and back-end development. However, the company instead assigned me to set up and automate unit tests for one of their client’s websites. This didn’t align with my project’s expected content, but the team lead reassured me that we would find a way to integrate a front-end component. I accepted—and I don’t regret it! This experience allowed me to dive into software testing, applying and deepening the concepts I had studied. I enjoyed developing these tests. In this project, I:

• Defined a dataset
• Wrote a test class using the SpringBoot framework
• Created automated API tests for the endpoint that handles user creation
• Recreated a simplified version of the user management functionality using the Test-Driven Development (TDD) approach

Through testing, I discovered that the application did not handle cases where a user entered only spaces in the name, surname, and email fields. I presented my findings to the team and was proud to contribute to improving the product!

As my internship and training came to an end, I wrote my project report and presented it to the certification jury. Unfortunately, I focused too much on the testing aspect and skimmed over the front-end development part. The examiners deemed my front-end skills insufficient and did not grant me certification.

Parallel Chapter: My Career in Early Childhood Education

Alongside my training, I worked as a babysitter for two young brothers (ages 2 and 5) after school. I discovered a natural inclination for working with children and a talent for engaging with them. After the disappointment of not obtaining my certification, I shifted my career toward early childhood education. I worked as a nanny in Marseille before transitioning to a daycare center. Interested in alternative education methods, especially Montessori, I applied for and obtained a position as a Montessori guide for children aged 1 to 3 years old.

In this role, I was responsible for the well-being and psychomotor development of 16 children, as well as leading a three-person team. I closely observed each child’s progress, reported their development to parents through biannual written reports, and conducted meetings to discuss these reports. This job strengthened my observation skills and attention to detail while enhancing my communication and interpersonal abilities. After two years, I decided to change careers once again.

Career Shift!

My Training as a Software Tester

Working with children was fulfilling and educational but also personally challenging. As a highly empathetic person, witnessing children’s distress had a significant emotional impact on me. The job was physically and emotionally exhausting. I wanted a career that offered a better work-life balance. I recalled the satisfaction I had felt while setting up tests during my ITSO Technologies internship and decided to return to web development, this time specializing in quality assurance.

I enrolled in a software testing certification program (equivalent to an associate’s degree) through OpenClassrooms. I quickly developed a strong passion for quality assurance and software testing! During this training, I learned:

• How to execute manual and exploratory tests
• How to automate E2E, functional, and API tests using Cypress
• How to write and update a test specification document
• How to execute a test campaign
• How to analyze and report bugs
• How to write and present a test campaign report
• How to review requirements
• How to design a test strategy

I also reviewed the fundamentals of web programming (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and React) and participated in an Agile website development project.

My Internship at PrettyData

Midway through my training, I was fortunate to secure a QA Engineer internship at PrettyData, a startup that develops a digital solution for American beauty and hair salon owners to manage their revenue.

Did You Know? 💡
According to Braden Weinstock, the founder of PrettyData: "Beauty professionals in the United States earn 20% less than the average American."

At PrettyData, I helped establish and refine quality assurance processes. I drafted and presented a service-level agreement to define bug resolution and validation deadlines based on issue severity. I also ensured the non-regression of features through exploratory testing, and bug reporting via Linear. I wrote the first version of the test plan and automated E2E tests for the application's critical features, which were integrated into the company's continuous integration processes via GitHub Actions. Above all, I thrived as a quality assurance professional and found great satisfaction in helping the company achieve high-quality standards!

I feel confident in my choice to pursue this career because the skills it requires align perfectly with both my natural abilities and those I’ve honed through my professional experiences. They say the Devil is in the details, and lucky for me—I love hunting down every last little demon (or bug) hiding in the cracks. 🕵🏻‍♀️