The great news is that my training for the year has been approved and I am off to CAST again!
http://www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org/drupal/CAST2008
Last year was the first time I experienced this amazing conference and I feel extremely privileged and incredibly excited to be going back. I will be hanging out with all the coolest people in Software testing, and once again trying to absorb every little thing I can. The program looks fantastic, with presentations from Cem Kaner, Rob Sabourin and even Jerry Weinberg. The focus at CAST is on “conferring”, so you really have an opportunity to learn and grow through the experience.
So how is it that I am lucky enough to be going? Well.... there are a few things that may have helped:
1) I put it in my personal development plan – we haven't had these very long, but if you don't ask for something, chances are you won't get it. I have made it my mission to tell everyone I can how much I loved CAST and how much it did for me, and how badly I wanted to go back. I have gone so far as to say that CAST is the only training that I would like to go on this year.
2) There has been tremendous support from some key people in the company – there are a number of people that work with me that have been very supportive of me going..... so I try and impress them every way I can
3) After returning from CAST last year, I tried to use what I had learned – there were a few ways that I attempted to do this....through development of our second analysis course, through some of the informal sessions I had with people and also my Session based testing experiment
4) There were some presentations at company meetings on the things that I learned last time
5) I am paying for some of it myself… by committing my own money, I am showing how important this is to me personally
In writing this, I would like to encourage those of you passionate about your career and passionate about testing, to consider CAST for yourselves... and hopefully I have given you some ideas of how you can get there too.
