Local Stuff in Testheadland (for SF Bay Area Software Testers)

As I have come back from CAST, and I have taken some time to settle back into daily life and breathe a little easier, it strikes me that there's some stuff happening in my local reality that I'd like to encourage others to get involved with.

If you are outside of the San Francisco Bay Area, this may not be all that interesting to you. If you call the Bay Area home, and specifically, if the cities of Palo Alto or San Francisco are easy for you to get to, then these two items may be of interest to you :).

Socialtext is looking for a Senior Quality Engineer

Socialtext was acquired a few years ago and folded into another company called PeopleFluent. While we do have a site and a brand that is advertised as Socialtext, all of our hiring is being done through PeopleFluent. After being alerted to the fact that that was causing some confusion, I figured a quick explanation would help matters.

If you go to the Socialtext web site and look at the Senior Quality Engineer position, and then click on "Apply Now", you will be directed to a job listing with PeopleClick. That is by design and exactly what you should see. Also, while I cannot guarantee it will fast track you in the system, you have the option of including a note that says you are an employee referral. If you'd like to contact me directly and have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them as best I can. After that, if you add that you are an employee referral, and say that Michael Larsen referred you, we'll both be telling the truth ;).


BAST is going to be holding a Quarterly Lean Beer

I'm taking this from the BAST Meetup page, but since I feel it gets the point across, I'm going to add it mostly verbatim:

Bay Area Software Testers was originally created with 1 rule: it won't always be Curtis, Michael, or Josh speaking. Unfortunately, for the most part we've violated that rule. It's time for that to change.

Join us for the first of our quarterly "Lean Beer" BAST events. What is Lean Beer you ask? Well, it's identical to Lean Coffee, but we used beer (or water) and it happens in the evening instead of the mornings! 

Okay, smart ass answer aside, here is an excerpt from the leancoffee.org website:

"Lean Coffee is a structured, but agenda-less meeting. Participants gather, build an agenda, and begin talking. Conversations are directed and productive because the agenda for the meeting was democratically generated."

The basic idea is we talk about what the majority of the people present want to talk about. There is no central speaker and no central topic. Come prepared to talk about what matters to you!

We are also planning on using these events to help get an idea of what people are interested in, and trying to find experts to come and speak on those topics. So come, discuss, and have fun.

My goal coming back from CAST was to get more involved in the things happening locally, and emphasizing my commitment to software testing in the Bay Area. Consider this a first step towards that :).