Who are you, and what do you do? What do you like to do outside of work?

Hi, I’m Jade and I’m a senior software tester/test engineer for a wonderful company called Faire. I’ve been in testing my entire career up to this point, and love how much of a playground it can be. After all, I can’t think of many other careers where you can get paid to tear things apart (both theoretically and literally). Manual testing, automated testing, test strategy, test tooling—I’ve done it all to varying degrees, and each is fun in its own right. I even have a tattoo of a software testing doll, to remind myself on those less-than-fun days why I love my job.

Outside of work, I enjoy a bunch of different hobbies and tend to rotate between them all. Video games, writing books, jigsaw puzzles, woodworking, sewing, knitting & crocheting, reorganizing the house (my husband’s “favourite” of my hobbies)…many different things. I don’t watch TV or movies very often, but am a big YouTube fan, and like to watch the same videos over and over again (which confuses my loved ones to no end). And when I do venture into the more formal entertainment space, I tend to stick to true crime documentaries, crime dramas, or action comedies. I also love listening to music, and can’t work effectively without hearing some form of music or audio from a video in my headphones. I love animals, and would happily live in a zoo if I could, although some would say I already do. My husband and I have a dog, two cats, two snakes, and we have just added a newborn human to the mix. Needless to say, it’s a full household, but it’s never boring, and full of fun and love.

What hardware do you use?

My desk is a Frankenstein Ikea monster, made up of a manual sit/stand base (TROTTEN) and a too-large BEKANT top (it’s only slightly unstable, I promise). Although, admittedly, I rarely use it as a standing desk these days—the crank is very loud and annoying to use. Now that I’m WFH for the foreseeable future, perhaps an upgrade is in store! My chair is the Autonomous ErgoChair Pro and is good enough for my purposes. Unfortunately, I don’t take full advantage of its ergonomic capabilities, as the lowest setting on my desk is still too high for my short little legs to reach the floor if the chair is at the proper matching height. As a result, I end up sitting cross-legged in the chair a lot. Not the best way to sit, I’m told!

For work, I have a 17” M1 MacBook Pro, and for personal use, I have a Windows 11 desktop machine that is primarily used for casual gaming. Each has a monitor hooked up to it, sitting side-by-side on a gas spring dual-arm monitor stand. While working, I tend to have both running and use my personal for music/YouTube so as to take up less screen space on my work machine. I have my Moonlander keyboard, and a Logitech M570 Wireless Trackball mouse, which both sit on a desk mat. They’re connected to a UGREEN USB switchbox that I have hooked up to both computers, so I can swap between them as needed. My headphones are the Razer BlackShark V2 Gaming Headset, and migrate between the switchbox and my personal computer directly, depending on my needs.

And, of course, I have some fun friends on my desk to keep me company while I work.

And what software?

My go-to browser to use is Chrome, although for work purposes, I’ll often swap between various ones as needed. For coding purposes, I’ll use either IntelliJ or VS Code, depending on which code I’m working in. Aside from that, my big usage apps for work aside from browsers are the built-in screen recording/screenshot app, the terminal for managing and running all the code, Notion for planning and documentation, and Slack for coordinating and communicating. Aside from work and Chrome, I use LastPass religiously, and do a lot of my gaming with Steam. For my other hobbies, I’ll also use Fusion 360, Adobe Illustrator, and the various Google document types.

What’s your keyboard setup like? Do you use a custom layout or custom keycaps?

I have the Moonlander Mark I keyboard. I’m hoping to get custom keycaps at some point, but have none at the moment, and am currently using the default ones. My layout is a slight variation on the standard QWERTY, with all the modifications made being for work purposes. Mostly migrating some keys between layers for easier access and making some shortcut keys.

What would be your dream setup?

My current setup is honestly pretty good. There are some changes I’d want, to make it more into my dream setup, but nothing massively different. Ideally my desk would be motor-powered to raise/lower, and would be able to go low enough for me to reach the floor properly when sitting at it. Having my headphones be on a separate USB switchbox would be ideal, so I wouldn’t have to manually move it back and forth. I’d also ideally have my one monitor on a switch as well, so I can move it between my two computers as well. Other than that, I’m quite happy with my setup as it currently stands!