CSTE - a major milestone

Adding one more certification to ISTQB, I have recently cleared the CSTE. It was a biiiig thing. Thanks to all those who have helped me in many ways - especially my Family, Suresh, Sudeep, Pradeep, Neelam and others who supported me in many ways and encouraged me to take the test.

Need for certification !!

Is there anytime in professional (or personal) life when we say... life is routine. Though it may not be exactly, because we may do things or tasks in some different way everyday, but still we may feel there is no zeal to do. Then at that time we need to sit back and analyse.. am i doing something different or new.. do i want to do something different to get going the enthusiasm. Well it may learning to do a new task or technology or tool or concept or anything. We may be "too busy" in our work life but that does not mean we need to stop learning new things. Learning in later stages of life may come mostly from the need rather than the interest. But as long as there is that feeling to do something new or satisfaction that it made the difference.. it is enough.
There are instances for both these cases in my life
Need - We were doing manual testing for some of our projects and though we wanted to learn automated tools, we never took off time from work for it. The project that we were working on was a very big one and had a lot of scope to learn automation as there was much of regression and retesting to do. But when suddenly there was a requirement from the client, then there was a rush in the team to try out various tools. So the urge to learn and try something new came from need.
Interest - I was getting bored of the routine chores at work.. testing the application, etc.,.. so wanted to do something different. Then came the idea and interest to do a certification wherein i need to put efforts to read the concepts, understand them and corelate with the work that i was performing. Though there were many things that i did at work, for some of them i actually did not know the terminology untill i read the book/material or related articles. Undertaking a certificate is really a boring thing which needs a lot of interest and urge to do it (depends on the certification though). so this needs interest.
One way for learning is certification. We may not be learning everything new required in the certification but may also be implementing things in that, like the ISTQB certification for basic level has many concepts that we are actually implementing in our daily work. Though most of us may feel why do we need to do certification when we know many things that may not be covered in that certification or for that matter there may not be a need for someone to certify that we know something, it may be one of the tools to let people know that we are well qualified. like we may do a educational course but the certificates of the course only tell that we actually did it or prove the fact of our course. Certification in most instances may be a way to market ourselves, our organization.
But we need to realize that either as a need or interest it is definetely a value addition in our life.

The feel of being a Certified Professional

I have recently completed a Testing certification. The very fact of me handling testing is still not digested. I have come from a varied background and testing was not what I wanted to do at any point till now. But I always take up the opportunities that I come across. So I took up testing. Then came the thought when I wanted to do some certification because it was almost an year that i was into testing and thought of doing something more constructive. A colleague of mine actually completed and then when asked for advice. He encouraged me that it is easy, but then also I was not that sure I will make it. I thought I will give a try again not sure of the result though. I always want a change in life.. be it personal or professional. That change will be a motivator for many things. Worked hard for 2 weekends. Could not get much time on the weekdays. Then finally I took the exam. Had to wait for the results to come. Finally I MADE IT. Now I am a certified professional. Though it was a level 1 certification of ISTQB, it made a BIG difference. It made me feel more confident than usual and excited that i could do it so easily.
Hmmm... but yes added to that was the additional responsibility in my organization.. Aaahhh something i could not expect so sooon :(. inspite being an MBA. Hardly 2 years old as an MBA, the managerial role was shooting up for me... But YES again.. I am right now enjoying every minutes of it... The certification and the additional responsibility has brought a new phase in me.. where I get to explore, know and learn new things.. where i am enjoying every moment of it... got to be much more responsible at work, wherein any mistake can cost and make a dot for the company and me...
Finally..... I want to continue making some small changes like this in life and make big differences.. there should be some change in life to go ahead and be smart... and going ahead plan to do more certifications..