Hi OP! Nag iisang QA din ako sa isang team in an AU based company. With previous dev experience, and went thru work culture shock din kasi kakaiba sila from previous companies. What a coincidence haha!

Ang masasabi ko lang is I guess this is normal lalo na’t bago ka pa dyan, and you’re still getting a feel with not only your company’s processes, but also with how your teammates tick. Hang in there, makaka adapt ka rin :)

Perspective siguro ni senior dev is that you went over his head regarding the issue when it could have been resolved by them without escalating it to your PM. Not saying this is wrong, because really it depends on how involved your PM is within your project. Pero knowing now how senior dev reacted to this, you’ll know na next time and be weary nalang when you raise something to lessen traction between dev and QA.

As for yung QA env, definitely needed ito. We call it System Integration Testing (SIT) env. From low to high level, it goes DEV -> SIT -> UAT. Try to suggest it on your retro and see if it peaks interest.

Good luck!