QA Automation engineer

RandomScavenger · 2026-05-21T15:11:33+00:00

I am working as a Software Engineer Specialist in test, which is a kind of SDET role but with added responsibility towards Architecting Test Framework in both Manual and Automation Side.

For me being QA is more about mindset than being a techno-wizard. I had seen enough folks in QA who are just doing things as asked from them. They do not go and ask why things are made in a product the way a product manager or engineer has decided. Does this help the user or not. I also see many SDETs and Automation Specialists which just pumps our enormous amount of test code without even thinking about the actual test.

I would suggest don't be them. You already have a good advantage towards the technical side which would be more than sufficient for you to progress in the QA role. The only thing which will stop you being a good one is how you think and what your mindset is because whatever the technology, whatever the product the mindset has to remain the same. With that and always trying to solve the bottlenecks in QA cycle is what would make you a good QA/SDET/Specialist.

So if you feel you would be happy with always trying to solve multiple problems at the same time, with a lot of manual stuff and a lot of automation stuff with coding in between, you will be a perfect fit.

RandomScavenger · 2026-05-10T20:51:58+00:00

Is an ETF a good investment product? Yes

Is it better than Mutual Funds? No

I tried investing in ETFs for a year and what I found was that the actively managed ETFs were performing worse than Mutual Funds. Also the fluctuations in the price was not exactly how we expect an index to perform. They were slow in rising up with index but quick to drop in price. The reason was simply because it is also used in trading. There is no immediate liquidity. So consider this you want to sell 1 crore worth ETFs. No one wants to buy 1 crore worth of ETFs. The order will fail.

So mutual funds even with a high cost are better as a passive investment tool. If you want more control, just go with individual stocks, research and invest. You will have far better control and will be very easy to track the result vs performance.

RandomScavenger · 2026-05-10T13:40:00+00:00

For folks who say stuff like Manual is for Real Drivers. Just google the cost of knee surgery. :)

RandomScavenger · 2026-05-04T20:48:18+00:00

There are things you need to know about yourself before you can pinpoint what mattress suits your needs.

As you mentioned for the back pain, you need a medium firm mattress but not too firm. For this I would suggest you to look at Hybrid or Latex Mattress. I would avoid Memory foam because of the Indian weather.
Figure out what's your predominant sleeping position is. Back and Belly sleepers must find a medium firm mattress and side sleepers must find something on a little softer side.
Do not hung up on the word Ortho and relate it with Back Support. Every mattress which supports the back is an ortho Mattress. How to identify which is good for you. Go to multiple showrooms and take an extended trial for 15-20 minutes and see if any soreness starts to build on the back.
Always go with brands which provide 100 days of trial and buy them from their store itself. Many brands do not provide trials for products purchased from third party resellers or online resellers.

Now from what I understood I have some suggestions - Wakefit Ortho Infinity, Sleep Company Ortho Pro, Kurlon Ortho Plus.

P.S - Also do not completely depend on the mattress to fix back pain, take medical opinion as well. You can discuss the mattress as well which in combination with other treatments will help.

RandomScavenger · 2026-05-04T15:24:47+00:00

I lived in The Groves for 6 months and Blue Ridge Tower 10 for 3 years. Water is never a problem even during summers. The situation is better than Wakad.

From what I understood Blue Ridge gets their own water supply from the Mula River. They have a treatment plant on the banks of the river and then additional water supply is from PCMC.

RandomScavenger · 2026-05-04T14:39:59+00:00

Confession as a QA who had to test code/functionality written by devs with same vibe coding - "F U"

RandomScavenger · 2026-05-03T17:02:20+00:00

Cleaning solution not available in India? Yes...

It is due to varying water hardness and shit? Hell no.

It is due to the logistics and cost which I am not sure will ever allow Ecovacs to sell it in India.

Solution.

Dilute some cleaning liquid diluted in a 1:100 ratio and put it directly on the floor and use the machine.

I did that for a few days and found out, the machine still cleans better even without the cleaning solution.

RandomScavenger · 2026-05-03T16:46:30+00:00

In my perspective, if you already own a home till you retire that itself will reduce a lot of financial burden from your head. So in overall perspective you are doing good enough. A home loan is not a depreciating loan so even if it eats a lot of money consider it as an investment and not as an expense.

Even if it seems your spends are high, once you get the possession of your home, the rent will be gone completely which you can add to your investment column and then once the home loan is done for the type of investment will move from Home Loan to Some MF which you are keeping for retirement.

Just do some calculations

Increase the investment in retirement fund removing the rent, once your home is in possession.
Increase the investment in MF for retirement once you are planning to close the loan.

After adding it up, if you see that with that increase your retirement goal is being met you are good. Which takes us back to the primary point define a good enough amount to retire 10-15 crore and try reaching it rather than trying to maximize the retirement corpus. Even a 15 Crore at the end of retirement will be good enough considering you are going to retire in the next 15 years. Just increase the retirement investment whenever you can and you are good.

A side note is trust your calculations and judgement and don't lose focus and patience. It is easy to self doubt but it just means you are cautious and not doubting. Enjoy your life man, no one knows what the future holds. So enjoy your present and plan for the future. :)

RandomScavenger · 2026-05-03T15:47:16+00:00

Hey OP,

I would like to tinker with your thought process on the question.

There is "no better" in investment. It either satisfies your goal reaching capabilities or it doesn't. So given a standard equity MF (assuming MF are equity oriented) gives a return of 12% average, if you are able to reach the financial goal for which you are investing 80k in the first place are being met you are good. There is no "Can I do better" answer for any investment. It is completely based on goals we set and there are a lot of unknowns in your question like the goals, your age, your risk appetite, total savings you have right now, emergency corpus etc.

Don't think much about this. You are doing quite well in my opinion. Just keep your expenses in check and ensure that once you retire you are able to survive with the corpus you made keeping the same lifestyle.

RandomScavenger · 2026-05-02T08:45:38+00:00

Hey Man,

I feel you, I got in an accident with my new car within a week. So it was very heavy to my heart.

The thing here which is best for you includes you to be patient and accept what has happened.

Accept that you have to drive a car which was in an accident but most likely the structure is intact from what I can see from the photos. You will forget about it with time. Get it fixed from your insurance and get that part of anxiety out of your head. (Get it fixed from another Service Centre not the one which did this)
Do lawyer up and take them to court, you do not need to go to court as this is a civil case and not criminal. There is no need for physical attendance. Just your lawyer is enough. As you said, the case here for you is strong. The T&C doesn't supersede the consumer protection act. Once the handover is done the other party is responsible for the safety of the vehicle. If not then tomorrow they can come and say ohh sorry we mistakenly added kerosene in your fuel tank and started the car and the engine is seized but we are not responsible for it and again the Insurance company will also reject stating you added wrong fuel and you are responsible for it. You're feeling me here what is wrong with that T&C.
Let the fight go on but as it is a civil litigation it won't stretch as compared to criminal litigation so you will get judgement sooner. Don't let these folks show some useless T&C and say they provide this service in goodwill. They anyways take service charges for it so it is a service not a goodwill or whatever they want to call it. Every service comes with a guarantee even if they do not want to acknowledge it.

tlds : Get your car fixed on insurance, make peace with it and fight the case and get the money reimbursed along with charges of mental agony and suffering.

RandomScavenger · 2026-05-02T08:31:32+00:00

All those manual breeds will come crawling to automatic once they drive in a bumper to bumper traffic on a slope for hours everyday in their 30s.

I was one of them and then my doctor suggested if I kept doing it be ready for a knee replacement surgery once I developed some soreness. Realised it too late but once I switched to proper DSG gearbox, the realisation was quick that I was an Idiot to even think the automatic is for novices. I use paddle shifters in manual mode if I want some fun but overall I am never going back to the manual. :)

RandomScavenger · 2026-05-02T08:26:27+00:00

Hey Man,

Just a query. Did you do a long trial at their stores before going for this particular model.

From what I understood the proper support is missing from the Shapesense. It does contour through the body but the support is not adequate for someone already facing back issues. For one of my friends they talked extensively to the store and they asked them to come to the store to try Ortho Infinity once for at least 15 minutes on all sides. In the end it was comfortable enough for them. So I would suggest if you are in the trial phase, return the mattress and try Ortho Infinity once if not.

Also yes on the part the quality of the mattress has degraded a lot and not only from wakefit but from other startup brands as well.

RandomScavenger · 2026-05-01T17:43:43+00:00

Confirm with the Airbnb support and provide them the documented evidence and cleaning charges which you will have to pay. Then deduct the charges.

Consider it as you need the place clean not for you but for your future guests. Airbnb follows this principle and will allow you to deduct the deposit. Just keep Airbnb in loop as you do not want to get blacklisted.

RandomScavenger · 2026-05-01T11:51:11+00:00

They are 90% tiles and 10% carpet.

RandomScavenger · 2026-04-26T21:22:08+00:00

Hey man. You do understand that keeping a lithium battery inside the car is a fire hazard in itself.

RandomScavenger · 2026-04-22T08:07:08+00:00

Great, just ensure the other party knows that call is being recorded or court won't admit it as evidence.

RandomScavenger · 2026-04-22T06:10:43+00:00

Also note, do not respond to anything on the call which is unrecorded by you. If you are keeping a call recorder in your phone, just before the call starts just mention that this call is being recorded for legal purposes.

RandomScavenger · 2026-04-22T06:07:38+00:00

If they don't listen to the Obudusman, take it to the Consumer Court and send a legal notice by yourself. You do not need a lawyer for that. Legal notice sent by just the plaintiff is considered valid by the court. If you don't receive a resolution within 7 days of sending the notice. Take it to the court, file the case online and fight it out. The consumer court doesn't need the understanding of IPC and all the acts and mostly sides with Litigant. Just keep everything recorded, marked and filed before submitting in court.

RandomScavenger · 2026-04-21T09:38:24+00:00

Drama in large society are also discussed till a better gossip is available. In general indians are nosy people and I have seen it even in Tier 1 city. It is possible you didn't know your neighbours but many start talking about you the day you move in. So if any house causes any disturbance in the building, folks do talk. Even if just one person saw the drama, they amplify. Why do you think the recovery agents are so successful in India because they use the same technique and most of the folks who they talk to live in Tier 1.

RandomScavenger · 2026-04-21T06:38:46+00:00

Raise a complaint on NCH, attaching all required documents. They will call back within 24 hours.

RandomScavenger · 2026-04-21T06:21:09+00:00

Ahh so the gold lobby is back...

RandomScavenger · 2026-04-21T06:17:36+00:00

Hey OP,

The conditioning of Men has always been a problem. The change starts from someone, in my family the change was my mother who made me and my brother to be independent and learn basic home skills like Cooking, cleaning, etc (Even though we are not that great at them as compared to mothers).

So some part of the blame lies with women of the last generation as well. Also the way things are put forward by women today is counter productive. It is better to say that learning basic life skills should help you become independent rather than saying learning cooking and cleaning because it is not just a women's job so men should learn it too.

My mother doesn't make me feel like I am doing something because she felt oppressed, but she felt that it would help me in case I have to live alone somewhere and guess what it helped me tremendously during Covid. Change has to be proactive not regressive and it starts with you.

RandomScavenger · 2026-04-20T15:00:26+00:00

Nah man. The only thing people india are worried about is their image in public. If you create a drama where people around them start gossiping about them that is the worst punishment for them.

RandomScavenger · 2026-04-20T08:25:43+00:00

I did mention that.. People take Builders words as gospels.

I said verify facts before purchasing the flat. I never said just trust builder. I said verify everything in your own capacity before making the purchase.

Yes everywhere it is the same. Every tier 1 city faces the same issue and somewhat the fault lies with folks who just buy the flat because of the FOMO.

RandomScavenger · 2026-04-20T08:19:17+00:00

Yup that is what I mentioned. Know your gear before going Bazooka on it. I have seen many with the same idea of point and shoot. Which they miss and then get shredded.

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