Meet James Zimbrick, Quality Assurance Engineer in our Seattle office. James joined AdColony with a variety of QA experience and uses that background to keep things running smoothly here. A born-and-raised Washingtonian, he loves exploring the great outdoors there and is excited to do so with his baby boy. Get to know James better in today’s AdColonized!
What exactly does a Quality Assurance Engineer II do at AdColony? What’s an average day like for you?
I primarily support the Composer team. Composer, if people are unfamiliar, is a tool that designers can use to create ads. I largely do manual testing and verification for new features or bug fixes on the tool.
Tell us a little about your experiences prior to joining AdColony & how they have prepared you for your role here.
Before AdColony, I worked in QA at a variety of places, from games to mobile testing, from a short-lived Mozilla phone to testing new Apple features for AT&T. Having such a variety of projects helped me in the beginning here where I started working with the DEC team on bespoke ads.
What makes AdColony the right fit for you?
It’s nice working with a team of knowledgeable and talented people. If I ever have a question, either the engineers I support or someone else on the QA team will have a great answer for it.
I also enjoy the work-life balance. In my position it’s pretty good as long as tasks are being completed. At some of my previous jobs there would be 10 or 12 hour mandatory crunch days, sometimes for weeks at a time.
AdColony values employee development. How do you keep growing & learning in what you do?
Working at AdColony has given me experience with a lot of tools and programs I hadn’t used before, and as stated above, people here are very knowledgeable about their use. It’s been great to become accustomed to a wide variety of new items for my testing toolkit.
How do you act as a resource for the rest of your team?
I like to think I have a pretty good knowledge base around Composer and the surrounding tools and try to help out wherever I can.
Is there someone you turn to personally or professionally?
Professionally, my boss Jaydeep is always a great resource and ready to help me learn. Personally, I often turn to my parents and my wife for advice.
Many global AdColony employees are still working from home. Do you have any work-from-home tips for success you can share?
Try to set up as much of a dedicated workspace as you can. It’s hard for me personally to concentrate if I just have my laptop on our coffee table or something, but if I’m set up at my desk I find it easier to get into “work mode”.
What are your hobbies or activities that you look forward to doing on the weekends or after work?
My wife and I enjoy hiking but haven’t really gone since our son was born. We’re hoping to get back into it once he’s a little bit bigger (and we’ve hopefully got more of a handle on Covid).
Also, especially since we’ve been in lockdown, I’ve been playing the occasional video game once our son goes to bed. My friends and I are currently really into Warzone.
Which app is keeping you engaged lately? Why?
Hopelessly addicted to Twitter. The way news stories can break and evolve there in real time is fascinating to me.
Tell us one or two fun facts about you.
I’m Washington-born and raised, which seems to be somewhat of a rarity in the Seattle office.
What is your favorite moment you’ve had with the AdColony team so far?
I really enjoy the team parties. We did a cruise around Lake Washington that was a lot of fun, great weather, and views and with karaoke below deck.
What are you listening to lately (music, podcasts, etc.)?
I recently found out about The Magnus Archives, which has been a perfect fit for October. It’s a fiction podcast where each episode is a more-or-less standalone spooky story. There’s also an overarching plot to it, kind of reminiscent of the X-Files or something. I’ve been hooked.
What are you looking forward to most in the next 5 years?
Watching my 13 month-old son keep getting bigger and learning new things.
About AdColonized
Each AdColonized feature shines a light on a different member of the AdColony team. From favorite apps and hobbies to fun facts, we cover it all! Who do you want to see on the next AdColonized? Tweet it to @AdColony. For the latest AdColony mobile news and updates, follow @AdColony on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or connect on Linkedin.
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