In celebration of International Women’s Day, we are excited to highlight the incredibly diverse and talented women across Trax. Throughout the month of March, we will be sharing peer-to-peer interviews with women in various roles and life stages to discuss their careers, how they manage their wellbeing, and where they look for inspiration.
Katya: My name is Katya Aronov and I’ve been working at Trax for almost six years. I’m responsible for automated tests for the CPG group. In the last year I have been also responsible for training test engineers in Sri Lanka and Hungary to automate their manual tests. In 2020 I discovered many hobbies. I started learning photography and doing yoga. I also like to crochet and read when I have the time.
Kata: My name is Kata and I work on the European Delivery team managing business as usual projects. My clients are mostly PNG, a specialty of mine. As for my hobbies, I really love to travel to exotic places. I also love music, I’m in a band in my free time. I also love meditating; my studies were actually Sanskrit philology. These take up most of my time, but I like discovering new activities.
What brought you to Trax?
Katya: I’ve been in the automation domain for the last ten years. Six years ago I was looking for a company who had an automation testing vision similar to what I had in mind. I found Trax when Daniel Cohen contacted me. I didn’t know I was going to stay this long because Trax was a relatively small startup. Prior to that I worked for big companies, so I didn’t know if I will fit in, but I’m happy I came and I hope for at least six more years!
Kata: I started to work at Trax 4 years ago after I moved back from Italy and Germany where I did my studies. I was deciding what to do next when one of my childhood friends referred me. I was looking for a job, so I thought “let’s see if it works out”.
Has your role changed since joining the team? How so?
Katya: Six years ago Trax was a small company, we were sharing sandwiches for lunch. Back then I was responsible for creating automated tests for the first generation of SMART. As Trax grew, I had the chance to work on different projects and move from one team to another. I worked with different technologies and highly talented people and helped automate testing to cover more and more projects. Six years ago Trax was a very different company but still, it has preserved the vibes from those early days.
Kata: I started as an Assistant and then moved to the Professional Service team. As I started to own more and more of the projects, I came over to the OSM team. So, I have covered several areas in the company.
What do you do for self-care?
Katya: Living in a green and calm environment is very important to me as the Tel-Aviv office lies between tall buildings, so being at home really calms me down. I also practice yoga which helps maintaining balance through the day and leads to seeing challenges as opportunities. From time to time I like to take different courses in psychology. Currently I am learning about conflict management which can be applicable to all areas of life. Finding work-life balance is very important to me.
Kata: Because I’m a really restless person, lockdown has been hard for me. I needed to create a routine and hobbies, mostly meditation, language and singing courses. I have the chance to practice with my band which helps a lot, what the best is going out in nature. Leaving the house is important for mental health. My cat also helps.
Where do you go for inspiration?
Katya: For me the biggest inspiration is low ego people. Some of my colleagues have this approach “built-in” and I find it mentally healthy and productive, and I work on developing it in myself.
Kata: My role models are usually Buddhist teachers or musicians and luckily you can find great women who you can turn to for inspiration in both areas. For me Björk, Patti Smith, and PJ Harvey are really good role models. Authenticity is the common point I look up to in all three, apart from being good musicians. In other ways, I like to let life surprise me with good inspiration from unexpected places.
What’s at the top of your bucket list?
Kata: I’m really looking forward to the end of pandemic so that I can visit this monastery in Nepal. Fortunately, the other one is not limited by COVID, which is to finish our album with my band. We’ve been working on it for a year now so, I really want to see it finished.
Katya: I dream about a photography tour to Tibet. This is where yoga and photography comes together for me. It’s not really about places but I want to meet people and capture their portraits.
Kata: We have a lot in common, Katya! Actually, in Nepal and in the northern part of India, there is a Tibetan community. They have maintained their lifestyle and monasteries, so if you are about people, you could visit that place more easily than China. There are beautifully preserved places in the Indian parts of Himalaya.
Katya: Thank you Kata! How lucky am I to get you as my partner in this initiative? It’s good karma.
What are you most proud of in your career history?
Katya: This is not something that I achieved, but I like to see myself not giving up. I take these experiences as tools to get where I want to be. It’s getting out of my comfort zone. I recently participated in a podcast. At first it was frightening, but turned out not as bad as I thought it would. Now I’m also working on a couple of blogposts and will speak in another QA Masterclass. I’m part of the testing community and there are different initiatives to introduce people to each other who are in the same domain of the industry. It’s a good opportunity to learn and share.
Kata: Through these years and roles I found adaptivity to be a really important quality in this company. I own relationships with CPG companies in many different ways. I have created good partnerships with them and work in a flexible and creative ways to keep them happy. It is the thing I’m most proud of and is something I can show as my achievement here.
