A chance meeting led John on a discovery around his own mental health and set him on a path to a career he never thought possible. He reflects on his journey into the role, sharing his experiences and an insight into what it’s like to work as a Quality Assurance Testing (QAT) Delivery Owner at the Home Office.
I always had jobs within the customer service sector, starting out in retail before moving into banking customer services. It was during my time in the banking call centre that I first learned about Quality Assurance (QA) and what they did as part of their job. This piqued my interest and I investigated how I could get into that area of work. However, at that time my mental wellbeing wasn’t great, so I wasn’t able to pursue this fully. It was through a chance meeting with a new senior manager within my team that I was eventually diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at the age of 36. He recognised my symptoms as his son was autistic, and this diagnosis opened my eyes to why my mental wellbeing was so poor and helped start my change in career.
Having gained a clearer understanding of my wellbeing, I applied and secured a secondment opportunity within the bank’s QA testing team, helping to support the mobile banking and online banking portfolios. This move is where my Quality Assurance career started and something clicked for me. I found the repetition of testing systems calmed my mind, allowed me to focus, and ultimately made my workdays much more enjoyable. I was being allowed to complete tasks in a way that flowed correctly in my mind and reduced the stress I had been feeling in my previous roles.
After working for some time at the bank in their QA team, I made a dream move to my local football club, Liverpool FC, as a QA Tester. This job gave me the opportunity to further my skills and experience of managing a testing team. After nearly three years within this role, I wanted to progress my career further and I saw a QAT Delivery Owner position available at the Home Office.
Testing systems that enable some of life’s biggest events
As the QAT Delivery Owner for the General Register Office, I’m based in Southport and manage a mixed team of testers and analysts located around the UK. My team and I work on various projects ranging from project workshops, bug triage calls or show-and-tells where we demonstrate the testing we have carried out to the business areas involved. I also work on queries that have come to me from the business areas I support, from simple questions around testing my team has completed to more complicated questions involving project risks or changes.
We’re a busy team and, although located around the UK, we stay connected with daily stand-up meetings. These give me the chance to collaborate with the team, highlight any issues that need my support, and check in to make sure everyone is ready for the day ahead. I have also been lucky to work on several interesting projects supporting updates to Civil Registration Service systems. The systems we test allow citizens to register births, deaths and marriages within the UK, so ensuring they work well and with minimal errors is vitally important. Being part of something that is a critical service to UK citizens is really interesting. Seeing how systems are being modernised, and how technology will improve some of the most important systems in the UK that record life’s biggest events, is what makes my role enjoyable.
A supportive environment, from day one
The support available at the Home Office is very good and for me it started from day one. Being autistic, as soon as I raised my neurodiversity during the application stage, I was offered support throughout the process. The support offered was meaningful without making me feel stupid or bad for accepting it, and once I started in my role, the support continued. I have always felt that I can speak up and be listened to. Whether it’s about an adjustment I may need or when I’m not feeling myself, there has always been someone willing to listen and support me.
I am also part of the ABLE Community Buddy Group, which is a support network for Home Office civil servants to talk about disabilities, share any worries or concerns, and seek guidance if needed. This has been a great support group for me, and I even had the opportunity to speak about my journey through late autism diagnosis.
If you’re considering a career at the Home Office, the best advice I can give is to go for it. The community, technology, opportunities and development you will receive at the Home Office make it a great place to work.
