I was nominated for the BrowserStack Icons of Quality, and they interviewed me, and to my surprise, they published it (with a few edits):

See the highlights on LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/p/gBgksTnZ

Or read the published interview on BrowserStack: https://www.browserstack.com/blog/honoring-iconsofquality-aaron-evans-one-shore/

Here is my full original answers:

1. What are the most exciting aspects of your role as a Test Automation Strategist at OneShore?

I’d say the most exciting aspect of my job is the opportunity to work on many different projects, with different technologies. I love to learn. And meeting lots of new people and seeing their different perspectives on (among other things) testing.

2. What’s a testing trend/innovation that’s got you excited these days?

I think the ability of LLMs — as a better search engine with working code examples — is really cool. Again, I love learning, and the ability to be more confident delving into a new codebase and exploring things outside of my domain expertise is fun and not nearly as much of a time sink. (I’m easily distracted.)

Also, seeing how other testers are leveraging LLMs to improve their skills, level up with better coding patterns, and tackle things that only senior engineers could do in the past is great. When I see someone write better API tests, or build continuous delivery workflows for test automation who might have been intimidated by such tasks a couple years ago, it makes me excited.

3. What’s your hot take on AI in testing?

I used to be pretty down on AI. I still think there’s way too much hype. And I can’t stand using agents for coding (like Cursor, Copilot, or Claude code. But part of that is because I’m experienced and opinionated. I might not remember a function name or argument order, so an autocomplete/intellisense/LSP is handy, and all I need most of the time. But when you can’t see your code to edit it yourself it drives me mad. I totally understand why people vibe code (hands off) with an LLM — because you can’t really go half way. It’s either accept everything it slops out, or nothing.

Maybe there’s a future where you turn on the LLM to churn out boilerplate and then turn it off to get real work done.

But for me, the value is really in the power of searching with context and restructuring. At least half of that might be just because advertizing driven SEO has shittified the normal search vector. I remember being amazed by Google and then Stack Overflow in the past too.

But the real hot take now is that I don’t think AI will damage junior coders. I think it’s a huge multiplier for anyone worth their salt — that is people able to research and think for themselves. But the number of people who behave like energy efficient, slower LLMs is too high. That’s my pessimism, my misanthropy showing.

4. What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone just starting their career in testing?

Find a mentor, but don’t be a follower. Explore new ideas on your own. Make mistakes, create ugly code, develop bad patterns. But refactor, iterate, learn from that. The hardest thing in technology these days is that there are so many establish, entrenched patterns, frameworks, processes — that are so stupifyingly bad — that it’s hard to see the good intentions in them, or see past the bloat for the value.

When you come up with an idea on your own, and realize it’s trash (maybe by seeing a better version), it’s a golden opportunity to learn and course correct — with wisdom instead of blind obedience. But when you see your unique idea validated, confirmed, or reinvented (before or after you) it’s golden. And gives you the confidence to not just hope for something better, but see the potential of being able to make the improvement.

The best thing you can do nowadays is try to understand the intent of some hopeless broken process or overly complex framework and show others how it can be simplified. You’ll probably be ignored — at least for now, but keep at it.

5. How do you keep up with all the new trends and tools in software testing?

I just sit back on my porch and yell at all the kids to get off my lawn. And shake my stick at everyone and talk about how hard we had it back in my day, uphill both ways.

Seriously, I investigate trends and tools that interest me, and don’t worry about the rest. With experience comes understanding that you don’t have to be expert in everything, and trying to be can stretch you too thin — or wear you out. Be exceptional at one thing or pretty good at two or three things and be willing to adapt when forced. But don’t always feel like you have to bend to the latest fashion.

For example, if you know Selenium well, you don’t have to learn Playwright, or Cypress, or whatever comes next. There are still plenty of jobs that need Selenium skills. If the job you have declares you have to change, you can learn it if you want — or move on. I know that’s easy to say when you’re old and stubborn, but it applies the other way too. If you’re passionate about a new tool or trend — go ahead and jump in. Cool, now you know two tools, and your perspective is enhanced by knowing the differences and similarities between the old and new.

For me, learning about what’s outside of testing is more exciting these days. I’ve worked with so many different languages, platforms, tools, frameworks, etc. that one more isn’t a big deal. But getting better at devops or platform engineering, or trying to understand what makes sales guys and girls tick, or how scrum masters sleep at night without nightmares of jira, or even experiencing what it’s like to twist your mind in a knot developing a React app. If nothing else, it gives you empathy for people who have different problems in life.

6. What are the things you wish you knew about software testing when you started your career?

I wish I knew how typecasting it was to accept a job in testing. When I started testing nobody — I mean no one had even heard of software testing — except maybe Cem Kaner. Sometimes I feel like Mark Hammill. For those of you under 50, that’s Luke Skywalker. He was so typecast that he never got another job, except in a horrible D-rate horror movie called “Guyver”. But he learned to become happy as a voice actor. Even poor Alec Guinness (O.B. 1 Kenobi) who was a prestigeous Shakespearean actor and had won an Oscar never got past it — but he rolled with the punches and went to conventions and shook hands with Star Wars fans (and laughed all the way to the bank — he made a fortune getting 2.5% of Star Wars gross profits.)

I’ve been lucky and learned to embrace testing, but only after literally running away to a remote island to get away from it. And now I get to speak at testing conferences and was honored to be asked to give these rambling answers.

7. Outside of the tech world, what’s a hobby or activity you’re really passionate about?

I used to have hobbies and passions, but I’ve really mellowed out and given up on my dreams. I wanted to be a rockstar or an author or a painter or an extreme sports athlete (surfing, snowboarding, etc) and then I wanted to build a big successful company, but now I just want to water my garden, walk in the woods, and watch my kids grow up and see their dreams crushed too.

Here’s hoping you all can find contentment in the small things in life too.