Our guest, Grzegorz Niczyporuk, is an Engineering Manager and a Magician. He blends these two seemingly disparate worlds seamlessly. With a passion for both the logical and the mystical, Grzegorz has found innovative ways to integrate the precision of engineering with the wonder of magic. He is one of the few individuals we know who successfully manages to excel in both roles simultaneously, despite them being so different.

He talks about how he combined both worlds and the journey that led him there. He began his journey as a magician when his hobby naturally evolved into a profession. Unlike many magicians, he started by reading

“When things don't work, that really drives me crazy”, was the mindset that brought Greg an opportunity in the testing career. He shares his enthusiasm for helping others and preventing them from breaking things. Grzegorz shares how finding a mentor was crucial in pursuing his career in testing, along with asking questions and maintaining a strong sense of curiosity.

 When it comes to juggling two jobs from different fields, Greg offers encouragement with the following quote:

 “We should be afraid of making a change, but we should be more afraid of not risking a change”, says Grzegorz.

You might not initially have the skills for both roles, but you can work on developing them. In the end, with dedication and effort, you can acquire the expertise needed to excel in both areas.

Listen and watch the entire episode to see how magic and IT are intertwined.

Our host is Alex Mocioi, a professional with 20 years of

A new season of the Shift Happens Podcast is (almost)

The podcast is hosted by Alex Mocioi, a seasoned expert with 20 years in software engineering.

This year, we're excited to partner with @Mindera - Romania, leader in software development, enhancing our discussions with their pioneering approach to tech solutions.

Stay tuned for this new season!

"Only when you start teaching someone you actually start learning yourself", says Mike.

He is a firm believer in the idea that knowledge grows when shared and really believes

Mike Dolha is a software developer at Nagarro. He has 10 years of experience, and also takes on the role of MC at the Romanian Testing Conference. 

He believes that the act of teaching not only benefits the learner but also enriches our own understanding and perspective.

"It is RTC that changed my whole perspective about testers", he admits. His presence at RTC

Our host is Alex Mocioi, a professional with 20 years of experience in software engineering and 10 years of experience in tech training.

Shift Happens podcast is supported by Nagarro.

Rachel is a senior test engineer based in the United Kingdom.

We met her at the Romanian Testing Conference (RTC) 2023 and her ideas were worth spreading. So here we are!

She enjoys taking part in testing conferences and shares how much she values the knowledge she gains from them.

“Having that human feel of learning is my preference”, she manifests a preference for listening to valuable information rather than reading it from a book.

“Change is a key part of success”, says Rachel. She emphasizes how important it is to develop your skills, deal with challenges to avoid being left behind, especially in the IT industry.

“If you fail to adapt, you’re not going to be part of tomorrow's reality, especially in the software domain where it’s important to stay ahead of the curve.”

At the end, Rachel explains why she values conferences like RTC and how it can broaden your perspective in terms of how you think and how you view your ways of working.

Our host is Alex Mocioi, a professional with 20 years of experience in software engineering and 10 years of experience in tech training. Shift Happens podcast is supported by Nagarro.

”I needed those rejections to grow further in my career and be able to succeed”. She shares the journey to her dream job. The years of intense learning, how she dealt with and embraced

Hilary emphasizes the importance of building strong and friendly relationships between testers and developers in this field.

Additionally, she highlights the potential of social media as a valuable tool for improving one’s skills.

Our host is Alex Mocioi, a professional with 20 years of xperience in software engineering and 10 years of experience in tech training.

Shift Happens podcast is supported by Nagarro.

Tobias Geyer, Software Tester with over 20 years of experience,

“At the end of the day we are talking about humans”, Tobias

He shares his thoughts on AI and the potential help it can

 What am I going to wear today? All about Reverse Casual

 Our host is Alex Mocioi, a professional with 20 years of experience in software engineering and 10 years of experience in tech training.

Shift Happens podcast is supported by Nagarro.

Director of Engineering at Trustpilot, based in Copenhagen, with 11 years of experience in software development, leading teams and scaling systems, Dana Aonofriesei answered a lot of (good)

She moved from Romania to Denmark because she was curious to work in a modern company, with progressive mindset, in a company that was building its own product.

Hit the PLAY button and listen to all the discussion!

A few ideas:

“Leaders and also employees look for the productivity gain by using AI in their job. I am not concerned so much about AI taking jobs, I think it will help us in doing our job better and working smarter.

With every new technology out there, there will be a need for new jobs. For sure, in a few years there will be jobs we can’t even think of at the moment".

"My hope is that with the rise of AI and machine learning, we will be able to be more precise in saying the areas of your product that have the higher risk and what your testing budget should be. Now it’s not so precise. Imagine you have machine learning looking at your historical data about areas with the most

Listen to the podcast here and feel free to share your point of view in the comments section.

Shift Happens podcast is supported by Nagarro. Our host is Alex Mocioi, a professional with 20 years of experience in software engineering and 10 years of experience in tech training.

These days, the budgets for these games are similar with the ones for a Hollywood film, it’s not small money and it is more serious and credible.

Vernon Richards shares ideas, memories and information from his career. Vernon is a Quality Coach & Tester that helps organizations, teams & individuals understand the relationship between quality & testing, to help them build better products & deliver more effective services.

He has been testing since 2002 starting with video games on PS2, Xbox & PC (it may not sound like a real job but it’s the truth!). By day, he is a Senior Expert Quality Engineer at a health tech, and by night night he runs Abode of Quality.

He believes that quality & testing problems are actually people problems in disguise! Often the cause of these problems is misaligned goals, different perspectives, low empathy for colleagues, and the list goes on.

Using his coaching skills in the quality & testing space, Vernon believes the most effective way to serve the business is to help teams & individuals gain new perspectives about themselves & their teammates.

Our host is Alex Mocioi, a professional with 20 years of experience in software engineering and 10 years of experience in tech training.

Shift Happens podcast is supported by Nagarro.

“I bring a deeply human perspective to technical work. I value and I think that we don’t spend enough time thinking about the people that use our tools, that use our software, that experience what we build. So I hope that people would say that I bring a very human perspective and a real concern for the people that use our software”, says Jenna Charlton, software tester and the director of product for Functionize.

She has over a decade of experience in the testing space. In this episode, Jenna speaks about enabling change, bugs, test skills and tools.

Our host is Alex Mocioi, a professional with 20 years of experience in software engineering and 10 years of experience in tech training.

Shift Happens podcast is supported by Nagarro.

"A professional athlete spends 7-8 hours a day training, identifying the weak points and engaging in deliberate practice to improve their skills. I don’t see

At Shift Happens Podcast, Andrei shared for the first time how he finds his inspiration in sports and transfers his learnings in the testing space from organizing Romanian Testing Conference to TestingScool trainings and performing testing work for international companies.

“My impact in the testing industry is about making clear that testing is a profession, a set of abilities that we all can build upon and have a successful professional career as testers. We are here, after 13 RTC editions trying to send the same message, that testing is a profession, is something that you can be very successful from and that’s a message that we barely can find in the IT space and we feel like we are building the community and a niche to propagate this message”, admits Andrei Conțan, one of the co-founders of the Romanian Testing Conference and our adrenaline junkie.

Alex Mocioi is our Host for the SHIFT Happens Podcast at the Romanian Testing Conference - a professional with 20 years of experience in software

Shift Happens podcast is supported by Nagarro.