Reflections on My Daughter's Promotion at FAANG: Non-Work Factors. Part C - Publishing a Book
An ambitious goal, may be, but luck favours the prepared.
The article series:
Part A - Goals and Executions
Part C - Publishing a Book
The book Courtney published in late 2023:
This is completely unrelated to her daily work, which primarily involves Java or JavaScript APIs without UI (that’s all I know).
As I mentioned earlier, this book was a surprise. I had actually planned for her to write another book: Practical Mobile Test Automation, which I was eager to read and learn from myself.
Well, she is still working on the Practical Mobile Test Automation book, I needed to wait a bit longer. But, Courtney can still be credited with completing my plan, right?
In this article, I share the story of how a young engineer managed to publish her first book at the age of 22, while working at a FAANG company and studying part-time for her degree.
Courtney needed to Improve Writing
Nearly 3 years ago, when I discussed the 3-year goals with my daughter:
Get promoted
Study an Honour Degree part-time
Writing a book
The first one is obvious. The second: she’s a good student and doesn’t mind studying. The third: writing—she was quiet on this topic. Like many young people, influenced by social media and other factors, Courtney’s writing skill was no good.
One day, Courtney asked me to review some peer feedback for her colleagues. She knew, and it was true, that it was poorly written. I took the opportunity to advise her: "You really need to improve your writing."
Many software developers do not understand the importance of writing, it is not just the ability to express yourself. Here, I just share some quotes.
Action: Writing Blog Persistently
I had a long history of fearing writing, I believe my approach (to overcome) can help her too. I suggest that she start a blog and write one article per week about E2E Test Automation, and do it on the weekend.
Why Blogging?
I've read many "How to Write Better" books, but none of them worked well for me. Like many good things in life, there’s no shortcut or quick fix. However, there are effective strategies and approaches. In the end, I believe the best method is to write about topics you're familiar with and to write consistently. Blogging is a great way to do this.
Why Emphasize Writing on Weekends?
When someone is asked to do a task they should complete but are unwilling to do, they will often find excuses to avoid it. A good strategy (I read from a business book) is to associate the task with a fixed time window, such as setting a specific time when you need to accomplish X.
Why on End-to-End Test Automation and Continuous Testing?
Despite being young, her knowledge on these two area is far exceeded many senior test engineers I met. And she had some confidence after her experience during the internship: crushed the so-called best test automation engineer in a large company.
Another reason is that writing articles on E2E testing is relatively easy. A typical article consists of:
The problem
Test design
Explanation of the test steps, often with screenshots (or even videos)
Test script
There's rarely any need for extensive background or context—it's usually just a matter of getting straight to the point.
Strategy: Prepare some in advance
There are times when Courtney doesn’t have time on weekends—due to work or social commitments—making it difficult to write a new article. A good solution is to prepare some articles in advance.
Strategy: Make a tiny passive income
At my suggestion, Courtney joined the Medium Partner Program, earning a small amount of money from her limited number of articles. The amount itself is tiny; the goal was to introduce her to the concept of "Passive Income."
Courtney’s Blogging Stats
Start Date: 2021-12-25.
First article: Automating Shadow DOM with Selenium WebDriver
Most recent one (2024-12-01): Case Study: Extract All Substack Article Titles and Links. Part A: Extract Individual Article Data
(Courtney now joins me to publish more on agileway.substack.com).
Total number of published articles (to date: 2024-12-04): 150
17 of her articles have been featured in software testing newsletters.
Number of followers: 225
The Opportunity for Press Book
With growing confidence in writing, Courtney has started her book “Practical Mobile Test Automation”. Readers might still remember Courtney’s Research Project (her proposal), which is also about one aspect of Mobile Test Automation. There is synergy there.
How come she ended up publishing “Selenium Recipes in C#, 3rd edition” for Apress first?
It is because of me. Apress contacted me to write an update for “Selenium Recipes in C#, 2nd edition” (the first edition was on Leanpub). I declined because I don’t like (don’t mind once) working with C#. This senior editor was not an easy-to-give-up person; she sent a few more emails to convince me. A thought came to mind: “Courtney can do that, maybe it is an opportunity for her to learn C#”.
Next, I needed to convince Courtney, to use a language she has used very little. After hesitation, she finally agreed.
Then, I replied to Apress with my recommendation and the editor was interested. As a professional editor for an established technical book publisher, she certainly needed to do verification (to make sure Courtney had the capability), not just take my word for it. After reading some of her writings, she contacted Courtney and conducted one Zoom meeting (an interview, really).
After signing the book contract with Apress, Courtney's schedule became even more hectic.
Research on Selenium with C#
Writing the content
Formatting according to Apress guidelines
Communicating with the editor and revising as needed
…
Anyway, the book was published in late 2023, with ~40% more content than the previous edition. Again, she also leveraged some writings on her blogs, such as this one: Set up Running C# Selenium Tests in BuildWise CT Server.
Remember another goal I set for Courtney to achieve in her spare time? Pursuing an Honours degree. The thesis demands significant effort in writing. Synergy!
Summary
This article series highlights the importance of:
Goal setting
Consistent execution
Most importantly, having a good mentor.
Courtney's non-work achievements include her impressive mastery of the Chinese language, as a non-native speaker, earning an almost perfect score on the HSK 5. Check out this article to learn about my mistake in not teaching her Chinese earlier and how I corrected it after she started high school.
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