You don’t need gaming experience to enter the industry
“I had never imagined myself in the gaming industry, I had my heart set on becoming a Librarian and now I’m at EA”.
“When I first finished university with my English Literature degree, I wanted to take a break and signed up to be a tester as a contractor”. Barbara Homewood's original plan was to pursue a Master's of Library and Information Science and become a librarian.
“I became a tester, and it just snowballed from there. My only goal was to have a fun and engaging career. If I had to work for 40 years, I might as well enjoy it”
Progressing from a Tester to an Associate Quality Designer and now Quality Designer I
While starting her career as a tester, she had opportunities to work on deep dives and showcase her analytical skills by working with data.
“We have a lot of great team members with different skills, but having a different skillset got me a bit more attention!” Her unique point of view, different from those who are huge fans of FIFA, provided insights that were needed. Her quality of work and fearlessness to speak enabled her to move up into the role of Associate Quality Designer. “I’ve enjoyed learning about tech, so I’ve leaned into learning more about automation to improve quality through technical initiatives.”
What does being a Quality Designer mean to you?
“There are so many skill sets applicable within the Quality Designer role, and the goal is to deliver a project with the highest quality that we can as a team.” Examples of a project can be to improve the efficiency of a process so teams have more time to enhance qualitative initiatives. Barbara transitioned from FIFA Ultimate Team to FIFA Volta, where she leaned into her skillset with data integrity and supported the team through various data-driven projects.
"I am working to evolve the automated testing strategy by utilizing a visual scripting program. The program uses a node-based interface to create flows through the game to replace manual effort. This allows QV to automate test cases with lower ROI which have historically limited automation potential. The program also requires little to no prior scripting experience or programming languages which makes it a more accessible solution. The ability to build a lot of automation scripts quickly and at less cost opens up an automation potential never explored before on the team."
Fact or Myth: You need to have a passion for FIFA to become a Quality Designer for FIFA
Myth! “I had hardly touched FIFA before joining the team. I played soccer, and I might have a small advantage there, but I don’t think that relates to why I got the job. While it's great to have passion for the product and soccer, it’s more important to have passion for what you are doing” Barbara also shares that:
“The game benefits from having people outside of FIFA.”
Women in Tech as a Quality Designer
“When I first joined EA around four years ago I was 1 of 4 women in a team of 18 people, and in just four years I have seen the FIFA Ultimate Team achieve gender parity” There have been significant improvements in gender parity.
“It has been an incredible experience to be a role model as a woman in tech. If there are women interested in joining EA, it would be powerful for candidates to say they are interested in the gaming industry and know that you can have a career at EA through the value and passion you deliver”.
Explore the many opportunities we have as a Quality Designer and start your career at EA!
