Employee Spotlight: Rebecca Testrake

From a Family of Engineers & Creatives?

Rebecca Testrake has been with Cantilever since 2017, and her journey into web development may be familiar to any other Millennials out there- her first experience with web dev was on MySpace and Facebook, through learning how to customize and format her profile pages with HTML. Coming from a family consisting of engineers and creatives, the “do it yourself” attitude necessary for web development came naturally to her. She fell into working with Cantilever “on accident”, after Cantilever was hired to develop a website for the non-profit she was working at: “I got curious about what they were building and started exploring the site. As happens with just about any work in progress, I found errors, which I brought to Cantilever's attention. I guess I wasn't a jerk about it because at the end of the build, Ty asked me if I would like more work- specifically with Cantilever!”?

Valuing A New Perspective?

Rebecca began her career at Cantilever with no technical web experience outside of her own personal toyings with the web. She recalls:?

“I think I can say that Cantilever and I grew together. Bringing me in with no web development experience meant that I had a pretty different view and understanding of the internet and how it works. I didn't have underlying assumptions made about how things 'naturally' work.”? And not only did Rebecca herself benefit from this learning and onboarding process, but Cantilever internally was able to benefit as well through a reassessment of their onboarding tactics: “On one hand, that meant that there was a lot of learning for me as the team trained me on how to do a complete QA pass, how to most efficiently communicate my findings, etc. On the other hand, that meant that Cantilever had to grow in terms of making sure that they were communicating clearly.”

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Incorporating & Trusting New Insights?

"In a way, I not only QA'd the projects that I worked on but I also QA'd our internal working process as well. As we worked together, we found areas of difficulty that needed improving or clarifying. That's, in part, why we started creating documentation for each project that we work on. I was adamant that information should not stay stored in the brains of individuals because that's just not a safe practice. If anything were to happen to an individual with said special knowledge (like being abducted by aliens), then that knowledge would either be gone or whoever was left on that project would basically have to start at the beginning to replace the missing information. Ensuring that communication is clear is as much a part of QA as testing a function to make sure it works properly. Ty is constantly encouraging us to learn and grow in our knowledge and roles. He knows that a team member knowing more as an individual directly relates to what Cantilever has to offer. There is also a spirit of mutual sharing and teaching as we learn more things.” ?

The Best Part of Working for Cantilever?

“We work hard together and we also laugh together. I truly enjoy working with my fellow team members. I know that we genuinely care about one another…having boundaries and a healthy work-life distinction are very much a part of our company culture. And again, I think that all goes back to us being seen as people before we are employees, team members, cogs-in-a-machine, etc. It allows us to respect and appreciate one another before the output is ever considered.”??

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Some Words To Describe The Work Culture?

“Silly, supportive, light-hearted, genuine, laughter-filled, creative, witty, driven by excellence, compassionate, always learning, and always growing."