Ethan Ngu Talks About Exposure to Multiple Products

The tech world offers a plethora of different career paths, so it’s important to diversify your experience as much as possible if you want to stay relevant. When Ethan Ngu joined Ping as a Software Quality Engineer, he worked on two different teams where he learned how to use multiple products for various purposes, expanding his skill set even further. 

Read about his experience here:

Before beginning my journey at Ping, I was in the middle of my third year at university, where I majored in Computer Science. I was looking for an internship opportunity because I wanted to explore the different careers that were available in the vast world of tech and gain experience working in the industry. When I was looking for internships through my university’s co-op program, Ping caught my eye, as they offered the premise of working on an experienced team and to receive mentorship. Overall, l am extremely grateful that Ping decided to hire an inexperienced student like myself, and give me a chance to grow my skills and contribute to building products that companies around the world rely on. 

At Ping, I work as a Software Quality Engineer for the Verify and Credentials team, where I am responsible for testing new product features as well as ensuring that old features continue to function as expected. Prior to beginning my internship, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from it. Much of my experience from university courses were focused on writing code, and although writing tests and ensuring everything was working was an aspect of that, I was not knowledgeable of the quality assurance practices for software. 

I think one of my major goals for the internship was to experience how the many different people involved in creating software collaborate and better understand the impact that each member of the team has. 

I actually did not start my internship on the Verify and Credentials team, but instead was part of the PingFederate team. However, after two months, I was asked if I would be willing to join the Verify and Credentials team, as they would benefit from additional QA help. 

Although I had some reservations about switching because I was already accustomed to what I was doing, I was excited for the chance to broaden my skill sets and work with the cloud and mobile devices. Moreover, my time in the PingFederate team was a helpful asset for a recent task in which I had to qualify the new PingOne Verify adapter for PingFederate. The experience and knowledge that I had gained from before proved to be invaluable, and it helped me focus on learning the functionality of the adapter, rather than focusing on learning how to set up the PingFederate product itself. Overall, I am glad that I had the opportunity to work on both teams and gain experience working with multiple Ping products! 

When I first joined the Verify and Credentials team, my first tasks included verifying the new mobile web verify product as well as the newest version of the mobile SDK. I worked to assure that the product worked with various types of browsers, as well as testing that the UI interactions behaved as expected. Through this process I gained product knowledge, became more familiar with the product, and obtained first-hand experience with some expected use cases of PingOne Verify.

I think my first major accomplishment was qualifying the newly created Verify connector for DaVinci. Before this, most of my work consisted of testing the Verify product in tandem with my mentor. However, this was the first time that I was going to be responsible for leading the testing process and completing it by myself. I had a vague idea of what DaVinci was through prior company presentations, but had never worked with it before. 

After investing some time to better educate myself on the product and with the help of the developers of the Verify connector, I became better equipped to handle this task. I created a test plan, scheduled a test plan review meeting with the team, and investigated any unexpected behavior that may have occurred during testing. Through this process I was able to successfully qualify this new feature, as well as gain experience working with one of the newest and most innovative Ping products.

I think one of the biggest advantages of DaVinci is that when you are constructing a flow, you see all the parts and possible paths that compose it. This helps you clearly visualize how each part interacts with another and the results from such interactions. It’s comparable to drawing out a diagram, except instead of having to go through the trouble of implementing it after finishing the sketch, the diagram itself is the final working product. 

Through this, DaVinci makes it easy to follow the sequence of events in a flow, not only helping you create complex interactions between different applications, but helping you understand what is happening and what may have caused it. 

We’re always looking for talent at Ping! Interested in applying for Ping’s Intern program? We’d love to hear from you. See if we are hiring for interns near you, here.