Ilie is another member of our XWiki team and his contributions ensure that the XWiki product checks the quality side, by discovering bugs before users find them. Very thorough and careful in his work, Ilie is also always ready and willing to lend a helping hand and make sure everything works smoothly. We had the pleasure of discussing his journey towards and within XWiki, which you can read below as well.
- Favorite artist: ATB
- Best book ever read: The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov
- Dream destination: A place where all people live in harmony.
- Quote you live by: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill
- At the office or remote? Both, but mostly remote at the moment.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Ilie Andriuță, I'm 36 and I work as a QA Engineer at XWiki for about 5 years and a half. I am mostly in charge of testing the core XWiki product to ensure that other businesses benefit from the most stable, performant, and secure XWiki version. I am also involved in testing the business applications that clients use to further enrich the knowledge management and collaboration capabilities of their wiki. I am also passionate about computers and cool tech devices in general, so this job fits me like a glove.
The journey to XWiki
What were you doing before XWiki? Did you change careers when joining our team?
Before joining XWiki, I was an SME Financial Credit Analyst at a large bank for 7 years. I always wanted to be part of a software company to work in developing and improving software and my former job helped me develop an analytical mindset and attention to detail which are very useful in my current position.
What is it like to be working in the testing team at XWiki?
It's great as you get to be part of the team that improves XWiki constantly, but also challenging because there are so many things to test, and time is not always your friend. However, this can be mitigated (as much as possible) through efficient organizing and a positive attitude when encountering different situations.
Open Source impressions
Was Open Source something you had an interest in prior to XWiki?
I considered joining a position in Open Source since I was already using Open Source software (such as browsers like Firefox and vector graphics editors like Inkscape), and I share many Open Source values with XWiki.
What's the Open Source value you identify with most?
In my opinion, Open Source is a model of ethics in software development and an example to follow. I also believe that all noteworthy achievements have their source in many small ones.
In Open Source, everyone can contribute, bring value and take back something useful as well.
Ilie and the Product Team during the XWiki Seminar in 2019
Being an XWikier
What has kept you at XWiki so far?
I think the nice and diverse people in the company, working and learning things that are useful for me from a professional point of view (like XWiki architecture — how components relate), and best practices by sharing each other's experience and expertise. Also, I think the benefits are nice — the possibility to have a flexible work schedule, working remotely and the days off given by the company.
If you ever wished for a job change, what made you decide to stay?
From the top of my head, I would say that colleagues who have a positive attitude which create in return a nice working environment.
What was the most important way in which XWiki changed during the years you've been around?
We now have colleagues from more countries which I think is great and creates more cultural diversity in the company.
Lessons learned
What would you say is the most valuable lesson you learned during your time at XWiki?
To keep things organized and updated in order to be prepared for moments when time is scarce. Order is essential.
If you could describe XWiki's culture in one word, what would it be?
Cooperation, which in my opinion is also one of the main Open Source values: everybody contributes, adds value, and takes back something valuable from the exchange.
The XWiki experience
Favorite memory of the years as XWiki?
For me, a funny memory is related to one of our XWiki seminars when we were on a trip to Mogoșoaia lake, near Bucharest, and we've been paddling canoes for a great distance. The rain started pouring in while we were in the middle of the lake. We started paddling back fast, but the canoes were quite unstable, and we risked turning ourselves upside down (which actually happened to a few colleagues). Nice memory. 
Ilie celebrating with other colleagues 15 years of XWiki
