Employee Spotlight: Aniruddh Katkar

Title: Director, Quality Assurance

How long have you been at LogicMonitor? 

I have been at LogicMonitor for 11 months.

What made you want to work at LogicMonitor? 

I’ve been in the industry for 18+ years and mostly worked for companies where a lot of the automation stack and test processes were already set. The idea of building a team from scratch and setting up all of the processes motivated me to join LogicMonitor. Also, some of my past experience is in monitoring domain and cloud security test automation, so I saw an opportunity to utilize my experience.

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

Job satisfaction. Every day I get opportunities to learn and work with a new set of challenges. Every small change that takes me and my team closer towards meeting our goals contributes to my job satisfaction. Some of the most rewarding things are reducing the number of customer cases, increasing the test automation coverage percentage, hiring talented people, and setting up the highest level of collaboration between development and test teams. 

What do you find most challenging about your job?

Hiring, specifically during the COVID timeframe. It’s extremely difficult to hire good talent. People who are strong in niche skills generally tend to continue with their current job. We are trying our best to hire good talent to expand our capabilities, which has been challenging and will remain the same for the next couple of months.

What are some of the new challenges you’ve seen recently since the shift to remote working?

The impact on productivity due to continuous remote working has been a challenge, as well as the lack of in-person interaction with team members. There are new team members who onboarded remotely and I haven’t met them in person yet. It’s very important to know and interact with people in-person to maintain good working relationships. 

Any tips for staying productive and keeping a good work-life balance while working from home?

Keep a good focus on your health along with a focus on work. We all know that working remotely is a challenge due to long hours on call, Slack, etc. However, if we move our bodies for an hour a day, it will help us boost our morale as well as productivity at work.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

In my free time, I enjoy working out at the gym, trekking (hiking) in the ranges of the Sahyadri mountains in India, and long drives to beach spots like Goa. 

What is your favorite book?

I love to read the history of India, specifically between the 15th century and later. “Raja Shivchatrapati” is my favourite book. It describes the immense deep thought process of setting up an independent state and its benefits for the welfare of the people.

What are some of your favorite places you’ve traveled to?

Driving from Germany to Switzerland is beautiful since it is alongside the ranges of the Alps. Mount Titlis and Goa are two of my other favorite travel destinations.

What is the best advice someone has given you?

Success is not possible without hard work. My strong belief is hard work and a learning attitude are two weapons with which we can fight with any situation in life. I have been practicing this for a long time and it has always helped me.