Voice of a Tester: Sharing my experience

I always have the habit of dreaming about my career. There are many people I know who take testing as a job and enjoy their life with their income. What they simply need is a job; A job to carry their life. They seldom think about their future. They do not have a clear ambition.

At the same time, there are people who wish to take testing as their career. I am a subset of this category. There is a clear difference between a job and a career. I will explain the difference in a simple example. Consider a computer science student who tries to find a part time job as a pizza maker to cover his university fees. Consider another guy who is doing a diploma in cookery course joining the same pizza shop to get some experience. For the first guy, what he currently does is a job. For the second guy, it’s his career. He would eventually like to be a chef. The experience what he perceives at the pizza shop will definitely be a plus to his ambition; A chef.

Alright, I hope you all now have a better understanding about a career and a job. Let me come to the point. What kind of future can I have in software testing career? Have you ever thought about that? If you ask me, the answer is yes. However it is not a simple answer. It is quite complex. It is very easy to dead end in testing.
We testers have to manage our career, else we might go nowhere. A harsh truth in the IT industry is that a tester is recognised next to a developer. You may think that I am crazy. Folk, I am telling the truth. The pay is often lower in testing than in other development positions. But it does not have to be always true. If we know how to improve our skills and pick our employers we can be in safer side.

A Tester can select a technical career track such as an automation tester, automation architect, performance tester, user interface tester, systems analyst, test planner or a black box tester. The much technical knowledge you have, the much pay you can expect. From my study on software test job market, I learnt that an average pay of an Automation expert is 30 percent higher than a manual black box tester. We can move towards test management such as test lead, test manager, director of testing, and director of quality, internal consultant or an external consultant. Test management always has a pleasant scope which is however quite challenging.

If you are a fresh graduate who is trying your first job as a tester, or if you are an employee of a company looking for a testing job or else you are unemployed who is looking for a testing job, then I would like to give you all some suggestions. They are what I learnt from my mistakes.

We have to find out what a job advertisement requires and alter our resume to respond to their requirements. Its better to make the employers understand what expected skills we currently have and what skills we like to learn and improve. We may be called by a recruitment consultant for an unexpected interview. We might not be impressed with this offer because the company is not stable or its in a remote place or the salary is low. It is always better to go and face the interview with the same enthusiasm as we would for a job what we really like to get. This is because interview is a chance to practice our interview skills in a realistic setting. I missed many interview in my life due to negligence. I regret a lot now for those chances.

I did not know about the payment rates when I joined my first formal job. I consider that as one of my life time mistakes. Now I have made as a routine to doing periodic research on current salary data in our field. Knowing this information will be really helpful in interviews.

I always like to serve in one company for a longer period. It is usually a good idea to keep a current job. I don’t like to consider my pay as a stumbling block in getting a job. When I was offered a first job to work as an IT professional in a reputed company, I was ready to be a volunteer because I loved to work in IT. However it is important to know how much our talent, effort and hard work is recognised inside our company. I don’t blame on those who think “we deserve for the company. What do we get in return?” If your employer is not ready to identify your capability and treat you according to that, I personally don’t think it’s an ideal company to work with. Good companies do not normally do such.

One more valuable point is that it’s much easier to find a job when we are employed. When I was unemployed I was so desperate and I needed a job quickly. As a result, when a company offered a job for less money and made some other few promises I had to shake my head. I am telling you all only one word, loud and clear. WAIT. Don’t be in a hurry. But don’t slow down your job search. If you have the right skills, you will be definitely hired with a decent pay.