And we’re off! It’s day 1 of our 30 Days of Career Growth, and we’re so excited to see the community get involved, achieve great things and support one another. There are no rules; you can dip in and out and contribute where you feel comfortable.
Day 1 Task:
Today’s task is to be a bit brave and honest and to think deeply about what you want to achieve in your career. It’s time to create a career goal.
A career goal is what you want to achieve in your professional life. This goal can be short-term or long-term ambitions, either big or small, whatever feels right for you right now.
Here are some tips on how to create your career goal:
Reflect on your interests and skills.
Research the different options available to you and the requirements needed to achieve them.
Create a list of potential goals and choose a goal that feels right for you.
Make sure your goal is SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
Be sure to break down a large goal into smaller, more manageable steps.
Now for the brave bit, share your goal with the community by posting it in reply to this post, and reply or react to other folk’s goals to give them a boost!
Why complete this task?
Having career goals can help you achieve success in your professional life in a number of ways. They give you something to work towards and can help you stay motivated and focused. They also help you stay on track and help you build your skills and experience, which in turn can help you build your confidence.
By sharing your goals with the community, you may gain accountability, motivation and support. You may be able to get advice from people who have already achieved similar goals. In addition, when you see others who are working towards similar goals, it can motivate you to keep going.
To work towards a specific professional development -I want to improve my public speaking skills within the next 6 months. I plan to research the basics of public speaking, give presentations at work and in the community, get feedback from my colleagues and fellow community members, and submit a talk to TestBash!
To create a career goal - I’m uncertain right now, so I want to create a career goal within the next month. To achieve this, I’ll look to identify what am I passionate about and good at. I’ll research the different career paths available to me. I’ll talk to people within the community and discover their experiences and what advice they have for me. I’ll take part in the 30 Days of Career Growth!
To shift into a new career path - I’d like to shift into security testing within the next 12 months. I intend to do this by gaining experience in security testing by taking courses and challenges and building a portfolio of work. I will then volunteer to help with security testing projects at my current job. I will also network with security testing professionals at online events and research to join security testing communities.
To advance to a leadership position - I want to be promoted to a leadership position within the next 3 years. To achieve this, I intend to take leadership courses and network with community leaders to discover their advice on how to lead effectively.
To become a thought leader - I will become a thought leader in the domain of automation testing within the next 5 years. I hope to achieve this by continuing to take online courses and workshops in automation. To attend more conferences and network with thought leaders. I’ll write more articles and blog posts about automation in testing and speak at conferences and other events. I’ll build a social media following and share my thoughts and insights on automation in testing.
My goal is to land a QA job in EdTech by the end of the year! I am participating in this challenge to keep up the momentum. I have gotten a few interviews, but know I have some refining to do. I plan to continue applying for jobs while preparing my responses/stories and practicing my test prep and execution. Right now, I am working on a QA proposal for the company I work for and I plan to do some research and reach out to EdTech companies I am interested in working at.
To work towards being an automation tester - I want to improve my knowledge and expertise in automation testing within 6months. Be an expert in the selenium framework and implement it in my current workplace project. I have already enrolled in related courses in Udemy and Coursera and spending time studying every day/2-3 days a week to enhance my skill set.
Migrate to any EU Schengen countries - Going through the interview process I have found out my weakness and my area of improvement. Planning to improve my problem-solving skills, learn system design, go through the ISTQB CTFL syllabus again as related questions are being asked in interviews, and learn system design well.
To shift into a new career path - I’d like to shift into security testing within the next 12 months. I intend to do this by gaining experience in security testing by taking courses and challenges and building a portfolio of work. I will then volunteer to help with security testing projects at my current job. I will also network with security testing professionals at online events and research to join security testing communities.
To advance to a Senior QA/Lead QA position - I want to be promoted to a Senior QA/Lead QA within the next 3 years. To achieve this, I plan to take related courses and discuss with my senior mentors to gather resources and find my area of improvement.
My goal: send at least three applications for a QA role by the end of this month.
Why this goal?
I realized that I spent one-whole year only talking about changing my career. And to achieve this, I must apply for a job
Hi everyone, I am very excited about 30 day challenge, for a newbie like me this is great oportunity for incorporating into community and for most to learn new things. In my case it’s about shifting carrer, QA manual tester is something that is very appealing to me. I have allready step into action by doing a beginner course, and the goal is set, applying for intern in 3 months and after that for job position, it won’t be easy way but I am excited, happy to be here!
My name is Oliver Charity. I am a Senior QA Engineer in Copenhagen. My goal in the next 6 months is to be active in the testing community. I have already joined 2x 99 minute workshops, 1 Test Analysis workshop the last 2 weeks and I have been creating a list of books about Software Testing I will be reading the next 6 months Feeling excited
I’m lucky that I kinda fell into testing and found that it was something I actually enjoy - I got to witness the evolution of the role and I’m pretty convinced that testing and quality assurance will only get more interesting as the world changes and I want a seat at the table for those conversations and I want to support teams in building their capabilities
In my CV I highlight that I am a Modern Day Tester - some days I think I know what that means… other day I’m not so sure I could sell it
So my short term goal is to arrive at a statement to back up my USP “Modern Day Tester”
Another one of my short term goals is to put more effort into tech communities in and outside of work, I recognize more now just how much I benefited and continue to benefit from others volunteering their time and I want to try and pay it forward
Long term - I’m in need of a change in industry, having worked for a bank my entire adult life I’m a bit desperate for something new… I found this thread fascinating - Are there industries you won't work in?
It’s not that I think the grass is greener elsewhere I just appreciate its a big world out there and I can see plenty of upside from a change in environment - I feel pretty established at my current employer but starting somewhere brand new will be a real test of my skills/experience and I reckon will come with more opportunity
My goal is to reaming in software testing as an individual contributor for at least one or two more years, I enjoy doing it and since I’ve been at it for a while it’s primarily calm waters for me. Next, I’m not sure 100% yet but I’d like to have any role I take to have at least something to do with testing and quality.
I’m not sure I’ve ever had much of a career goal. I’ve always had hopes and aspirations based around my life, and my I’ve tried hard to make my career fit that.
That said, if I was to put something down, it would around trying to get my voice heard outside of the technology team in my company. My VP of engineering is always good for a chat, but since remote working, I don’t keep touch with the other functions in the company. I’d like to be able to express my opinions and thoughts to “higher ups” and those kitchen conversations just don’t happen any more.
So yeah, my goal will be to network, starting next week with an in-person meet up in the office with senior management (CEO is flying in). Preferably without making a fool of myself
Edit: Also, look outside the company a bit more, starting right here on the MoT forums.
In the next 3 years I hope to work with organisation(s) to grow and coach the Improvement of Quality ownership (technical & non-technical, strategic and tactical) at all levels of the organisation, ensuring all understand (or can easily be signposted to) the:
What
Where
Why
Who
How
Of Quality Improvement. During this time, I hope to educate myself, learn from others and be in a position to offer to support where practicable.
During this time I will attempt to gather metrics to keep myself accountable.
Hi
My name is Natalie and I am a QA Test Manager based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
I am very fortunate that I love my job, and have a very supportive team.
But, I would like to better my Test Planning, Estimation and overall test management skills.
This means doing a short course within the next 6 months.
I also would like to be more active in the online testing community, and some research into that is needed too.
After working in testing for 6 years and some personal life struggles I feel huge stagnation. I feel that other coworkers are much more knowledgeable and I’ve missed some opportunities for skills development.
That being said, to achieve a long-term goal of expanding my experience I want to focus on recognizing my gaps in knowledge and deciding in what direction I want to go.
Re-discovering the appeal of this career path would albo by a great advantage.
I am a web software development, but I would like to shift into a new career path as a manual tester.
Almost 2 years ago I took a course about that , but I don’t apply for a job yet, I think is because I don’t have enough practice and too because I don’t speak english very well. So my goal for the next month will be to practice and study testing concepts all in English.
If you have any advice on what I have to learn about manual testing in particular, I would really appreciate it.
My career goal is to improve my technical skills enough to enhance my ability to train others.
The main area I’d like to focus on over the next 12 months is APIs. Ideally, I’d love to look to communities both inside and outside of quality engineering, and have enough knowledge to get complete beginners enthusiastic about APIs. I’ll need to read up, experiment and organise my thoughts - plus be mindful to take it at an achievable and sustainable pace and not get overloaded.
Feeling excited 
