Does this seem like a scam to anyone? Thinking of doing it in March

I’m not doing very well teaching myself (or rather, trying to teach myself) software testing, and I’ve been looking everywhere for something more structured. I found this:

and wondered if it was a scam. It’s rather expensive, but it gives one month of manual testing learning and one other automation course. It’s also a hell of a lot less expensive than somewhere like the Turing School of coding.

I’m just desperate and increasingly depressed about ever getting into this field and this seemed like a way to help myself. Thoughts?

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I would say scam. It does even have the default site template of a scam. Also the fact that they only have 1 price and the “more expensive” ones are sold out is a hint for me.

There is really no need to go via such a course in my view and, to be fair, no course will teach you in x days or a month how to be a " The only QA Automation Course you need to earn $85000+ without any degree or previous experience". You need experience, you need to test, you need to stress yourself.

Depending on your testing experience and on what you want to achieve ( please do not say money) you can take a lot of other free resources and become better. There is a lot of free stuff even here on MOT and there are also a ton of other materials that you can view with a PRO Account ( which is just about the price of a night out, during COVID with friends)

Hope it helps

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There is so much content out there which is free. Join in on a youtube series of for example API Testing and set up a project of yourself (if you need help with that, feel free to ask, we have a lot of people mentoring on here)

You can do some testing challenges for example:

You could join some CrowdTesting platform which has regression sets ready to be tested. This way you can check out other people’s testing scenario’s and see how they test.

Is there anything in specific you are looking to learn maybe we can help you with that?

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From the website, talking about what happens after you sign up:

How the Program Works: 2

Start Practicing in the Startup

You’ll get the access to documentation, programs and website of our partner company and start practicing your work in a real Startup. You don’t have to pretend or work on a fake project. You’re gonna get a real experience!

So this unspecified “US startup” company gets your labour for nothing. Hmm…

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Without even looking, because I don’t want to be judging anyone doing legit business, because there are many people who use training as an income because it can be so rewarding and valuable to the industry as a whole.

But. If you are asking, then it’s probably not. Get an MOT pro membership, even do an ISTQB entry level exam (you don’t have to pay for anything more than the book and the exam itself and 1-2 months of just internalizing the book). Although the ISTQB exam proves little, it’s a badge you can stick onto your CV. and then of course, attend an in-person or an online Conference. If conferences are not your thing look for a “Meetup” group near you. Local meetups are a lot easier to drop into and have shifted online where necessary. Also there are some free videos - there is a thread all about that here too. All are better value for money than any Special High Intensity Training.

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It doesn’t have to be a scam, but I don’t think you need to spend a lot in order to learn enough to be employable as a tester, @conrad.braam gave the same good advice - ISTQB’s real-world value is debatable (a lot of stuff it preaches is very dogmatic and a bit outdated), but, it will open some doors for you - old fashioned corporations look favorably upon that certification. Other than that, preparing for the ISTQB fundamentals (I see a lot of job ads for Germany stating ISTQB cert is a plus) you’ll learn a lot of testing terminology which will be useful in an interview - as interviews are ofter harder than the actual job is :sweat_smile:

Other than that, keep doing what you’re doing - join and participate in the testing community, you can get free advice, pointers, participate in interesting testing-related discussions and meet a lot of people, someone can put in a good word for you which can help you land a junior or an internship role.

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Some of the best training is the BBST lecture series. Challenging, practical, and immediately applicable.

Joe

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And how we arrived at the mind map: How Rahul Parwal and Ajay Balamurugadas work - YouTube

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If this is the same Rahul and Ajay, that I saw a while back, these guys are really entertaining and easy to follow. +1

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Yes, We’re the same guys :slight_smile:

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For test automation, there’s some good free resources over on https://testautomationu.applitools.com/ ; some are obviously application or tool-specific but don’t let that stop you having a browse round

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Ah. I was afraid of that. I was really attracted to it at first because I’m dying for some structure to learn this stuff better, and it would have given me that. But if it’s a scam I’ll stay far away from it.

Is the Pro account a one-time payment?

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This seems really in-depth. Thank you very much :slight_smile:

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Thanks Joe! I appreciate your help.

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So is it generally advisable to get a certification…any certification? I’m getting so many conflicting replies from folks. Or is the ISTQB the certification? I wish I knew what the testing market was really like on my side of the pond (am in the US) so I could make a better decision.

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Okay. Thanks a lot for your help - I’ll look into the ISTQB more closely and see if I’m up for it

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Yeah…it doesn’t sound legit when you put it like that.

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Hi Kristof, thanks very much for posting this. I would love some help in setting up my own project!

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Follow-up question, if you don’t mind - I am in a most fortunate position to take a hiatus from working while I’m studying software testing, but was curious about how long it might take to get to a point where I can apply for jobs. How do you know you’re ready to put your resume out there? Especially if you don’t have any prior job experience in this particular field?

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What kind of project are you looking for?

=> Spring Petclinic community · GitHub

These guys have a lot of different kind of projects available for testing purposes.

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