Hey guys,
I’m Alex, a Q.A. Engineer from Cluj-Napoca Romania.
Currently doing both manual and test automation development for an IDS/IPS technology.
I test different features using real-time traffic analysis to detect anomalies.
For manual testing, I use VMware to deploy virtual environments consisting of Firewalls, Routers, Switches, Endpoints.
For automation, I use Python, Bash, Jenkins and Docker.
Hi,
I think your profile is a bit strange: QA engineer, manual development, test automation development, manual testing…
Which one is actually true? What’s your strength and actual role?
My main skillset is test automation using Python and Bash. But because of the nature of the product certain tests need to be done manually. The manual work is done by all QA engineers in the team depending on how the sprint is planned. Same people including me also handle exploratory testing which for a security product is really important.
Hope this explains what I do a bit better.
Do people actually lie about what they do? Why would they?
Alexandru, nope, not lying. I assume people don’t give away too much detail because nobody wants to get involved in product support, or worse someone not understanding why the product you build does not work for them in their context. I suspect that to say manual testing is dead would be like saying that users test our product for us. I have fallen into the trap of automating something and finding out later, that my assumptions were totally wrong, about a certain automation path too.
Security is a big hole for a lot of testers I will bet. But you will be using tools to help you do manual check parts of that job better I imagine, which counts as automation. 
Welcome on board.