Hello, I’m from Poland. I got a bachelor degree in IT (2015), I put a focus on computer graphics. Sadly after a few yeard I turned out to do poorly at that type of job, only proving talented in terms of coding (mostly PHP, HTML, CSS), so now I try to branch out into something closer to my true calling. I am considering becoming a software tester, as I received praise from several people who had send me their applications for testing purposes. I’ve tried to apply for a few positions before, and the interviews went fairly well, with the potential employers even saying that I do have the proper mentality&approach to become a tester. However I was not ever taken, due to there being better candidates out there. While I cannot jump over my lack of work experience, it does feel like I should be able to learn certain things on my own, however it seems incredibly hard to figure out what people would want from me.
Many job offers are really vague (testing software, automated tests, mobile app testing), where I don’t know what I should do. Some do go into specifics, but don’t follow a regular path (Jira, Confluence, Selenium, Laravel). Comparably when looking into PHP related jobs, over 60% of the job offers that do require a concrete framework of PHP, do mention Symfony, so that is a rather helpful direction for me there, but testing software scene seems so vast and unclear to me.
I would appreciate some advise about where I should be heading.
Thank you very much
as far as I understood: You are a developer and want to become a tester. Welcome!
You mention a lot of tools, so I suppose you are talking about becoming a tester who develops automated test cases and/or frameworks for automated testing. This role would be a test automation specialist.
Did I get it right, so far?
If the scene seems unclear to you, it might help to learn the basics of Software Testing.
The following certification system provides a good overview about roles in testing and how to become a tester and a specialist:
You can get a certificate like ‘ISTQB Certified Tester’, starting with Foundation Level https://www.istqb.org.
First check out the syllabi (pdf downloads), they contain a lot of useful testing knowledge.
I can offer a few resources that myself and @danashby have created through Software Testing Clinic (our meetup that helps support new testers or those getting into testing). There are lots of introductions to different concepts that you would need to consider when testing because it isn’t all about the tools.
When I am hiring testers I am looking for someone with a spark of creativity (reflected in your graphics background) and someone who can think about things critically. So you want to focus on both your technical skills as well as your soft skills such as critical thinking, understanding heuristics, how to create models of systems to aid test, and communication skills. Good testers have a grounding in a lot of different skills.
That said on the technical side, there are sites you can practise testing against or demoing tools against. I have created two that are free to use:
http://automationintesting.online - A fully fledged web application that you test and run tools against (not performance testing tools though)
So those are a few resources to take advantage of. However, my biggest recommendation is to engage with the testing community. Take advantage of the Club (like you already have) and get to know people and ask questions. We love discussions on testing and are always happy to help out. Also, check out the ‘Connect’ section in the footer of the Ministry of Testing site: https://www.ministryoftesting.com/ There are some great links to resources and other community channels that you can get involved with.
The more you get to know the community the more you will learn and discover opportunities for employment.
Good luck and feel free to ping me any questions
- Mark
After spending a lot of project in development and development lead roles, I was looking for something more challenging. When I was asked to join a Quality Engineering team with a first project identified for test data generation, I was excited to give it a try. In addition to leading that team, I attended test conferences to learn more about testing. I found that I didn’t know as much as I thought.
I took a course toward one of the testing certificates but found it very academic. I continued to look and found the BBST course series. These courses really helped me understand testing. In my opinion, a good foundation in testing is very important to succeed as a tester or as a person who might help a tester (such as a test engineer or test automation person).
I started leading test teams which included both a test strategy and an eye on how test engineering may assist (utilities, automation, testability).
I have found testing both very challenging and very rewarding!
