How do you respond to the most difficult question in testing?

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I saw this post today on Twitter and immediately Impostor Syndrome came to mind. But maybe it is just me, maybe I just had a looooong week, or maybe 2. But that tweet really made my day

What helps your confidence as a tester?

— Ministry of Testing (@ministryoftest) October 6, 2022

Also on that note I was thinking that the below question can actually be, in the correct circumstances the most difficult one to answer as a tester/QA/QC/Automation Expert etc

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So how do you answer: What do you do for a living?

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How to answer that question depends on the audience.

To other Testers and Quality Engineers, I’m a Senior Quality Engineer.
To my friends, I’m a Software Tester.
To my mum, I work with computers.
To people at the pub I might speak to, I work in tech.

Don’t get hung up on titles.

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Because it depends on the audience I see as being hard. But I also wanted to see how the community responds :slight_smile:

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I work in software.

On a personal level, I am a tester. However for me that is a mindset/ethos rather than how I make a living. That involves doing a bunch of stuff, usually when a story is either in the test phase or on the backlog. Or maybe I’m just being a bit grouchy as I’ve not done much of the style of testing I love over the past year. >_<

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I’ve reverted to “I work in tech” for most cases…

The trouble is, I started my career in ops, moved to dev, tinkered in architecture, did time in management (and got out as soon as I could!), moved back to being a senior generalist-type, and was responsible for the quality and testing of what I produced the whole time.

So “working in tech” seems more appropriate of an answer… The problem is when the audience is another tech person and they want more detail! :worried:

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I usually call myself a software crash test dummy.

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I’m looking for problems in complex systems.

More “honestly”: I do “what every” my boss wants me to do. At least they is satisfied.

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As already stated it depends on the asker, but I also favour the “I make an ” if the software I am testing is an accounting system.

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What do you do for a living?

Joking. Sort of. I have responded with, “how familiar are you with Sisyphus?”

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