Testing can lead to a fulfilling career, of course. But over time I’ve found that my years as a full-time software tester have also paid off in my life off the work clock.
For example: ever get a white screen of death on a website? And then you get a hunch that it’s due to a performance issue, only to be proven correct when you come back during off hours and make the transaction?
Just happened to me last night when I was trying to change a car rental reservation. If I hadn’t seen dozens of similar failures on the job, I might not have been able to root-cause the issue at all.
There are so many other ways in which my years as a tester have paid off for me in my personal AND professional life. So I could go on and on. But at this point I’d rather hear from some of you.
I am dev-turned-QA. Before, when there was a bug found, it gave me an uneasy feeling that it could have been my fault (“all eyes on me!” - but now I know it was just such company culture!) and the urgency to fix it before either boss or client learns about it, lol.
I would say now I am much more relaxed when it a bug occurs, I know it’s not the end of the world and we have processes in place to deal with them. Possibly that comes with age and not necessarily due to change of job title, I don’t know…
That said, I love the most being a middle-man between business and development. I can code but I don’t like it to be the main focus in my work, I love when I can “translate” high-tech jargon that devs have, into something that BAs and PMs can understand, there’s always some kind of an invisible “tech boundary” between these two types of people.
As for outside work… I don’t know, I guess there too I am more relaxed when I notice some defect - I get that sense of familiarity and I sympathize more with program creators lol, in a sense “hey, these guys have bugs as well, it’s not just our software at work!”
Last but not least, I’d appreciate more if the original post’s title would be more open-ended, in a sense that maybe for someone it can change their life for the worse? Who knows The only “drawback” I can think of, however, is that I am not at the bleeding edge of technology anymore, like devs have to be.
Weeel, to be fair any kind of IT career `as it’s bonuses. Like whenever you hit a problem , like with a computer game, that could be automated easily, I automate it. Games that use dialog scripts, or large configuration files and even modding a game. For things like finding bus tickets online, yeah it made my life way much harder, but it has also taught me how to deal with things like web payment problems with buying those tickets, that is far far less stress now. Because I know when it’s a bug and I know that it will be fixed later. Yeah my Job in IT as a tester means I can do automation of things , and being patient, more easily. BUT it comes with 2 downsides. Like yesterday: Downside #1 (He’s the expert)
Sound mixer guy : “Hey Conrad, can you show the musicians how to install the music sheet app on their ipad?”
This is a task that took me like 2 weekends to get working so I’m not looking forward to showing them. I know I can show them everything in about an hour, but that’s an hour of my life, and they will forever think I’m the expert. I have people who continuously bug me for help with their e-commerce website too. I generally play “duck” and they then work out what is wrong, but I’m not the expert.
Downside #2 (Hyper attentiveness)
I have far more apps die or crash on me than other people do. I suspect this happens because I try to click on random things that a user would not. I also remember every single crash more clearly than most people would. And I also notice things like miss-aligned controls, literally 1 pixel miss-aligned, and I cannot un-see it. Being a tester is a curse.
I am also a dev-turned-QA, and actually I prefer being the QA, because although it’s not my job to fix it, I find that I often can fix more things from my role as a QA, than I ever could as a coder. I raise bugs on apps all the time, and I raise every bug as if I am a user/tester, not as a coder. And things do get fixed eventually.
I was in sales for 15 years and then moved to IT and became a QA. My knowledge of a our systems and software were desired by my future boss and my new team that I embedded with “educated” me on the IT part.
10 years later I can say that moving to IT from a sales role brought my blood pressure down, and gave me a look into a different life within a corporate setting. 3 things I learned:
On a daily basis, My QA role provided far less stress. Not to say there isn’t any, but its far less on the daily. My health in general improved a bit and my balance was better. Definitely able to enjoy my family a bit more.
I have never felt less appreciated in general. Not so much by teammates and bosses, but by the company overall. Once you get past your direct leadership, you seem to viewed as line item on a balance sheet. I carried that with me outside of work at times in the beginning quite a bit and it wore me down at times. It may have a lot to do with the company size or whatever.
I had to used to compensation being stagnant. It was an adjustment to cost of living and I really thought there would be more financial reward in general. Silly me.
Testing took me from never having really travelled anywhere to doing acceptance testing, in person, with customers on three of the four corners of this ball of dirt. Oh, and there was a non-dom year on a pacific island.
Oddly, thanks to lockdown, management has discovered a lot of what I used to do can be done remotely, so I doubt if I will travel with any intensity (if at all) again. I’ve had to find a new USP (and learn how to be a nerd again in the process).
The only “drawback” I can think of, however, is that I am not at the bleeding edge of technology anymore, like devs have to be.