I’m Stephen and I’m a software QA tester from the South Coast of the UK that was recently made redundant after 3 years of work as a manual software tester. I actually attended the online Test Exchange yesterday (21st March) to get to meet a few other testers and make a handful of people aware of my situation.
Due to this, I’m actively looking for new work and need to get up to speed with automation fairly quick if I want to stand a chance at landing a junior QA testing role within the next three months.
I have been learning Python and Selenium in my own time in addition to diving my toes into API testing with Postman but the way in which I’ve approached the learning (mainly tutorials on YouTube, FreeCodeCamp and/or Udemy) doesn’t seem to be of much help to me as most of the time it’s copying code and I don’t feel like I’m absorbing as much information as I should be. I have a very deep interest in specialising in Python-based automation and have my PC set up ready to work with Selenium and Playwright.
Due to my situation, I need to work closely with someone or something that’s not going to charge me large amounts of money.
If there is anyone or anything for me to look into, would it be possible to point me in the direction I need to go? I deeply worry that I will struggle to find a suitable position in the near future due to still needing mentorship and being early in my career.
Is anyone willing to help me out? If not, is there anything for me to look into that will help me to find a resource that isn’t overly costly?
Following my redundancy in a job that used no automation, I’m looking to get into automation to prove to my new employer that I have gone the extra mile to broadening the scope of my work and that I am more than ready to prove that I can hit the ground running with my new skills.
To help plug any skills gaps in things like test planning, test design, test documentation, DevOps and so on.
To go over my experience and myself in-depth:
ISTQB Qualified
Have a Master’s Degree in Computer Games Development
On the Autistic Spectrum, which doesn’t affect my ability to work but does have an affect on how I learn and retain information
Highly interested in learning Python with Playwright/Selenium
I dont have any resources for direct 1:1 mentorship. But I do have a thought.
How about building a portfolio? There are some resources linked here for some test sites that can be automated against. Build a test suite for one of them. push the code to your Github repository. Include lots of commentary in the code about what the code is doing, why you selected the approach you did. Heck be honest about the challenges you encountered and so forth.
Then when you apply for jobs, include a link to that repository. Include it in your cover letter. “Hey look I know I dont have any working experience with automating UI tests. But here is a link to my personal project demonstrating my learning path and skills.”
You might find that is more beneficial to your style of learning? (I know it suits mine. Autodidact that I am)
In a way I’ve started doing that by putting a selection of what I’ve learned so far in Python/Selenium onto a repo on GitHub. Might use a good amount of the week tweaking the scripts to focus on alternative websites rather than the ones that were used for the tutorials.
Can at least continue to build on that one while also getting to grips with Playwright.
I understand the situation you are in.I would say Test Automation University is a good way to upskill without looking for any kind of mentoring.
However if i had to suggest someone based on your need i would refer to Ravisuriya Eswara or Dimpy Adhikari can help you. Please reach out to them on linkedin for help.