Someone tells you they are falling out of love with software testingā¦ what do you say or do?
How would you help them fall back in love with the craft? How would you help them see the joy again?
(Asking for a friendā¦)
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Iām thinking of questions to ask instead of answers: why they chose testing, what they understood testing is, what they were doing(managed to do) as a tester, what they donāt know they could be doing as a tester, and what they would like to be doing as a tester, what opportunities to do things they like are.
Some people āloveā ātestingā for the āwrongā reason. It doesnāt stop them to continue doing what they do and enjoy it.
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I agree with @ipstefan, itās going to be part of a conversation exploring why those feelings have changed and what they love about what they do.
Sometimes it helps to get away from feeling railroaded. In my experience good testers enjoy testing for the variation. The same product in the same system can be explored in so many different ways, and thereās room for learning and creativity. A cheap way is to give them free-exploration space, or time towards a side-project, or learning time with new ideas. A place to feel more creative. More expensive is a course, meetup or convention. I always came back from things like TestBash with new ideas.
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I on occasion do the same and I do love testing. These are some of thoughts and things that have worked for me but it can remain a bit cyclic.
For me when Iāve looked into why Iām feeling that way its often about others rather than myself.
When testing gets reduced to scripts or a customer says they donāt really want testing but the need automation and it comes from people you have coached in testing before and shown them first hand the value of good testing it can really feel like a constant uphill battle at times at least for me. Even when Iām good at automation its just not as fun as testing.
Words for me tend not to change those feelings at the time but what helps me continue in this line of work and get my buzz back is the good testing that I still get the opportunity to do, to work with teams that value good testing, to work on products where good testing has really made a difference.
If you have the power to help get them involved in those sort of projects where the part of testing they loved they get to do and its appreciated then that for me is the best solution but its not always possible.
Iāve been going a bit deeper into accessibility testing recently, the wonders good accessibility can do for a lot of people has been part of my motivation with this, my testing can really make a difference. Maybe something like that could help a friend.
Its important to examine what are the things that made the love go, what are the root causes of those and is it in your power to change things.
I sometimes also accept Iāve been and continue to be at least to some extent one of the lucky ones, someone who has for many years loved their jobs. This maybe ties me to testing too much, trying to re-imagine loving another job adds a level of fear that it becomes just a pay check and a means to an end so I can do more of the other things I love.
When you love something, sometimes even constant uphill battling is okay.
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My first thought: Oh no!
This is a situation that saddens me. My second thought is: Is this person actually falling out of love with testing, or are they just frustrated by all the additional things testers often end up doing - being the tester as well as the scrum master and / or product owner, glue work, dealing with resistance / cultural issues around quality, etc.
I would encourage them to dig a little deeper into what they still enjoy / wish they could do more of, and what they donāt enjoy / wish they didnāt āhave toā do. Once they figure that out, they could talk to their people lead and see whether they could transition into a role which plays more to their interests and / or strengths.
If it really is the case that they donāt like testing anymore, thatās a shame, but itās also okay. Iād encourage them to think about whatās changed, and whether their interests have wandered anywhere else. Do a similar analysis of their likes and dislikes, and talk to their people lead about trying out something else. Career shifts are usually much easier to do if you move internally, rather than seeking a completely new role and company at the same time.
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I just ask them āDo you realize youāll have to start from the basics again?ā
This is followed by discussions on what problems they face and how can they improve themselves on paper to move forward in their career.
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I was close several times. Many great points were made already above. So Iāll just add what helped me:
- Going to a cool test conference with networking/social activities
Attending TestBash gave me a push I needed at the time. It was great meeting people as passionate about testing as I am when I was surrounded by people questioning the concept itself. - Connecting with the community
Slack, Club, LinkedIn, Meetups: Continuing the enthusiasm infusion from the conference and being in contact with other likeminded people. - Leaving a project
Itās hard to be happy in a toxic environment. Had to leave a project once. Staying as long as I did nearly broke me. - Going to therapy
Just a couple of sessions really helped. Also had burnout which makes it hard to enjoy anything. - Reducing work hours/no overtime
Turns out Iām not built for the 40h work week. Being overworked makes it hard to enjoy what youāre doing. - Letting go of perfection
In combination with the previous point. Youāre doing the best you can. There is always more work. - Focusing on a different test (related) skill
I need variety in my life. When my tasks became less interesting I moved into training/coaching for accessibility testing.
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After nearly 20 years in software testing I fell out of love with it some years ago. The main reason is that agile development changed how testing is done, and not for the better.
But also, I have no interest in testing the same application continuously, which is what most testers do. I like to tear into an application for a few hours to a few weeks, then move on to something else. That used to fit well with waterfall development and also with fault investigations that came along occasionally. Iām not saying waterfall was better, just that it fits the way I like to work.
I have no interest in agile development, where you get to do some superficial testing of a few new features every sprint and do as much regression testing as will fit in the remaining time. That sounds awful to me. I have no interest in automation either - Iām sure itās important, in which case someone else can do it.
There is so much wrong with how agile development is done these days, and it makes good quality testing pretty much impossible in most organisations. Iām sure there are a few exceptions, but it wonāt be many. This has gone on for so long that most people donāt even know what good testing looks like. Software quality has declined substantially in recent years, and it was never that good. I canāt change it, so I just donāt want to be part of it anymore.
What I find particularly depressing is to see generations of new testers coming through who donāt bother to learn anything from people who have been doing testing for decades. Thereās no progress and no one is building on what we already know.
So now I do accessibility testing, much of which is still done outside of development projects, away from the toxic constraints in agile teams, away from people who think āanyone can do testingā and away from developers who think they can do my job better than I can. Does that all sound jaded and world weary? You better believe it.
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Been in the sw business since 89 and never very far from sw testing in some form. Surprisingly few say something like that! When people do walk on from testing its normally to make some kind of career step being a test leader and on upwards.
I have to say, I have never experienced anyone telling me that. But if, I would just say go on to something else. I suppose, with the increasing amount of programming in testing ie Automation, I suppose some finds out that they are really code brains rather than system brains and I would just say go for it.
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I also agree with what @ipstefan said ask them why they started etc.
Also ask them what is missing or what is lacking.
I often try to do some pair testing online labs and hoping to learn them some new techniques or things that they donāt know yet. I often notice they are just falling out of love because itās always the āsame repetitiveā thing. But there is so much more to do.
And if they say they want to go into project management, Iāll advise them to go to therapy (just kidding 
)
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Ask if they want to talk about it.
Is there a particular āproblemā?
Have they found sĢ¶oĢ¶mĢ¶eĢ¶oĢ¶nĢ¶eĢ¶ something new?
Listen.
Without knowing the context, which could be found through questioning and listening, you seem to assume that helping them fall back in love is the right, or only, thing to do.
Is it?
Are you sure?
Thereās a season for everything.
Your friend might have amazing skills, powers, and experience that can be of great value in other roles, doing other things.
Maybe the ārightā thing to do is to help and support your friend make the leap?
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From my experience, desire to quit mostly depends on the projects and workplace.
I was happy doing testing for fun startups where you have limited time and freedom to do whatever you think would bring the most value for end users in that time. I didnāt feel much pressure and felt my honest feedback was valuable for the team and product, even if it meant completely redesigning certain features.
Moving into more corporate environment and projects, the money was better but the joy was gone. I would often waste my time writing ridiculous documentation or automation, or following laid out process which gives little to no value for end users but makes management happy because they tick their checklists.
Sometimes people get into burnout and fall out of love with their job. If there is no easy solution, itās perfectly ok to start all over again with something else and feel the joy of learning new things from scratch. And if things donāt work out, you can always go back into testing.
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