I’ve started to write a multi-page answer to give some insight into thinking about getting into testing, but I’ll touch on a few points now:
- Decide if you want a job or career. A career often takes more time, work, responsibility and passion, but often offers more satisfaction, interest and money. Both are valid, I predict you’re more interested in the latter and not just for the money.
- My career was steeped in Context-Driven Testing and the Rapid Software Testing Methodology. I invite you to look into these because at the very least you should know about the option, and I think this research will save you from some tedious roles.
- It is my opinion that ISTQB is a money-making scam for consultants and the course content is not useful. The actual certification is desired by some companies, although it’s also my opinion that those companies don’t understand testing very well or they wouldn’t trust the certificate. Getting the certification is not very hard, mostly common sense and a little memorisation - the exam does not test the syllabus very well because, in my opinion, it’s in their interest for people to pass. I don’t have one and I had a great career in software testing. It will depend on where you live and what jobs are available if it’s a good idea for you. So yes, it can help land a role, but only some roles, and I’d say it has more utility as a certification than a course so don’t take the content too seriously.
- You can get some experience testing open source projects, which comes across as interest and passion on your CV. A great place to practice, and you can even raise bugs and give feedback.
- Consider what skills from your previous jobs are useful in testing. Working with others, solving issues, that kind of thing. Companies tend to want people who can take care of themselves, get on with the people who already work there and not cause too many problems.
- Customise your CV to everything you apply for. Make it hard for them to say “no” to an interview, without lying. Line up their buzzwords with your replies. Apply, even if you don’t seem to be perfect - often they don’t know what they want, anyway, and someone who is willing to learn, work in a team and is nice to talk to could actually gets the position. Express your passion and excitement to learn and work with others.
- RST was the best course I ever went on, but might be prohibitively expensive or difficult to attend. You can still read about it online, and if you email James Bach he will likely provide the notes for free (RST Class Materials - Satisfice, Inc.). I am a CDT/RST guy, so that’s where all my advice will come from.
- If you ever want to message me I’ll try to help when and where I can. This community is also very supportive and helpful so I hope you’ll continue to ask stuff here. You can also look through my post history if you want a lot of reading on different topics to get a flavour of the stuff I go on about - not to understand the working of every single thing, just to see what gets talked about. I write a lot.
I think I could be very good in this field and I like that it combines a lot of different skills.
I think so too, and it does. Learning, problem solving, communication, teamwork, empathy, tact, adaptability, developing strategy, applying test techniques, exploration, satisfying the needs of the company, team and users; and it can be exciting and different every day. I enjoy supporting a team and leveraging my knowledge and skills to enable them to do their job well. Look for a place where you’re encouraged to learn and free to explore, if you can. Absolutely ravage the training budget and plunder the library.
Continue to believe in yourself, ask questions, get your information from more than one person or group, and I hope you find not just a job, but your passion. Best of luck!