What was your career before you switched to Testing?

I asked a random question for testers about their previous career before starting as a tester. I discovered a huge diversity on this thread !

This diversity make the testing career unique and awsome specially if you think about the strength of your previous field and try apply it for testing things !

Do you have more examples?

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I worked on a helpdesk for the NHS. A strength I took from that job was being able to see what the system is like for users that aren’t confident with technology and the common pitfalls. I always think of those users that struggled every time we introduce new functionality.

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I qualified as a librarian many, many years ago, but ended up working as a clerk in a social security office. When water was privatised here in the UK I took level transfer to the regulator’s office, where I was working in the press office. This might have been exciting - and occasionally was - but eventually found I was spending most of my time writing to pensioners saying why we thought metering was such a great idea.

So I jumped at the chance when I was head-hunted into our new “Quality Assurance” team. At that point, we were engaged in a big project and QA was actually heavily involved with data quality and the processes for monitoring that, which was in the hands of industry practitioners from major civil engineering firms. My job was to help liaise between the regulator, the consultants and the water companies. Only when that project was finished did we start looking, first at data requirements, then switching to devising a data collection tool and finally arriving in testing by actually testing the application our in-house team had built. Over the next 15 years, the mix of those various tasks changed until I was 100% doing testing (apart, that is, from my separate and voluntary work as a workplace staff representative).

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I’m very new to QA/Software testing but currently work as a Junior QA for a digital agency - landed the role straight before my graduation and hadn’t heard of QA beforehand!

Loving my role here though and very excited to start my career in software testing!!

Whilst at university I also worked as a help-desk technician which definitely helped me understand user journeys and common frustration points in software as @froberts mentioned :grinning:

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(See also: https://club.ministryoftesting.com/t/career-progression-in-software-testing-how-did-you-get-to-where-you-are-now/)

I was a failed geologist, a failed teacher, and a programmer in a failed company. My answer in the other thread explains it all…

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@katepaulk

Perhaps they were intense learning opportunities preparing you for the success you see in the testing profession? That’s how I read them!

Joe

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Prior to testing, I worked the Customer Service help desk for both end users, customer reps and field techs. I worked with the test team when they tested billing for the system, and they suggested that I move into the open testing role. The guy I interviewed with (my future boss) asked around about me, and since I had already been questioning the OPS and development teams about issues the customer reps and field techs were having, the job was mine for the taking. It was the best move I’ve ever made (my Customer Service boss offered me a manager’s title to keep me - it didn’t work!).

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Before moving to this career, I was working as a Frontend Developer in an IT organization. Starting career as a Tester was not my choice. I was hired as a Programmer Analyst in my next organization. But they gave me the designation of Quality Analyst. And this is how my career switched from Developer to Tester.

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I started in testing three months ago. Prior to that I had worked as an Electronics Technician for seven years doing component level repairs on mains powered (mostly agricultural) equipment.

I knew I wanted to be part of the software development process, and studied Computer Science at uni, so when a tester position opened up in R&D at the company I was already working for I jumped at the opportunity.

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Did you enjoy working as a tester? Or you prefer if you still a front end developer?

Yes. I am enjoying my work being a QA. I am learning new things everyday.

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Well … I studied applied information technology, did that for 6 months and hated every bit of it …
Needed money so started working as a clarktruck driver for about 3 years when I stumbled upon on job opening for a games tester. Never left testing since and still love it every day since I started testing 20 years ago. Although I don’t test that much anymore myself today as I have more a coaching and strategy job, I do still love that moment where you can pinpoint that difficult to reproduce defect :slight_smile:

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(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

I’ve been a pizza chef (2.5 years), shelf-stacker (1 year), logistics clerk (2.5 years), bricklayer (1.5 years), carpenter (1.5 years), tiler (1.5 years), fast-food chef (3 years) and store manager (3 years), video store manager (3 years), perfume manufacturer (1 year), high-tension electrician (0.5 years), armature winder (0.5 years) and dental technician (18 years). I was officially a software tester for 18 years. I’ve now moved into Data Governance, with the occasional foray into UAT; testing is no longer my main function.

And before you say anything- some of them were concurrent… and I’m older than I look!

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Originally I trained as an English teacher, did a couple of years in Personnel and then found an opening in IT that was offering day release as part of the package and, back in the 80s, that seemed like an exciting thing to do. Obviously the right choice, as I was an analyst/developer for the best part of 20 years (also covered the tech side of things with hardware management). I was more interested in the UX side than coding towards the end and also got involved in customer management and support. Looming redundancy/relocation led me to look around at other options and a chance call from the MD of a local company (friend of friend) who needed to set up a QA function seemed a good short term option while I was looking for a new Dev role. 17 years on and I manage the dev team in that company but am still heavily involved in hands on QA, Testing and Analysis.

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I was a student. First job after finishing my degree was a software testing role. Loved it so much that I’ve never changed roles.

Before uni, I did have a couple of saturday jobs as a shop assistant or waitress. I also had a paper round which I started when I was 13. Continued that for 3 years.

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I worked on a helldesk. Really didn’t like it and was looking for a career change. Read about testing. Knew the company I was working for at the time had no tester and said “Hey, you have no testers. Make me your tester.” So they did.

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23-years in the RAF as an Avionics Engineer! Although in my final few roles were working in software development and then a move into a testing role. Think the Electronics Engineering aspects helped, due to investigation of faults in depth, not knowing a lot about the system - but able to refer to the circuit diagrams (as opposed to requirements I guess). Many people I know in Software Development, come from an Electronics Engineering background.

Been in my current role now for over 7-years, not looked back.

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Much like Olaf Meys above, I’ve done a great many things from Adventure Guide (camping, white water rafting, etc.) to Teaching. In the software development world I’ve been a QA, BA, and Tech Writer.

Right out of college I worked in customer support for a motorhome manufacturer. If we could walk customers through an easy fix, we would. If not, we’d help schedule them at a dealership for repair.

Concurrently with my QA roll, I am also a Pastor. How both roles play into testing is a focus on the person - how best to help the “customer”. A lot is paying attention to what is said, and reading between the lines to see the pitfalls. If issues can’t be prevented, knowing the right kinds of questions to ask (or Tests to run) to diagnose the underlying issue and help resolve it.

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Hello

I am new to this group but very active in the QA field (Finance) for a very long time. Prior to moving in to QA field, I was an Accounts Manager(Finance) and pager marketer. Interestingly i could able to apply many of my audit, accounting, business process and marketing skills in many phases of QA cycle. I can quickly grasp any requirements that may need financial domain. I also did law degree back in india.So this has helped me to quickly understand any controls, Compliance requirements. While I was pursuing my law degree, I got bored totally with a subject called Legal Theory (Jurisprudence) . Interestingly this subject helped me in my QA in terms of developing root cause analysis (ability to connect points and help the developer where the issue and its impact). This mindset made me a user friendly with many of the developers. They see me a great challenger rather a pain point. My marketing skills helped me to be better in communication, relationship building, present issue without hurting any one. . Overall I have been enjoying my Wii (Working, learning and improving) style and able to complement to many developers work and was able to contribute heavily in many projects.

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