Category Archives: insight

Where have all the good jobs gone?

Posted by on May 3, 2013 22 comments

If you follow and believe the twitter conversations, it seems that the main reason for getting ISTQB certification is to pass the screening when applying for work. No ISTQB? No interview!

My personal experience has been that yes, on one or two occasions I’ve failed to be interviewed based on lack of certification. Rather then see this as a negative, I see this as a blessing. After all, if your idea of a tester is that narrow, then I’m probably not suited to your company. On occasion I’ve cited ‘NO CERT’! to justify why I can’t apply for a role. “I’m so sorry, I’m not ISTQB certified…” as I edge my way to the door.

I think it’s naive to rely on a certification as a means to getting work. Especially if you are a thoughtful and intelligent tester who cares about the quality of your work, and who wants to be taken seriously in the industry.

But forget about certification for one minute. Are you seriously willingly going to put your career into a strangers hand who then decides your fate by a keyword? There are cleverer ways to play this game.

Have you not noticed that the way companies recruit is rapidly changing? To get a job that interests you, its not good enough to send in your resume or hold a silly piece of paper with a over ornate stamp on it. Those days are long gone. Now you need passion, you need to keep up to date with whats happening in your field, you need to be committed to keeping yourself relevant.

Our family has experienced this first hand when my husband was looking for work last year. He suddenly discovered at the ‘old age’ of 42 that he was unemployable. He is intelligent and personable(yes I am biased) with a first class degree in Electrical Engineering and he had made the assumption that good people always find work. But that’s not enough. Today, if you want a job that’s worthy of you, you need make sure you earn the companies respect.

This is not only based on my personal experience, I’ve spoken to many recruiters in the last few months, and all seem to have similar stories. Companies are more reluctant to use recruitment agencies to find their staff. They want recruiters who know and understand the specific skills they are seeking. I’m seeing recruiters leave the industry, or re-invent themselves as specialists in one field. Other ways the industry has changed is that many recruiting companies work for one company and are in effect the procurement arm of the company.

Of course, the testing industry has changed significantly too. Now that the major consultancies have successfully sold testing as a commodity, testing (or an excuse for testing) is being performed wherever people are cheapest. The adoption of Agile as a development process and its dependency on automation has also reduced the need for testers (though this is not necessarily a bad thing). The fact is, there are less testing jobs out there.

That doesn’t mean there are less quality testing jobs though. While its true that the crumbs from the table need to be shared among more, there is still plenty of meat and gravy at the table. The question is, have you earned a spot there? Here’s a fact. You are not going to earn a spot on this table with a certificate. The path to this table is through credibility and reputation.

My first bit of advice is if you want a worthy job, then you need to be worthy. Examine the work that you have done to date. Does it reflect your skill and perhaps more importantly, your ability? What about your attitude? Does your work reflect that of someone who is passionate and who loves testing? You don’t need rockstar status, but you do need to be an eager apprentice. If you have aspirations to get a great testing job, but you’re not prepared to put in the hard work, then why should you deserve a great role?

Here’s something I do that has proven to be very useful. When I start a new role, I ask myself two questions. The first is “If I leave, how do I want people to remember me”? and second is “what legacy do I want to leave behind me”? It may sound ruthless to think about an exit strategy when starting a role, but the reality is, NO job is permanent so why treat it as one?

So, you are now a worthy tester, the next step is to be able to demonstrate this worthiness and please, put away that tired old resume! I’m talking about blogging, and speaking and contributing to the testing community. Contributing to the community is a great way of meeting local and international people and you learn so much. Regarding speaking, this doesn’t have to be large conferences, there are plenty of small local meetups that offer you a space to speak. No tester meetups near you? Why not create one, or speak at a developer meetup.

Thirdly you need to network. I can’t emphasis this enough. This is where the jobs are. You need to consider two types of networking, local and online. Local is essential if you want to find work in your area. This means meeting people face to face at the local meetup. Yes, I know masterchef is on a Tuesday night and this clashes with the meetup, but hey, do you want a great job or not? Online networking is important too because it allows you to connect with like minded people, plus its a great source of learning. Many jobs come from both online and local networks.

You also need to research. Find out the good companies, speak to people through your network (not agencies) about the ‘good places’ to work, and make a plan on how you are going to work there. Having an online presence helps a lot here, but so does face to face networking. And be patient, great jobs don’t just drop off trees and fall into your lap.

Yes, ultimately, these jobs don’t come easy. They require hard work, and a willingness to put yourself out there. It comes at a cost to your personal lifestyle. but hey! It’s all about choice. Great jobs are around, but its about seizing the day and making the opportunity instead of relying on an agent to do it for you. This is a good thing. Trust me. As I said at the start, why should you put your fate into someone’s hands?

The good news is more than ever before, companies who recognise and value their staff, who recognise and value quality testing, are recruiting in a grass roots way. If you want these types of jobs, it’s easier to get them.

Now maybe this all seems like too much work and you know? I can live with that! Seriously, its your call. But don’t tell me that certificate is mandatory to work in testing, because its not true. Many companies who ‘get’ testing will hire you without a cert. The question that is probably more pertinent is: “Do they want you?”

So get out there, work your butt off and then market your fabulous testing skills. If you stop putting your pearls before swine, one day that dream job will be yours!

Courage in Exploratory Testing

Posted by on October 16, 2012 4 comments

Exploratory Testing takes software testing skill. It also requires the tester be courageous. Let me explain.

Exploratory testing is an approach, not a technique. Exploratory Testing is simultaneous learning, design and execution. What information we learn about a product, helps dictate our tests providing us with information that we can share with people around us.

Exploratory Testing is tester centric, meaning the tester is central to the testing taking place. The tester has the autonomy and the responsibility to make decisions about what to test, how to test, how much to test and when to stop. This may seem blatantly obvious to some, but its surprising the number of test teams where this is not the case.

Its all powerful stuff, generating an environment where the tester must constantly reflect upon the changing project and product environments, enabling the tester to be engaged and mindful as they test.

I honestly can’t think of a better approach to software testing.

But there is a catch. Exploratory Testing also demands great courage.

When you start to take responsibility for your testing it’s not done in isolation. Testing requires interaction with many different people such as developers, project managers, scrum masters, product owners, customer support and business people. We share information that’s not always good news. Its in the form of bugs found and the possible impact of this information on business. The resulting consequences of the information we share often leads to delays in releasing, changes in work load, context switching and revising strategies.

In scripted testing, testers have artifacts which they measure and count giving an illusion of of certainty but really this is smoke and mirror reporting and generally offers little genuine information. “We have reached 78% test coverage, with a DDR of 85%”

Exploratory Testing doesn’t have ‘dutch courage’ to rely on. It requires us to have conversations about our information in potentially hostile environments. Sometimes we can feel like the lone fish swimming against the tide of the silent majority. It can be tough and as testers we need to learn to develop how to speak about our testing, how to tell a story (James Bach and Michael Bolton have both written on this). courage in Exploratory Testing

Here’s a list of ways that have helped a quaking knock kneed tester like myself discover her backbone:

Speak to someone you trust about your concern. Vocalisng a fear helps to make it tangible and sometimes gives strength when you discover its a shared concern.

Be coached or mentored on how to speak about testing with confidence

Take small steps. Speak to people sympathetic to your cause, sound out ideas. See if other people can help.

Try not to lose faith, be persistent. Keep your eyes on the goal, even if sometimes you fail to speak out.

Emotions are your toolbox. Anger and frustration can be very useful emotions! Use your emotion to give you courage to speak out. (I learned that at PSL this year..thanks to Jerry, Johanna & Esther)

Sometimes you need help. Be humble enough to know that sometimes change is out of your capabilities. See if you can find help through the testing community or see if you can bring someone in to help affect the change.

But mostly, its about practice. Courage breeds courage. Standing up to little things helps give you courage to stand up to greater things in the future. Be brave. Be strong.

What drives me most of all is that I want to be able to walk away from a situation with my head held high in the knowledge that I may not have changed the world, but I’ve had my say.

Now that’s a good days work.

 

 

 

 

Growing your own

Posted by on September 23, 2012 12 comments

So, I’m sitting here in my office on a beautiful  Australian spring day. The sun is shining brightly, the air is slightly fresh sending wafts of scent from the spring flowers. Its a good time to be alive and its a good time to be thinking of growth and change.

Potatoes in Spring

True to form, I trotted down to the local garden center and bought back a truck load of seeds and ideas on what I can do in the garden. I feel good this year, the potatoes are growing well, and I’ve managed to grow snow peas for the first time. Having invested a good amount of time in the garden, I feel content enough to sit in my office and allow myself to explore ideas on software testing and training.

And I’ve come up with the crazy idea, wonderful idea. For some time I’ve wanted to invest in online training in software testing. Its a model that I think will suit me well. I live far far away from the rest of the world and as much I as enjoy meeting new testers from around the globe, continuous travel is not for me.

To date, I’ve struggled with the concept of online learning. When I learn, I like to get my hands gritty, experience the stuff I’m wrestling with. With my online coaching, I make sure I include a task of some sort but thats one on one. Is it possible to offer online experiential learning to many people?

And then I read about these guys at Venture Lab. The courses are highly experiential & require collaboration to succeed. I sniffed a model that I could possibly work with.

But I’m taking it one step further. I want to make the students the designers of the course. Its the students who will work out what needs to be learned and how that will be achieved, and how they will know they achieved it. There will be some external structure, perhaps in the form of exercises, some philosophies to abide by, but basically, its the students who will dictate the content & the pace. In fact a lot of these ideas are from the coaching model James Bach & I have worked on holding onto the concept that learning requires real desire from the student, and to do that the student needs to dictate the learning (with the teacher offering space and direction to learn).

I see this courses as being a permission giver. We’re so drilled to think of learning as something we have to sign up for, like its impossible for us to learn outside a course. In this way, I’m helping overcome that little hurdle and get into some real meaty learning.

I’m very excited about these ideas and what will come of them. I’m not sure where they will lead and I guess that’s half the fun! If you want to join me on the crazy, wacky journey, feel free to contact me on Skype at charretts, or else add a comment below.

I’ll be adding information on this model as it progresses.