seeking work as software tester after raising family

[pbelt]

Hi,

well before I raised a family I would have considered myself a programmer - but that was back in the days when vb5 (yes... 5!) was considered new and cutting edge

I realise my chances of getting programming work is small as I haven't kept up to date with things. I was thinking about sw testing (we need the money). If I were to take my ISEB/ISTQB practitioners and PRINCE2 quals, what do you think my chances would be of getting work?

Also, in my day, and the company I worked for testing was more or less "it compiled and it didn't crash when I throughly tested it for at least 4 minutes" sort of thing. Anyone give me any idea of what I'm likely to find myself doing these days?

thanks for all replies.

 

[fredericofonseca]

which country?

if India I would say pretty big changes.

Regards

Frederico Fonseca
SysSoft Integrated Ltd

http://www.syssoft-int.com

 

[gbaughma]

but that was back in the days when vb5 (yes... 5!) was considered new and cutting edge

You're such a young pup. ;-)

Back in *my* day, I was writing in QuickBasic, and you had to write your own printer drivers. VisualWHAT?

Ahh.... Windows 2.11, And DOS 3... hehe....

Sorry... was just being nostalgic.

Just my 2¢

"When I die, I want people to say 'There was a wise man' instead of 'Finally, his mouth is shut!'" --Me
--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[KornGeek]

Greg,

back in my day, I was programming in QuickBasic for Windows XP.

Gotta love companies who refuse to change with the times.


As far as the original topic is concerned, I would say that as a programmer, you should have a solid background in how to find and reproduce errors. This should make you a strong candidate for any testing position. Testers these days (from my experience), tend to have very little skill in these areas (because it is primarily an entry level position). This should make you quite valuable as a tester.

However, do to the vast pay difference, I would recommend marketing yourself as a programmer. If you skills in the basics of software design are solid, the nuances of learning a new language are much less significant. However, trying to convince an HR department or a hiring manager of this can be a struggle...

Above all else, know that I sympathize with you. After staying at a company for several years without exposure to the latest technology, it took my 10 months to finally find long-term employment. Good luck to you.

 

[chiph]

Microsoft has a job title called SDE-T, which is Software Development Engineer - Test. These folks write code to test the programmatic APIs that MSFT publishes. They delight in feeding bad data to the methods, trying to make them crash.

Perhaps you might want to look for a position like that?

It ought to be pretty financially rewarding -- a lot of the testers can be put in the group I call "George Jetsons" -- where if the app provides a button, they click it. And that's as deep as they get with their testing.

Companies are always looking for someone who has the ability to really get into depth with their testing (as long as they do it in an ego-less manner, and work with the dev team to get them fixed).

Chip H.


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[JD5241]

I did testing for a large data security company for 3 or 4 years. We had methodologies in place to make sure that what we tested was tested correctly and thoroughly, and detailed documentation was highly stressed. Nothing was just thrown over the wall, a button or two clicked, and the app thrown back over afterwards. Constant communication between developers, testers, and project managers was always key.

In my experience, testing is 10% actual testing, 90% environment setup, test strategy analyzation, test case writing, interaction with developers, maintenance of logged defects, documentation, reporting, and probably some other things I've missed. Your mileage may vary depending on where you work and the scope of the project.

As far as programming is concerned, I also think that would depend on what the project is. I've worked on a few where it wasn't needed at all, and some where considerable knowledge was needed. That being said, it never hurts to know as much as you can. I think anyone with a solid programming background would be a good fit for a test position. I say go for it.

"It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm wearing Milk Bone underwear." - Norm