The ministry of testing have a bloggers club, and each month they post a different prompt.
This months prompt: 3 things that have helped me in my testing career.

Learning to Code

Before you continue reading, I want to make one thing clear – Testers DO NOT need to learn to code to have a successful career in software testing. However, if you want to develop automated tests, coding is an essential skill. Developing and maintaining automated tests is what I mostly do in my current job and I wouldn’t be able to do this if I didn’t know how to code.

I never intended to become an Test Automation Developer. I learnt to code at school and university, but really struggled with the most of the programming modules. Fortunately, my programming skills were sufficient enough for me to complete basic test automation tasks like running tests, investigating failures, and making simple updates to existing automated tests.

Over time, my programming skills improved and I was able to move on to more advanced tasks like developing new tests from scratch, and setting up test automation frameworks. Once I felt I had developed my programming skills enough, I decided that test automation was the career path that I wanted to follow. This led me to being offered a job which required me to develop automated tests full time.

Becoming A Software Tester

I’ve already addressed that I wouldn’t be able to do my current job without programming skills. I also would struggle to develop tests in the right way without experience as a software tester. A test automation developer needs a developers skillset and a testers mindset to succeed in developing useful and reliable automated tests. To develop automated tests in the first place, you need software development skills. To develop automated tests well, you need a software testing mindset – and you cannot develop a mindset without having actual relevant experience in that field.

Building Tool Awareness

It is my belief that the most important skill you can have is the ability to adapt. Throughout your career, you may move to different jobs and organisations. Even if you stay in the same job for 20 years, you are likely to move to different teams within that organisation. Each team will have a different way of working and will often use different tools in different ways to support their work. Having at least a basic awareness of all different available tools can make the transition from one team to another a lot more seamless.

Basic tool awareness has been useful in helping me apply for jobs. In job interviews, it is common for the interviewer to describe the job and mention what tools they use. Demonstrating your knowledge of the tool can really help you stand out among other candidates. Even if you’ve never used the tool before, being able to compare it to similar tools and discuss your experience using alternative tools will still impress most hiring managers.

Some other things that helped my career

  • Becoming More Involved In Testing Communities
  • Attending conferences and meetups
  • Speaking at conferences and meetups
  • Helping and supporting colleagues
  • General Learning
  • Practicing programming
  • Learning new programming languages

Further Reading

Bloggers Club June 2022 – 3 things that have helped me in my testing career
A link to the discussion in the Ministry of Testing Club. See what else people have posted in response to this months bloggers club prompt.

Other contributions

  • Mike Harris
    • The Testing Community
    • Continual Learning
    • Great Colleagues
  • Mirza Sisic
    • Building relationships with the people I work with
    • Learning continuously
    • Community involvement
  • Aaron Flynn
    • Version Control
    • Remote working and events
    • People (Community)
  • Hebatalla Elsayed
    • Conferences and the Testing Community
    • Collecting material and personal templates
    • Keeping work logs