Professional testing is a career path that is often overlooked, yet it provides skills that open broader opportunities and foundational skills you can take anywhere in your IT (Information Technology) career. In this article, testing veteran Greer Gavin discusses the changing nature of a tester and explores how working within a practice enables a fulfilling career in IT.
What does a professional tester do and how is this changing?
The definition of what a tester is changing and ever evolving. Both, in how they work, and the skills required to be successful. That’s because technology and practice change constantly.
Today, a tester is not limited in their career options. They can either take the traditional ‘OG’ career path in manual testing or test automation – meaning they use either manual methodologies or automated technology to find problems during the production of products or projects. Alternatively, they can utilise the skills they develop as a tester, to move in and out to other areas of IT. This could be in UX design/ management, engineer monitoring, an agile coach, delivery manager or even a practice lead. This ability to choose a varied career path is pronounced when you work within a practice, as you can develop within the firm’s other practices.
Testing is also more integrated in the IT lifecycle which has resulted in changes to project structures. In a more Agile world testing isn’t a standalone role anymore. Agile environments see testers embedded into a squad. Agile project environments also mean not all organisation’s still have the traditional role of a test manager. That’s because the teams are working in squads and they’re iteratively developing software, whereas test managers tend to be more project and program centric.
In terms of competitiveness, the testing market is being offshored. This means Australian-based testers need to find ‘their special sauce.’ An ideal candidate should work on broadening experience and specialised knowledge to set themselves apart part.
The best tester has a diverse range of skills from working across multiple organisations and projects – whilst at the same time they are building domain knowledge. Working within a practice allows you to build these critical skills.
What should be in the Tester’s skill toolbox? You can read more in our article, ‘what makes a good tester.’
Why would you choose a testing career path and what are the opportunities?
There are so many career pathways for a tester. That’s because, at each stage of the testers career development, you are building transferable skills. This means there are varying entry and exit points into and out of testing across your career. We have depicted this on the infographic we created ‘the life as a tester.’
Want to take a closer look at our gamified testing career path? Download it here
In terms of choosing testing as a career path – for new graduates we ask them to consider a testing in career – it’s not something they typically think about as it’s not really taught in a degree. For Avocado, starting out as a tester you don’t need experience – you just need passion and a willingness to learn. We also promote life-long learning; currently Avocado is working through a career path for testers in line with the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA).
For our professional testers, we encourage them to think broadly about what their ambitions are. This could be to remain in testing, or it may be us supporting them on a different career path, such as in our engineering practice.
Overall, we want our people to be the best they can be. As a practice, we are always looking at how well do we differentiate our people. We are asking them to think about their ‘special sauce’.
How can a tester remain competitive and develop their ‘special sauce?
It is a competitive world out there; you need to be doing something to differentiate yourself. To develop your special sauce, we see two avenues for a tester – technical ability, or industry domain knowledge.
When we talk about technical ability, we are talking about the technical knowledge you have. For example, do you have an exceptional ability to learn new texts quickly? Or can you put personal effort into really uplifting yourself by demonstrating how dedicated you are to learn? Such as spending your spare time learning Python.
When we talk about industry or domain knowledge, it’s about becoming strong in a sector vertical that you operate within. For example, understanding the superannuation system, or payments in financial services. Or you may want to be a telecommunications expert. Having a knowledge of sector allow you to understand the ‘gotchas’ and pitfalls of testing in these sectors. In saying this, with deep domain knowledge, you may not need to know how to be a programmer and know five languages, but you should know how code is constructed, and you should know the key words.
Overall, when you think about developing your career and your skills, you don’t have to take the technical route, but you need to then think about the other special sauce you can bring to the table.
Where should a tester be looking to gain domain knowledge?
It really depends a little bit on where the demand is. As a start, I’d be looking at where you can use specific domain knowledge to Australia.
From a learning curve perspective, lots of companies have offshored their testing already, so having Australian sector knowledge can set you apart. This may be understanding how superannuation works in Australia. It’s quite different and in fact, doesn’t exist in other countries – therefore, this understanding of the Australian Super system will set you apart from a person being offshored.
Will automation kill the career of a tester?
In my view, the proliferation of automation tools and automation testing only enhances the role of a tester. While there may changes in the way a tester works, shorter release cycles and innovative technologies to learn – this is true for every career being disrupted by tech. There is still a need and valid place for testers, specifically to bring that human side and ask why?
As Angie Jones, a renowned speaker on the topic of automation, who is a senior Software Engineer in Test at Twitter and who has developed automation strategies and frameworks for countless software products agrees. Quoted as saying:
“Automated scripts are checking known paths for expected results. That’s not truly testing. Testers discover the unknown, and this skill is still very much so needed, whether there’s automation or not. Without human intuitive exploration, a team may be blind to their most expensive bugs.”
As we head into a new era of testing, the pathways for a tester remain exciting and ever evolving. If you are interested in learning more about a career in testing – whether starting out, or an IT professional. Reach out to our team.
Our graduate intake for tester’s is now open, view the opportunity here: https://lnkd.in/gDmfYXgi
