Need help in setting up career path

[san ch]

Hi

Iam working as a test engineer....i do manual testing and i learning automation as per the project requirement ........im under the dilemma of choosing a career path .i have 3 yrs exp as a test eng, i want to get into development to grow in the industry ......i dont know how to go about if it were to be a test engineer. can somebody help me what i can be in testing ?and what advantages i would have if i choose to be in testing without moving into development .......My long term goal is to get into the hierarchy of SW management .even if i move into development,As a long time goal i want to get into SW management ......not tooo much into the tecie stuff

any suggestions on this will be appreciated
Thank you for your time in advcnce
san

[peter wooster]

Originally posted by san ch:
Hi

Iam working as a test engineer....i do manual testing and i learning automation as per the project requirement ........im under the dilemma of choosing a career path .i have 3 yrs exp as a test eng, i want to get into development to grow in the industry ......i dont know how to go about if it were to be a test engineer. can somebody help me what i can be in testing ?and what advantages i would have if i choose to be in testing without moving into development .......My long term goal is to get into the hierarchy of SW management .even if i move into development,As a long time goal i want to get into SW management ......not tooo much into the tecie stuff

any suggestions on this will be appreciated
Thank you for your time in advcnce
san

If you want to be in management, stick with the testing and start working on an MBA. Then work on getting into QA management. I once worked on a UNIX project where the VP had been an OS/360 tester in a previous life.

[san ch]

hi

thank you for your reply .......i still have a small doubt can i get the mileage a developer gets ....i mean can go on par with the developer? im planning to learn development also as im interested and it would be handy right
san

[Amit Saini]

hi.
i dont know why you feel testing is inferior to development.
both are important phases in the software development lifecycle.
maybe in smaller comapnies testing is considered as an after thought but for major organizations with their own products, this is absolutely essential. my company has a team of over 100 quality engineers!

having said that, you dont want to forget your coding skills. take part in some open source project or better still, in your free time, start working on your own project. this will help you to stay in touch with development while making progress as a tester towards a management position.

hope that helps.

[san ch]

Hi amit

It is good to see your reply .......that is a very valid point i should keep in touch with development ......

my worry is i heard that during recession or a crunch time in a organization quality people are the first ppl to get laid off so that is what is my concern amit .....so iam worried abt my job

by the way which company are you woking in
thank you
san

[Amit Saini]

Hi,
Now if you're going to start talking about recession/crunch time, its a different topic altogether. All sorts of people can get laid off..developers, managers, quality, sales ..just about anyone. If you're doing good work in your company, then you have nothing to worry about. ALso, in my opinion its not good to base your career choices on short term trends like recession and boom.

I work for www.microstrategy.com, a company that makes BI/reporting tools. I'm in the QE Interfaces-Web SDK team.

All said and done, do keep your skills up to date. Give certifications, make projects at home in your free time etc. Your skill set is all that you have, so always keep it sharp !!

Good luck,
Amit

[san ch]

Hi Amit

great to hear from you. thank you for the encouraging message ......by telling to be up to date did you mean both on development and testing side im jus thinking of giving my scjp and stuff to learn and .......one doubt i always have is how do you get projects to learn you know ...im unabke to get the source of projs ...either i end up with too high fi stuff or too basic things
if you can guide me on that it would be great
basically im learning java and iam doing testing so anything related to that is cool

r you a developer in microstratagy heard that it is a great company

thank you
san

[Amit Saini]

hi,
you are going the right way by starting off with scjp. once that is done, look out for scjd. the scjd project will keep you busy for sometime. let these two certificatinos be your immediate short term goals.

i joined microstrategy a month ago and im still undergoing training on their product. they've placed me in the QE-Web SDK team. i guess i'll be doing some testing on their web api's and some customizations as well. theres some java involved as well. thats pretty much all i know right now. once my assignments start, i will know better !

amit

[K Riaz]

Originally posted by Amit Saini:
hi.
i dont know why you feel testing is inferior to development.
both are important phases in the software development lifecycle.

I disagree, I am sure most people who work in QA would quit if they were offered a development role. I know people who would and they openly admit that they use it to try to get into development. Its seems like a second class role for those not good enough to get into development. For the majority, QA is boring, tedious and repetitive. I don't blame them for wanting to change.

[Amit Saini]

hi kashif,
i will disagree with you.
it depends on the company you are working for and what importance does testing/qe/qa play in that company.

i agree, it might be monotonous at times. but so is coding.

as for it being a 'second class role', again, it depends on the company.
its tough to make generalizations like this.

-amit

[Amit Saini]

to add to my previous reply:
testing/qa/qe jobs pay just as well as any development job.

[san ch]

Hi

good to see your reply amit. thank you for sharing your exp with me.

kashif

I disagree, I am sure most people who work in QA would quit if they were offered a development role. I know people who would and they openly admit that they use it to try to get into development. Its seems like a second class role for those not good enough to get into development. For the majority, QA is boring, tedious and repetitive. I don't blame them for wanting to change.

hi kashif i admit that given a chance most ppl will go into development but as amit has told there are ppl who prefer testing also............

thank you for sharing your thought though .......r u into development?i would be happy if you can give me some suggestion as others......

Amit thank you once again for sharing your ideas
san

[Amit Saini]

np. also to add to my point, part of my job as QE also involves coding API's in java and customizing them. in fact, one part of our QE team is called the 'tools team' and they are completely into developing in house testing tools for the company in ruyb/perl/java along with regular qe work. so the mix n match never hurts.

however, id like to point out that this is only the start of my career so my experience is limited. kashif on the other hand maybe talking through years of experience, so what he says might make sense too.

anyways, i feel both coding / testing are simply paths to reach some sort of a managerial level. im sure no one wants to do either of them forever.

good luck.
amit

[san ch]

Hey amit

thank you for taking time and explaining the nature of your job.......it is cool that your programming in java .....
you r right about the point of view of kashif

it is nice to see that ppl are willing to share
bye
san

[indi bose]

Hi Guys, I am also having the same problem...am in testing for last two years and desparately want to get out of it..i think there's not much scope of rising up the corporate ladder if you are into testing....I dont know what should be my next career move...Can anyone please help ?

[Anselm Paulinus]

Hmm; different strokes for different folks; I have actually seen eople move from development to testing. Currently I have two testers on my floor who honestly told me they were developers before moving to testing. I guess for large corporations who know what they are doing; test engineers are very highly regarded but for others; the developer becomes jack of all.