QA Software Tester - Anyone do this?

-Mike-

-Mike-

-Mike-

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Hey,

Doing the usual yearly job search and came across the above position advertised. They invite you to apply with no experience and so am considering sending my C.V in.

Most of my work is hardware based but I quite fancy a change and am looking for something a bit more challenging.

Can anyone enlighten me as to what the job might entail?

Thanks
 
Software testing is no fun. I know some people that test games. You might think it is fun but it really isn't it.

Analogy one friend told me:
Imagine a racing game, rather than race around the track having fun you have to do the completed opposite, going all over the course doing unprecedented stuff. Each tester normally has a tiny small part of the game to test which they non stop test for a couple of months.

Doesn't sound fun to me. However this is the standard for QA in the game industry, not sure about other software testing but I'm sure it is similarly gruelling.
 
are you interested in meeting like minded guys?



the testers in my place are responsible for writing and updating regression tests and making regression history available to developers.
 
Boring long test / regression plans and tick boxes. Go through them each time a new version of software is released or something that might affect it is implemented.

Boring, monotonous rubbish :p
 
Men testing is no fun. I know some people that test women. You might think it is fun but it really isn't it.

Analogy one friend told me:
Imagine a racing game, rather than race around the track having fun you have to do the completed opposite, going all over the course doing unprecedented stuff. Each tester normally has a tiny small part of the game to test which they non stop test for a couple of months.

Doesn't sound fun to me. However this is the standard for QA in the game industry, not sure about other software testing but I'm sure it is similarly gruelling, even if you're a hot male in his early 20's, even late 20's, call me.
 
I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about good sir ;)

Sounds like the kind of job that would get boring very quickly! Perhaps it would be a bad move to apply and abandon ship then :)
 
QA testing could be development testing, update testing or problem testing.

I've done the problem testing before, users send bugs in, I recreated them, passed to relevant dev team, they fix and send it back, I try again.

It's boring, games testing is even worse.

However, it's a foot in the door to a development company, and that's why many do it. It is not a career, just a way in. You learn the software, the way things work and then start looking at moving to another department after a year. It's not ideal, but if you've no development experience, then it may be the only way.
 
kitkat9933 said:
Software testing is no fun. I know some people that test games. You might think it is fun but it really isn't it.

Analogy one friend told me:
Imagine a racing game, rather than race around the track having fun you have to do the completed opposite, going all over the course doing unprecedented stuff. Each tester normally has a tiny small part of the game to test which they non stop test for a couple of months.

Doesn't sound fun to me. However this is the standard for QA in the game industry, not sure about other software testing but I'm sure it is similarly gruelling.
Click to expand...

Software testing is very different to games testing. I'm a software tester in a games company but don't test any of the actual games, instead I work on all the account management systems, billing systems, etc. You couldn't pay me enough to want to do games testing (slightly ironic given salaries for games testers are a lot lower than those for software testers).

Software testing can be fairly technical, bordering on a junior developer role at times depending on how much automated and white box (where the tester can see the code) testing they are involved in. You may also need to develop test harnesses to test individual components in isolation, setup and tear down databases and configure test environments.

Done properly, there is a lot more to the job than simply designing and running tests. A lot of it is about communication, making sure the developers interpretation of the requirements matches that of the users or advising on the risks associated with any defects or change requests. In many cases we are required to act as proxies for end users so it is important to understand how they use the product to, for example, explain to a designer why their wonderfully pretty interface may not be particularly intuitive for the people who are going to use it.

A lot of the day to day work does come down to designing and running tests, but it shouldn't be any more tedious than designing the software in the first place. Good test design requires a lot of creative thinking, it isn't simply entering the numbers 1 - 100 in a box and hitting enter. Simple test design techniques allow you to reduce the mundane stuff down to a small number of tests allowing you to spend more time looking for buffer overflows, code injection vulnerabilities or performance issues.

How enjoyable to job is likely to be will likely come down to the product(s) and the companies attitude to the importance of testing. If it's seen as a formality or something that can be crammed in a day or two before launch, run away.
 
This is what I do OP, whilst not amazingly interesting sometimes (regression as morba has pointed out), it's great learning new technologies and it pays me well.

That said, I want to make test manager this year but having the tester experience is priceless.

Edit: wow, amazed so many people have a negative opinion of this job role, lol.
 
Depends on the team you will be working on.

You might end up learning lots of new technologies and skills to develop complex and comprehensive automated tests that could be invaluable to software development to maintain product quality.

On the other hand, you could end up doing lots of boring manual testing which may not be challenging, and will not develop you. e.g. clicking around a GUI to test a feature.
 
AHarvey said:
I've done the problem testing before, users send bugs in, I recreated them, passed to relevant dev team, they fix and send it back, I try again.
Click to expand...

That would be a 2nd line client services/support role at my place.

However, it's a foot in the door to a development company, and that's why many do it. It is not a career, just a way in. You learn the software, the way things work and then start looking at moving to another department after a year. It's not ideal, but if you've no development experience, then it may be the only way.
Click to expand...

^^^ this is the main point - QA is generally a team within R&D - where I work they run lots of regression tests on new releases, occasionally some of them will get involved in big projects too. Its not particularly interesting but you're often within the R&D headcount already so if you can work hard over a year or two there shouldn't be too many hurdles in the way of moving to another dev related role.

Main thing is it gives you some exposure to the technologies used, some exposure to the business area and you'll be interacting with devlopers, BAs, dev managers etc... if you're interested in software and do well in that sort of role then it can certainly act as a stepping stone to other roles (which might not currently be available to you due to lack of relevant experience).
 
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