Two different bosses want me to take me down two different and I have to decide by Tuesday

[KillBoY_UK]

Short version:

Stay under my current boss lets call them Boss "S" who is the Digital Delivery Manager, move away from testing into live ops and project management more formerly but still work with another boss "L" as they are the Test manager

Go and work under boss "L" who is the test manager for the new web plat from carrying on with earlier work on Automation testing as well as some manual, eventually going on to be a long-term contractor.

Long Version:

Some background:
I started my current job in August (after being made redundant moving from games Tech) as a "Tester" for a multinational parts manufacturer. They had no tester before and the Digital Department was understaffed (not much more than just me and my boss). So While I was meant to be more of a front-end UAT tester I ended up for bits of everything, live ops, backend systems testing etc in a completely different.

I work great with my current boss I've turned into his right-hand man when it comes to anything on the life sites and has mentioned if he ever left he want to take me with them, even there boss has been impressed.

To cut a long story short staffing was ramped up to help with a new platform in development, this included a test manager with lots of exp who started at the start of the year with this person on board and some back-end testers coming in as well (well 3) this test manager I've always seen as a sub-boss, they have seen what I have done in such a small amount of time with and been impressed. To help with the new platform I started to learn some automation testing scripts basically by myself and got the basics down.

The original idea being I would maintain and develop the automation framework that would be handed over to us by a 3rd party developer, I'll be under the test manager aka Boss L from about August onwards until the new platform is deployed on the first batch of sites, then go back to being more underboss "S" again while the rest is rolled out. Like boss S boss L also said on the QT if they left they want to take me with them. Boss "S" said to me after I learned and demonstrated my automation skills I should ask forr a salary review his idea, not mine.

However, in my one 2 one on Thursday, my boss gave me the nice curveball. Work under them move more towards Project Management as apparently he had been giving me project management work without me realizing and I've always over delivered:

Pros and Cons:
+ Its something new which people already think I can deliver on
+ I get to work with my current boss who I think I can learn a lot from and go far with over the long-term
+ I think there's more opportunity to head up the ladder so to speak
-/+ I would be moving away from testing, feeling like I'll be wasting my experience
- Its the less straightforward path
- I know less about project management, career paths, salaries
- I would need to do more formal training courses, not an idea I find fun due to my AS

The other path he laid as mentioned at to top go and work under boss "L" who is the test manager for the new web plat from carrying on with earlier work on Automation testing as well as some manual, eventually going on to be a long-term contractor.

+ I still be testing leveraging on my current experience
+ I be moving into a more "profitable" side of testing
+ More straightforward path
-/+ I still be working for an awesome boss just a different one
- Im still not 100% confident with automation scripting (a month ago I could only doo hello world, now I can pull data from excel files for the test, manage elements in secondary files so they are not hardcoded in the script etc)
- While I think I could earn more money quicker I get the feeling there's only so much I could do more chance of a dead end

Both bosses will support my decision no matter what they pick and this has already been signed off by there bosses as well so I have 2 levels of management backing me on this which is nice.

I'm leaning towards staying with my current boss and becoming more of PM/TM but I would like peoples input eps those of you who have PM experience.

There are a couple of details ive missed off but any help you can give so I make the right call would be great, any questions you want to ask please ask.






now I need to get dressed and get on with my day

 

[OspreyO]

I think there is a huge difference between someone saying you are on the PM path and putting you on it.
Is testing something you want to do as a career. I've always tried to avoid it. As people tent to keep you in that role rather than letting you progress.

I'm torn. I think new projects, platforms, get the best attention, traction. How ever it seems like a lesser role, and have less potential than your current role. That said either could be saying whatever to get a testing resource on their team.

Money talks I think in this case.

 

[ivrytwr3]

You've proved your metal and have the background knowledge and tech skills for when talking to customers. Therefore i would go for the PM side, it's a natural progression.

However, you say you have AS, are you comfortable with the customer side or do your prefer been given tasks and left to crack on as you have been?

Another concern is your level of spelling and grammar - is your post autocorrect/rush typing/AS related? If you do go PM and are dealing with senior management, clients etc although in no way does it detract from your skills, you need to up your writing skills.

 

[KillBoY_UK]

I think there is a huge difference between someone saying you are on the PM path and putting you on it.
Is testing something you want to do as a career. I've always tried to avoid it. As people tent to keep you in that role rather than letting you progress.

I'm torn. I think new projects, platforms, get the best attention, traction. How ever it seems like a lesser role, and have less potential than your current role. That said either could be saying whatever to get a testing resource on their team.

Money talks I think in this case.

While I could possible earn similar money more quickly I do see testing as abit of a dead end. Either way they are getting more testing resource (not enough though) they are just giving me the option on which way I want to go within the company as its clear they want me to stay with them. New platforms, front end work, UX work, director roles where mentioned.

 

[KillBoY_UK]

You've proved your metal and have the background knowledge and tech skills for when talking to customers. Therefore i would go for the PM side, it's a natural progression.

However, you say you have AS, are you comfortable with the customer side or do your prefer been given tasks and left to crack on as you have been?

Another concern is your level of spelling and grammar - is your post autocorrect/rush typing/AS related? If you do go PM and are dealing with senior management, clients etc although in no way does it detract from your skills, you need to up your writing skills.

I don't deal with the customers directly but I do deal with third parties (people providing development resource to use for example) and other stakeholders with the group as my company is in multiply markets from Plastic components to security and packaging.

Yes I do have AS and yes I do prefer to be given some work and told to crack on I'm not rigged. Prime example was GPDR. Me and my boss used to oversee 4 of our websites, then he (and so me) took on 16 which are on a different platform and these 16 where very very janky, all of them needed some GDPR work. The boss handed it over to me as he was swamped with other work (as was I but this took priority). Communicated with the stakeholder who was getting the translated text in, managed the off site developer in wales and Canada to put on the right pages of the right sites, I would test it and highlight any gaps (no cookie or pricey policy pages or say no cookie banners for example) and manged to get it all in on time. It was handed over to me with only 7 working days till the deadline to do it.

So I have few issues these days to talk to new people etc, I've kinda had to get over that even if I do find it some what uncomfortable.

Yes the post was a rush job, my quality of reports and written commutation at work is quite good and I have tools to help me but yes I still need to improve. My face to face / interpersonal communications have been create according to my boss feed back there has been great apparently

When I'm just posting on the internet, I kinda care abit less, as it take me about twice as long as normal to get a post just right, I might be able to read and make sense of a first draft but others might.

I am leaning much towards the Project management and beyond option.

Thank you for your input so far peeps.

 

[KillBoY_UK]

and to give some idea of how much need to be done on the sites this is one of the error messages I found last week.

https://imgur.com/a/cgmRp6P