Hiccupps

Periodically I get asked for advice on getting a job in software testing with no experience as a tester. It happened again yesterday. As a hiring manager I hired many testers , some with and some without testing on their CV. What's most important to me is the way people do their work, how they think and talk about their work, and how they deal with other people around their work. But I'm probably not the hiring manager you're approaching right now, so bear in mind that the suggestions I'm making below are generic, and mine, and should be taken only to the extent you think they fit you and your situation. CV, Application Form, Cover Letter Lead with the skills you have and the value you provided by using them. Make the skills that you think are transferrable to testing most prominent on the list. Think very carefully before leading with a list of responsibilities such as "attended daily Scrum, reviewed proposals, edited the website". This says almost nothing ...

The big news in my world at the moment is that I'm leaving Linguamatics . It's a massive decision for me because I'm one of the founders and I've ploughed untold time and effort, blood, sweat, and (yes) tears into it over the years.  I realise that I'm very fortunate to even be able to contemplate leaving the company given the global situation. However, despite all that's going on and the uncertain future, now still feels like a good time to part ways, for me and for the company.  I'm immensely proud of what we've achieved at Linguamatics and what the company is set up to achieve next. My Test team have been challenging and inspiring in equal measure (if you don't like everything you say being questioned, don't  build a team of excellent testers) and I am confident they can continue to do good work without me. I also manage a small team of technical authors and I've been delighted to see what people who agree what a good job looks like and c...

As a hiring manager it'll often be days between engagements with a candidate. I am not renowned for my memory but, even if I was, it'd be hard to remember all relevant details of all relevant candidates during a recruitment drive. Over the years I've developed a way of taking notes which I find helps me to cheaply review and keep track of what I think of a candidate and why, and which gives me the data I need at each stage. When we open recruitment for a new position I'll start a new directory and each applicant will get a text file in it as I read their CV. I use very simple markup to record my thoughts into the file and to put notes for myself to pick up when I come back. I have a handful of key requirements: I want my notes on each candidate to be in one place (for ease of consumption). I want my notes across candidates to be consistent (for ease of comparison and navigation). I want my notes to be put down in real time (for efficiency). Let's have ...

So you’re thinking you might like to move into software testing? Perhaps you’re already in software and fancy a change. Perhaps you’re working in another industry and fancy a change. Perhaps you’re fresh out of college and just fancy finding a job … that you can later change. No doubt you’ve spent some time Google-wrangling and found those numerous lists of things that software testers need to be able to do, or skills that great software testers always display, or attributes that employers think that testers must have. Things like this: You shouldn’t be a tester if you don’t have attention to detail You shouldn’t be a tester if you don’t have great communication skills You shouldn’t be a tester if you’re not patient You shouldn’t be a tester if you’re not willing to learn You shouldn’t be a tester if you don’t have prioritization skills You shouldn’t be a tester if you don’t have a technical background You shouldn’t be a tester if you can’t code You shouldn’t be a tes...

There's a tester position open  at Linguamatics just now and, as I've said before  on here, this usually means a period of reflection for me. On this occasion the opening was created by someone leaving - I'm pleased to say that it was on good terms, for a really exciting opportunity, a chance to really make a difference at the new place - and so, although I wasn't looking for change, it has arrived. Again. Change. There was a time when, for me, change was also challenge. Given the choice of change or not, I would tend to prefer not. These days I like to think I'm more pragmatic. Change comes with potential costs and benefits. The skill is in taking on those changes that return the right benefits at the right costs. When change is not a choice the skill is still in trading benefits and costs, but now of the ways you can think of to implement the change. Change. My team has changed a lot in the last twelve months or so. We grew rapidly and also changed our s...

I happened across Why testers?  by Joel Spolsky at the weekend. Written back in 2010, and - if we're being sceptical - perhaps a kind of honeytrap for Fog Creek's tester recruitment process, it has some memorable lines, including: what testers are supposed to do ... is evaluate new code, find the good things, find the bad things, and give positive and negative reinforcement to the developers. Otherwise it’s depressing to be a programmer. Here I am, typing away, writing all this awesome code, and nobody cares. you really need very smart people as testers, even if they don’t have relevant experience. Many of the best testers I’ve worked with didn’t even realize they wanted to be testers until someone offered them the job. The job advert  that the post points at is still there and reinforces the focus on testing as a service to developers and the sentiments about feedback, although it looks like, these days, they do require test experience. It's...

I'm recruiting at the moment. The beer mat was something I came up with a few years ago when Linguamatics was growing quickly and we were looking for ways to promote ourselves locally. Where might we find the hip young gunslingers of the software business, I wondered? In the pub, I thought. It didn't get used in the end. I seem to remember we advertised on the packaging and serviettes of a food van near the Science Park instead. Even developers gotta eat, right? I'm recruiting at the moment. It's always a time of mixed feelings. I'm excited about the opportunity for growing and extending our team, of bringing in someone with new skills, new passions, new approaches and experiences. Someone who's going to refine and grow what we do, teach us, challenge what we do, challenge what I do, and who's going to be excited and challenged in turn by us, by our product and by the wide range of application of our testing services across the company. And...