Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Finding A Way For Fresh Testers.

Following post is my experience of being a tester from a different field.

Being a Tester is not an easy job, as you know I am some one who is not from a technical background but, forced my self to be a tester just because this is some thing which I want to keep doing till the last date of my retirement.

But things are not working out, just because of a tag called “Fresher”. I was lucky to pursue a job as a tester at a right time, even though I can feel the heat of this word “Fresher”.

What can tester do, to get rid of this word “Fresher”? Why we have to stick to one job to remove this tag? Can’t we act practically? Sticking to one company doing same job, day in and day out does it make any sense?

Sitting in an office and finding error in software’s is not everything that a tester needs. He needs knowledge lots of knowledge, he has to be competitive, self motivating, sharp, should have a different views, many more qualities are needed since testers are a different creature on this world.

In today’s world everyone needs an experienced tester but, what about the fresh ones?

Aren’t they important? Can’t they be an asset for you? What should a fresh tester do to survive?

Oh come on! Don’t think about becoming a freelancer, I really don’t understand why people become a freelancer, why to work free for something which you are good at. I understand being a freelancer can add values to your work, might give you fame but after that, if your lucky then you’ll get a job or else continue being a freelancer. Does that make sense? I don’t think so?



Oh come on! Don’t think about uTest or some similar sites, what I have experienced being true on this kind of sites might not land you anywhere. I made a profile with the status of beginner and tried to find some ‘releases’ guess what no releases for fresh one on the same time I logged in from a different user Id which had a status of an expert, now guess what 15 projects on release option waiting to be tested. Does this sound good?

MORAL -- Never be true with your experiences is it?

In my early days I met one of the testing extremist Mr. Pradeep Soundararajan I really appreciate his work for the testing community. He is one of those personalities which is self motivated as well as motivates others unknowingly.

I got an opportunity to be one of the participants of BWST-1 where knowledge was in tons (hope you have read my earlier post on BWST).

BWST motivated a lot but, that didn’t last for too long. June 13th I was hit by a reality that company is trying to slash some nos. of head count. Now obviously, being a fresh new bee the sword was hanging on me too. Some how first week went off (after 13thJune), there was news from other departments. Finally, on 25th June I got a call from my chief (PM). He discussed about the several change to bring in our testing team and spoke about discarding jobs but, some how I managed to save my tail my asking him to work more efficiently as well as handle client. I really thank God to save me this time.

Then after, my learning got diminished day by day, my thoughts are put into a cage. No time to explorer new things, and unfortunately I have to blame time for this.

We fresher need practical knowledge, one to guide us with the do’s and do not’s.
Please share, if there is any institute or organization which provides real time experience in testing for freshers.

2 comments:

  1. What does the 'knowledge' says?
    What does an 'experience' says?
    What does the 'fresher' says?

    Shikhar Singh, every one of us are freshers in what ever it is for the every moment we establish. But we don't identify that we are all freshers for all time. I identify this with the principle 'known unknown certainty' which I taught and learning for myself.

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  2. @ Learning--
    My Knowledge says, if no one needs a fresher then who am I for and if everyone needs an experienced tester then who needs a fresh tester.

    My Experience says, is it worth full to be honest. (Above Utest example)

    And a fresher says, am I gone be fresher for all my life.

    I agree with your theory of 'known unknown certainty' and I have to accept this even though my fresher mind doesn't want to. This post is just a different way of looking onto fresher world and the pressure felt by them.

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