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.

Work experience...

Hi everyone,

Currently, I am testing four projects at a time, being a fresher I never believed myself that I can perform well in this kind of situation or handle so much of pressure at a time but, some time I think is it correct to do this kind of experiment.
I can say it’s an experiment to test my ability, to test my performance, to test my testability and there are many a things to be tested in a tester.

While doing this experiment I learnt a lesson which left me with a moral and a question for me, I really don’t know which one to accept as a question or moral, I cannot make up my mind.
This moral and a question was in form of a sentence which as follow,
Question --> Test plan and implementing on this test plan are two different things
Moral --> Planning and working are inversely proportional to each other

With the following example I have concluded my question and my moral from the above two sentences.
For ex. When we finish a round of testing and revert back to test plan to check the nos. reports to be produce for the client, at this point of time a question comes to your mind,
“Making a test plan and implementing on this test plan are these two different things?”

When we plan our testing criteria (a type of testing enforced on a module) and when we produce a conclusion through planned criteria. This conclusion turns up to be some thing different which we had never thought off. “Planning and working are inversely proportional to each other”

This is what I have concluded but, there are many time where I find my moral as a question and my question as my moral.

Getting into deeper sections, I found some thing very common in these two things (my moral and my conclusion) that is “ Mentality ” the state of mind, the way you look at software’s, the way you approach a software, the way you bug yourself to find a bug in a software. On different stages of software development different direction / dimension is needed and we testers are not responsible for the change in method of testing it’s the product which demands proper attention from all direction. Yes, we testers are responsible for the mentality we carry while testing particular software. We being the first user for the newly build software it’s our responsibility to modify or be flexible to fit in as per customer’s requirement, as per user requirement, as per developers requirement.
I don’t want to get into the fight of developer VS testers instead just think after the PM (project manager) we should have the art of getting our bugs fixed.

Searching The Meaning Of Software Testing

Software testing …
1. Who is a software tester?
2. Why do we need software tester?
3. What make a good software tester?
4. What does software testing stand for?
5. What is the definition of software testing?
6. Why do people take up software testing as a career?

Answering these questions is not an easy task because answers to these questions are very controversial and very debatable but, one can surely get an answer to these questions only if YOU keep Yourself in center of these questions.

1. Am I a software tester?
2. Why am I a Software tester?
3. Does my work speak for me?
4. What qualities made me a tester?
5. Do I learn from my work?
6. Is testing the best job for me?

When you answer these questions, you’ll get the real motive of software testing. When I answer to these questions I got an answer for a question what is software testing?

“Software testing is an experimental process, in search of quality.”

I understand that quality cannot be measured but, by quality I mean the level of customer/client satisfaction.
As we know the requirements are a never ending story, in this case testers are responsible to bring a standard level for a product by understanding and questioning the product.
It’s good to have a definition of your own but, you got to believe and understand the real motive of software testing.
I believe & accept Dr. Cem Kaner’s definition as a motive of software testing which says “Software testing is a technical investigation for the purpose of revealing the quality of a software product on behalf of stakeholders.”

It’s not wrong if I say, testers are critics for software because they are the one who forms and expresses judgments on a product or truth of a matter.

Even though, we add value to a product we get to hear questions like this,
Why do we need tester?
Being a tester we play one of the crucial roles in building software then too they ask,
Why have you chosen testing as a profession?

As we know, each and every one in this world some how play a role of tester but, yet we don’t have the definition which explains what testing is all about?