What Would You Say To Your Younger (Testing) Self?

[Ronan Healy]

I came across this blog post by Joel Montvelisky during the week about how he imagined an email might look like if he wrote to his younger self starting out as a tester.

It was very cute in that he said to himself: don’t be afraid to look for other testers to discuss problems and don’t be afraid to ask more and more questions of your developer.

It got me thinking, what would you say to yourself if you were just started your career in testing? Would there be areas you would tell them to get into straight away?
Or would you tell them to stay on the same path that led yo where you are now.

[Kim]

Nice find!

I really enjoyed the blog post and I would tell myself very similar things:

1. Do not keep quiet when you suspect something is wrong.
2. Ask questions all the time.
3. Get on twitter earlier and seek out other testers.
4. You are not the gatekeeper of the product.
5. Quality is a team’s responsibility not yours alone.
6. Use tools to make your life easier, even if it is just the F12 button in the browser.

And in terms of career path I would probably say to stick with it! I did a detour into sales for 2 years and I regret that! I should have stayed in testing that whole time!

[Stephen]

I must be olddddd. When I started we didn’t have Twitter. Did I just use a “When I were a lad..” sentence; definately old.
Anyway: What would I say to me when I started out?
1. You’re not alone, Testing is a profession and not just something you’ve been asked to do. Go find others and talk.
2. Tenacity is good, but get your priorities right. Find out what are other’s priorities and what they should be. Then be tenacious.
3. Don’t think like a techie, think like a user and justify your use case. Just because you think someone will, doesn’t mean they will, or won’t.
4. Remember the future. Will this work tomorrow as it worked today, will it still be valid. That goes for use cases, tests, Documentation, process, everything.
5. (and this was told to me) With everything you do, will you remember how and why in 6 months? If not be clearer in your writing. You may not be the one to repeat this or have to explain it.

[Arnold]

I would definitely say that you don’t have to take everything to heart. You need to live every day as if it were your last and don’t forget to look at the stars.

[Author]

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