Anyone about in Software Testing?

[BlindandLost]

Hi all! I’m after a bit of advice about getting into software testing and I’m hoping that there are some testers/managers/recruiters around that could share their thoughts...

First a bit of relevant background about myself: I’m currently a QA Team Leader in the games industry. I’ve worked in games for about 12 years and I’ve been a Team Leader for the last 8 years. I’ve worked in functional and online/network testing and I have a fair bit of compliance testing experience, gained mostly from online/network testing.

I’d like to make the move into testing “serious” software, but I’m finding it difficult to get anywhere. The main question I have is: How are games testers viewed in the software testing industry and would anyone consider hiring someone with my background and experience?

Is there anything I can do to give myself a better chance of getting a job? I’m looking into getting ISTQB certified (Foundation level to start with) in the near future, but is there anything else I can do?

Also, I’m not sure how to tailor my CV for a testing role. As you can imagine with the amount of time I've worked in games, everything on my CV is games related. It’s also quite heavily biased towards the extra Team Leader tasks and skills that I have and use, rather than testing. This is because the vast majority of my daily work isn’t actually testing any more. I realise I’ll probably have to aim for entry level positions, but I’m not 100% sure on what I should highlight or leave out on my CV given my current job.

Sorry for the long post. Any and all advice/ideas are welcome and will be gratefully received.

Thanks .

[BlindandLost]

Mammasaid said:

The fact that you've had QA experience in itself is a great start. I'd definitely suggest getting your ISTQB/ISEB Foundation Certificate 1st, don't bother going on a course, just teach yourself (most of it is common sense and knowing the correct terminology), then find a test centre to take the exam.

A couple of useful books (1 is enough)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Foundations-Software-Test...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1780172990/ref=pd_lpo_...

Without reading your CV, I'm not sure what I'd be able to critique it on, however I'd emphasise your experience and knowledge of different skills/toolsets AND how they helped you test in practice.

Speaking from experience as someone who only want into testing 10 years ago at the age of 37, the best skill set you need for testing is to be able to think laterally and 'outside of the box' (crap phrase I know), the ability to be an intermediary between the developers and the users/clients, i.e to translate 'Techie' to users and vice versa.

Personally, I'd not let the fact you'd been in games testing worry you, as long as you have a varied enough toolset and and an enquiring mind.

Good luck.

Thanks for the reply! I'll definitely be getting one of those textbooks and taking the exam in the near future. Was thinking of going to the BCS centre for the exam, so will most likely end up with the BCS one.

It's good to hear from someone who's made the move into testing at a similar age to me (although I'm a bit older than you were). Encourages me that it might not be too late . If you don't mind me asking, what level job did you go into? If it was entry level, were you concerned at all about your age and going for entry level jobs?

You've certainly given me some food for though regarding my CV. I do have a skills section on it, but I think it might lean too heavily on the team leader side of things, rather than testing. Maybe I've been presumptuous that the testing skills go without saying, since I'm a TL.

I know what you mean about 'thinking outside the box'. It is a crap phrase but it's certainly something that's important in games testing as well. Trying to think about what could the end user possibly do or what would happen if I tried this? Etc...

Thanks again for the reply. It's certainly started me thinking of some ways to get my CV up to scratch .

[BlindandLost]

Uncle John said:

You say "serious software testing" but you need to target an industry and being from a gaming background I can see your dilemma.

I have been involved in financial testing for 20 years now and I'm afraid I would not entertain a CV from another industry in my area.

So best advice would be to get a clear direction as to which industry you want to work in, gain some certificates (For me though the relevant experience counts over this)as you will need these so people know you are serious, and target the agencies that cater for those businesses.

Personally I'd love to work in gaming.....

Thanks for the reply! I'm not really fussed about what industry to go into to be honest. The only industry I'd already ruled out was financial testing funnily enough. I've read enough job listings to realise that's completely out of the question. Maybe it's something I do need to consider when looking for recruitment agencies. Thanks .

As for working in gaming, it's great but games QA is a very different prospect to any other form of testing really. We're definitely bottom of the food chain when it comes to development and the pay isn't great. For example, a couple of my direct reports have moved into entry level roles in security software testing and started on nearly £7000 more than I'm currently on! I tried to get into the company they moved to but their offices weren't accessible. They're not entirely sure how they got into the jobs either, so weren't much use for tips in getting into the industry either...

EDIT: Just noticed your edit about types of testing. Games testing in my current role is probably a mix of SIT and UAT, since we test all the component systems individually as well as a whole. We also test that the functionality is implemented as per its design specification. There's also a bit of network stress testing involved as well.

Edited by BlindandLost on Thursday 21st July 15:01

[BlindandLost]

Mammasaid said:

I was quite fortunate in that I was in client management when the role I was in suddenly became redundant and I was asked if I'd like to become a tester. I knew nothing about testing at this point, and was lucky to be give a couple of months to get up to speed on testing, and take the Foundation course + exam. I started as an entry level, however quickly found myself becoming a Test Manager leading a team of up to 10 testers both on and offshore. I suppose that I stood up to be counted when the previous TM found herself out of favour.

I was also very fortunate to be made redundant 15 months ago, then find a test job just 5 minutes from home for the same salary.

In terms of technical skills, everything is learn-able, even to an old codger like me, I've gone from an Unix/Oracle environment to a Visual Studio/AngularJS/C#/MS SQL Server environment and picked it up fairly easily. To be honest if most of the role is System testing, curiosity of more important, however the trend is somewhat towards automated testing, though that will never replace fully the soft skills of a human...

Thanks for that. Very interesting . I got into games testing after discovering that I hated programming at uni. It seemed that testing was the only way for me into games. As it turns out, I have a knack for breaking software . I certainly didn't think I'd still be doing it 12 years later!

Automated testing is something I have no exposure to unfortunately, as it's not a method that's often used (if at all) in publishing side QA in games. Certainly something to learn about though as there are a lot of opportunities for automation testers. I agree though, you can't replace a human tester and their innate urge to find unusual ways to break things...

Thanks to everyone for the replies so far! I think I've got a few things clear in my head now and have an idea on how to proceed from here.

[BlindandLost]

Many thanks to everyone that's replied . As a few have mentioned, getting ISTQB certified is a must. The textbook is ordered and I'll be aiming to take an exam within the next month.

Automation testing is something I need to get learning about. I hope I'd be able to get into a job and learn on the job with someone who knows what they're doing. Having said that, it can't harm to do a bit of self-tutoring and be able to talk about it in an interview...

I'm going to update my CV this weekend. As a few have said (and I knew before) that it needs to be more testing focussed instead of gaming focussed. It's not surprising it's like that as I've been in the industry for so long and applied for games jobs in that time. It needs addressing though, so I'm going to get into it this weekend and start a concerted effort to find some jobs to apply for next week.

miniman said:

Drop me over your CV. We have a number of test roles open.

james at James-Skinner dot com

You should have mail .

[BlindandLost]

sdkrc said:

Which specific industry are you hoping to get into?

Jumping between industries is absolutely possible. All depends on the hiring manager and circumstance.

I'm in investment banking and think it's very hard to get even a sniff here without some programming experience/knowledge.

Retail banks hire lots of people internally from their call centres with product knowledge.

100% you'll need the ISTQB foundation.

Thanks for the reply . I don't know which industry I'm looking to get into. I suppose I was going to look around and see what's available and what job I can get into. Having seen the requirements to get into financial software testing from numerous job adverts, I don't think that's on the cards sadly...

rustyuk said:

I think you might find standard test roles quite boring after coming from a games environment.

If you do decided to jump, go straight for a contract role you should be able to get £250 \ £300 a day without too much trouble.

Thanks for the reply . Games testing can be pretty boring as well. Trust me, you start to lose the plot when doing track tests on the same circuit for 3 days... Network disconnections can be pretty mind numbing too.

I've seen a few adverts for contract roles where the day rate is about what you've said. Definitely something I'd like to get into when I've got a bit of experience in the "serious" software testing world .