How do I avoid getting stuck in a testing position for the rest of my career?

Question

First, some background: I am currently in school studying computer science. I will be starting my third year of classes this spring semester. Right now, I am wrapping up a 7 month internship where I have been doing automated UI testing using selenium. This has been my only real-world work experience related to computer science. A little over a month ago, there was a career fair at my school where I went to try and lock down an internship for this summer. I talked to a number of companies, and the majority were very excited to see that I had testing experience. All of the companies that showed serious interest in me zeroed in on the testing bit on my resume and said that they will forward me along to their QA department. Sure, that's great, good testers are hard to come by. The issue is, though, that I don't really like software testing. I happen to be pretty good at it, but it is definitely not something that I want to devote my life to. My true passion lies in development, in creating things.

Just yesterday, I had four hours of phone interviews with two of the companies that I talked to at the career fair for testing/automation internships for this summer. They all fired questions at me about testing methodologies and frameworks, which I feel like I handled pretty deftly. Both of them also asked me where I see myself five or ten years down the line. I answered them both honestly: I see myself in a development position. I probably won't want to be in testing at that point in my career.

Today, I got an email from one of the companies. It said, in a nutshell, that they aren't going to make me an offer because they are looking for someone with a "stronger long-term interest in pursuing testing automation." This brings me to my question: how do I get out of this testing rut? How do I get companies to see past the testing experience on my resume and consider me for development? I wouldn't mind doing another internship in automation for a summer or two, if that is the only offer that I get (I can't afford to just not work over the summer), but I am worried that if I accept another testing position it will only serve to further stratify my resume and doom me to lifetime of testing.

Answer 1

how do I get out of this testing rut?

By being open and explicit that you don't want to do testing for a living. It might be better phrased as "does not play to my strengths creating things" or something positive (since development requires a bit of testing).

But you're right that testers, especially testers with some programming skill are in high demand. And you're right that by doing more testing work you're only digging yourself a deeper hole.

You can tailor your resume/portfolio to emphasize the developer side of your experience/skills. You can apply directly for developer positions.

In the end though, it's up to you not to settle for doing something you know will dread. Nobody can make you do it if you don't want to.

Answer 2

how do I get out of this testing rut? How do I get companies to see past the testing experience on my resume and consider me for development?

First, take control of your employment. Apply only for development jobs. If you are approached by potential employers, make sure they are interviewing you for a development position and not a testing automation position. Make sure they know that, while you have some testing automation experience, this is not where you want to work. When you start an interview, politely ask the titles of those interviewing you. If they both are QA managers, you may want reiterate your desired role.

Second, get some development experience on your CV. Internships are not the only way. For example:

1. If you want to get into mobile or tablet development, write a mobile app that you or someone you know will use. It does not matter what it actually does, as long as you can talk intelligently about the design and challenges you over came. The rules apply if you want to write websites, java apps, embedded software or whatever. Writing something and make it publicly available or open source the code (e.g. on github).
2. Create a blog on your favorite programming languages, tools or libraries. Do not worry about who else is doing it or whether your blog will suck. Go for quality over quantity and learn as you go. Participate in online forums or discussions, too.
3. Contribute to open source. Start small and make sure to read and guidelines the maintainers write. Alternatively, write some documents or samples (since open source developers are generally bad at this and are happy for someone else to do it).
4. Answer questions on Stack Overflow (or other prominent sites). It took me a less than a week to go from nothing to 1K rep (see my blog post at http://randomactsofarchitecture.com/2012/09/10/a-glimpse-at-stack-overflow/) and, while I code less now, throwing out a modest Stack Overflow rep gives me some credibility every now and then.

Once you have this, you can de-emphasize (or even remove) your testing automation experience.

Third, do well at school. This may be assumed but good marks help. Get to know your teachers as they may help open doors for you, too.

Fourth, have patience. Most people get rejected a few times before they are offered a job. You are likely to have a similar experience.

If worst comes to worst and you have to take a testing automation internship over summer, that is OK, too. Some experience is better than no experience in an employer's eyes. For example:

1. If you are using Selenium, volunteer to improve and submit bug fixes to Selenium to turn it more into a coding experience.
2. Volunteer to be a scrum leader or help out with non-QA aspects. This will give you more exposure to the broader development process.
3. If you find bugs in the code, give yourself five minutes to see if you can fix the code. If so, send the code along with the ticket. Ask if you can pair with the developer when he or she makes the fix. The worst they can say is "no".

Answer 3

You mentioned that you're looking for a position in development. I assume this means software or web development. Well, what have you already done?

There are two big things that can attract employers:

• Education related to the field
• A portfolio of relevant work

If all you have going for you is testing experience, then naturally the positions you're going to be considered for are going to be testing-related. You need more than that.

Most companies are not going to train you from the ground-up if you have zero experience in that area. Even as an intern, you're going to need relevant skills in the area that they're looking for. So figure out what kind of development you want to do, and get serious about it.

Remember as well that a portfolio is everything, even with a degree. If you can show off something that you did, that shows a company both your skill and dedication to that area of work. This includes projects that you took part of in class, as well as any work you did on your own time. Try coming up with code samples or even full projects that you believe represents your work and show them off. The more visibility you give to your development work, the less you rely on your resume full of testing work.

Answer 4

As others suggest, apply for dev roles and present yourself as a developer.

Treat your testing experience as an aspect of your development knowledge. It's something that sets you apart from other developers, so sell it that way.

Indeed testing is a particularly valuable development specialization, especially where teams use agile, continuous delivery, etc. I know great developers from test backgrounds.

Answer 5

How do I avoid getting stuck in a testing position for the rest of my career?

Your first step is to stop applying for testing positions. If you want to be a developer, start applying for development positions instead.

I run QA at my company. When I hire interns, it's a short-term position. Since almost no colleges actually teach testing, I am forced to accept folks without any testing background at all and teach them enough to be productive for a while. Your resume might make you appealing for such a position.

But your lack of desire to be a professional tester also means I would never hire you for a full time position. Good testers want to be testers. I can't afford to hire people who will be unhappy in short order.

If you don't want to be a tester, apply for non-testing positions. Stop taking the easy route just because you happen to have Selenium on your resume. Instead, apply for positions that might make you stretch a bit more, but will actually take you down the path a bit to what you really want.

I wouldn't mind doing another internship in automation for a summer or two, if that is the only offer that I get

If that's truly the only offer you can get, then you must be missing something that makes you qualified for other positions. You need to look at your resume, hear what kind of responses you are getting for non-testing interviews, and fill in whatever is missing.