The first few days in a job can be overwhelming. There's learning about the workplace culture, determining everyone’s role and let’s not forget all the name learning and all the other tasks without doing any of the actual job you were hired for! However before you realize it, days turn out to be weeks, weeks turn out to be months and months turn out to be years. And, of course when you reach that point, it can be easy to forget what it is like to be a fresher. Being a total newbie in the industry, I would like to share my insights of the roles and responsibilities on what it is like to start afresh in this area.
You know nothing
When I started my full-time position as a software tester, I was excited to join a dynamic, energetic team. Being an avid enthusiast for a long time, attending webinars, seminars, writing testing blogs had just increased my excitement to 2x times. I was happy to join an agile team within a global software company and help the team complete QA of their product. I had a few weeks of previous experience but this was my real entry to the world of testing.
When I started, I had taken testing training courses and read many articles online. Though it gave a huge boost to me, I quickly found that it would only be the beginning of my testing knowledge. In the first few weeks of joining, I have gained knowledge of many things such as the application I was working on, testing tools, working within an agile environment, company culture, work practices and practical testing techniques. Even though I have some years of experience of working as a testing professional, I am still in a learning phase.
Ask large number of questions
The moment I entered the company door, various questions started forming in my mind. During the induction session conducted by the HR team, many more questions trickled in. As the days passed, many started coming. Everything from “Why my system isn’t working properly”, “How shall I find the bug using a new testing tool”, “Why are we following this process”, “Is this a bug”, and the list goes on…
During these tough initial days, my mentor, my colleagues had to face the incessant thirst of my quest to get every information for my issues. I am eternally grateful to them for listening to my thoughts, queries with utmost patience. Anyone coming to become a tester should remember that - questioning and information gathering is their core role. The more you can get in the form of knowledge, upskilling, the more valuable you are to your team and the company.
Get stuck in
You can read and research various topics, ask numerous question, get professional degrees too, but at the end of the day, we will have to get your hands dirty, About 2-3 weeks of starting my work as a fresher and with the guidance of my mentor, I started writing and executing feature tests, This was very satisfying to me as I was now proving my mettle as a tester and also I was gaining huge amount of experience out of it. I also learned how to communicate my ideas to other testers, write bug reports and understand the domain I was working in. No matter how many seminars, workshops I had attended previously, the practical experience of working on an application or product is surreal.
Back yourself
One of the best things I like about my team is that I will often be asked about my opinion on some matter- “How long the work is going to take”, “What type of testing I will perform on this feature”, “how much test coverage is enough”. At first, I was surprised about being asked to bring my ideas to the table as I was far more inexperienced than my colleagues. Through these continuous process, I have learned the importance of sharing my views as I see them and pushing to get an answer to a difficult question. Also, I learnt about defending my viewpoint about the application/ product in the pursuit of higher software quality.
Have a laugh
There comes a time when you have to put your work aside and enjoy the office culture. Be a part of all the activities of the company. One of the core values of our company is to “celebrate our success”. Our culture is ‘work hard, play harder’ in style and there is always a lot of laughter, as well as board games and table tennis at lunch! Sometimes having tea/coffee with your project mates is all the therapy you need. From monthly games, engagement activities and events to potluck and team trips & dinners, I love to huddle up with my team as well as know teammates from other divisions
Training and Interactive Session
Unlearning and relearning is part of our company’s culture. Whatever we learn, needs to be shared with our team from time-to-time. You need to attend the training sessions, and conduct the training so that you can gain experience for building a long-term career and accelerating your success in your role.
What are the things to consider before we start our day?
- Work timings: What is most needed these days is flexibility. Sometimes, you are required to attend client calls at nights or early mornings depending on your client time zone. So, it is important for you to adjust your work timings accordingly to the needs of your project.
- Create a checklist: Prepare a checklist for all the tasks you have to complete for the day and assign priority so that you can start your work with higher priority items.
- Time allocation: Prepare a time allocation for each of the tasks and ensure it is completed within that time frame, without stretching your day.
- Set targets: Once you are aware of the planned tasks, set a target to what can be achieved at the end of the day.
- Set targets: Once you are aware of the planned tasks, set a target to what can be achieved at the end of the day.
- Task awareness: Know your assigned tasks for the day before you start your work.
- Prepare a note: Keep a detail of all the activities including attending team meetings, tickets solved, completed by the end of day in a separate notepad.
- Team meeting: Always attend the team meeting to understand how each person works and how you can support them and provide supervision for a few of their tasks.
As a tester, you need to be flexible to work with multiple divisions and projects. Knowing the route, its challenges will make the life of a QA tester much easier and will also streamline the software development process, thus, making it more time efficient and decreasing the time-to-market. This will contribute for the company to meet all the business requirements and function in the best possible way.
Author
Arrvind Balasubramanian
QA Analyst