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2015 08-06

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"How to Have an Agile QA Career" presentation at 08/06/15 East Bay Agilistry & QA Meetup in Pleasanton, CA.

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How to Have an Agile QA Career Mary Ann May-Pumphrey mam_p@yahoo.com August 6, 2015
About Me • I’m “older” • I’m not that smart • I’m not easy to get along with
So…. How have I managed to still have a full-time QA engineering job?
Mindset Tip Worry about your next job as least as much as about your current one! Jobs can disappear in a heartbeat!
Learning Tips
Learning Tip #1 Keep learning new QA tools! Almost every testing tool has a free trial of some length these days--take advantage of these to build breadth into your QA skill set.
Learning Tip #2 Find a blog on a relevant/interesting technical topic and read it every time it is updated. Sauce Labs has a very helpful blog, but there are lots of others.
Learning Tip #3 Join a Meetup in a relevant/interesting technical topic--one on Selenium, Appium, Testing, Agile, etc. There are lots of them in the Bay Area. Attend regularly! Talk to other attendees about what they do at work.
Learning Tip #4 If you find yourself without work and can afford to take a couple months off, do so! Spend at least part of the time improving your skills. If you're self- disciplined, a period of unemployment or underemployment can be a much better time to learn new things than when you have a job.
Learning Tip #5 Look at QA job openings in your geographical area often, even if you aren't "looking" at present, in order to keep abreast of what skills are needed to obtain and/or keep QA employment.
Learning Tip #6 Sign up with Utest, take some of their courses, and look for work on their Paid Projects Board.
Learning Tip #7 Become as familiar as possible with your iPhone and/or your Android, and several apps for it; mobile app testing is a very hot field right now.
Learning Tip #8 Look into online course offerings of udemy, udacity, coursera, and lynda.
Learning Tip #9 Make a resolution to do something to improve your QA status every day or every other day or every week, and stick to it!
Marketing Tips
Marketing Tip #1 Completely fill out your LinkedIn profile--photo, education, job experience, volunteer experience, everything!
Marketing Tip #2 Build out your LinkedIn Connections with people you meet in class, at Meetups, etc.
Marketing Tip #3 Join an open-source team, as a tester, writer (on the docs), or developer.
Marketing Tip #4 Locate some QA or related (web page maintenance) work for a non-profit, that will help build your resumé, your confidence, your skill set, and your LinkedIn profile.
Marketing Tip #5 Keep your resumé up to date at all times! No more than two pages! No more than 10 years' worth of experience!
Marketing Tip #6 Join a Toastmasters Club! Nothing will improve your oral communication as much as a year in a Toastmasters club, and you'll have an incredible amount of fun doing so. Your resumé and LinkedIn profile will both look great with a Toastmasters Competent Communicator Award and/or a Toastmasters Competent Leadership Award on them.
Marketing Tip #7 Start a blog on a QA topic of your choice. The posts don’t have to be about your rocket-science test automation projects! They can be reviews of books, Meetups, conferences, courses, etc.
Marketing Tip #8 Add technical "stuff" to your GitHub repo! This will show up on Google searches AND in recruiter searches.
Marketing Tip #9 Volunteer with Mozilla.
Marketing Tip #10 Do a Google "vanity search" and see how much you look like a QA professional to anyone who might be checking you out. Take steps to improve your "QA look."
Job-Hunting Tip Whenever you are asked to do an on-site interview for a QA position, be sure to prepare a presentation in advance that shows off what you can do for that specific company. Bug reports about their product, test cases for their product, screen videos of automated tests for their product, etc., can make a hugely positive impression.

More Related Content

2015 08-06

  • 1. How to Have an Agile QA Career Mary Ann May-Pumphrey mam_p@yahoo.com August 6, 2015
  • 2. About Me • I’m “older” • I’m not that smart • I’m not easy to get along with
  • 3. So…. How have I managed to still have a full-time QA engineering job?
  • 4. Mindset Tip Worry about your next job as least as much as about your current one! Jobs can disappear in a heartbeat!
  • 6. Learning Tip #1 Keep learning new QA tools! Almost every testing tool has a free trial of some length these days--take advantage of these to build breadth into your QA skill set.
  • 7. Learning Tip #2 Find a blog on a relevant/interesting technical topic and read it every time it is updated. Sauce Labs has a very helpful blog, but there are lots of others.
  • 8. Learning Tip #3 Join a Meetup in a relevant/interesting technical topic--one on Selenium, Appium, Testing, Agile, etc. There are lots of them in the Bay Area. Attend regularly! Talk to other attendees about what they do at work.
  • 9. Learning Tip #4 If you find yourself without work and can afford to take a couple months off, do so! Spend at least part of the time improving your skills. If you're self- disciplined, a period of unemployment or underemployment can be a much better time to learn new things than when you have a job.
  • 10. Learning Tip #5 Look at QA job openings in your geographical area often, even if you aren't "looking" at present, in order to keep abreast of what skills are needed to obtain and/or keep QA employment.
  • 11. Learning Tip #6 Sign up with Utest, take some of their courses, and look for work on their Paid Projects Board.
  • 12. Learning Tip #7 Become as familiar as possible with your iPhone and/or your Android, and several apps for it; mobile app testing is a very hot field right now.
  • 13. Learning Tip #8 Look into online course offerings of udemy, udacity, coursera, and lynda.
  • 14. Learning Tip #9 Make a resolution to do something to improve your QA status every day or every other day or every week, and stick to it!
  • 16. Marketing Tip #1 Completely fill out your LinkedIn profile--photo, education, job experience, volunteer experience, everything!
  • 17. Marketing Tip #2 Build out your LinkedIn Connections with people you meet in class, at Meetups, etc.
  • 18. Marketing Tip #3 Join an open-source team, as a tester, writer (on the docs), or developer.
  • 19. Marketing Tip #4 Locate some QA or related (web page maintenance) work for a non-profit, that will help build your resumé, your confidence, your skill set, and your LinkedIn profile.
  • 20. Marketing Tip #5 Keep your resumé up to date at all times! No more than two pages! No more than 10 years' worth of experience!
  • 21. Marketing Tip #6 Join a Toastmasters Club! Nothing will improve your oral communication as much as a year in a Toastmasters club, and you'll have an incredible amount of fun doing so. Your resumé and LinkedIn profile will both look great with a Toastmasters Competent Communicator Award and/or a Toastmasters Competent Leadership Award on them.
  • 22. Marketing Tip #7 Start a blog on a QA topic of your choice. The posts don’t have to be about your rocket-science test automation projects! They can be reviews of books, Meetups, conferences, courses, etc.
  • 23. Marketing Tip #8 Add technical "stuff" to your GitHub repo! This will show up on Google searches AND in recruiter searches.
  • 24. Marketing Tip #9 Volunteer with Mozilla.
  • 25. Marketing Tip #10 Do a Google "vanity search" and see how much you look like a QA professional to anyone who might be checking you out. Take steps to improve your "QA look."
  • 26. Job-Hunting Tip Whenever you are asked to do an on-site interview for a QA position, be sure to prepare a presentation in advance that shows off what you can do for that specific company. Bug reports about their product, test cases for their product, screen videos of automated tests for their product, etc., can make a hugely positive impression.