- Them: Hi, what do you do?
- Me: I’m a Tester.
- Them: Manual or Automation?
- Me: Manual
- Them: Oh that’s so easy no, writing and running test cases!
- Me: Ok I work in Automation
- Them: Ohh Selenium, you write and edit automation scripts(Ctrl C + Ctrl V + Google).
This is the kind of conversation I used to have with my friends and relatives who were from the “Non-testing” background during my early days as a Tester. There was always this constant push from them to try and switch to another trending, emerging technology.
Every time we met, they used to motivate me with all job recommendations and career options.
A few years later after a lot of study and mentorship that I received, I understood that this persona of Testers exists in the industry because there are many testers who say – “I don’t enjoy my job/ The work I do is pretty easy” than the Testers who say – “I love and enjoy my job/ My job is rather tough and a difficult one”
The majority of Testers don’t enjoy Testing because of the bad testing culture that they are a part of which only discusses/focuses on test cases, scripts, pass percentage, etc.
However, times have significantly changed now. Not completely but yeah to a certain extent that the future ahead looks bright.
I have evolved as well. I love and enjoy what I do. I now address myself as a Contextual Tester. Testing is not just a Mon-Fri job for me, I enjoy Testing in my free time during weekends as well.
To all those who feel Testing is easy and anyone can do it, I want to ask a serious question – Why are you Testing?
Does your Testing address all the below mentioned issues? If yes, then welcome to the club, long live Testing.
If it’s not then you seriously need to question yourself – Are you really Testing? What for?
Recommended reading: Perfect Software and other illusions about Testing by Jerry Weinberg
If you feel the same way about Testing, do share with me your stories about/around Testing.