Software testing as a career

HI friends, 

    We will take a quick look on software testing field, how u can career in this field.

                   The demand of software testers and mainly experienced testers is increasing year by year. Since testing is not dependent on any technology you always have some opening in testing. Also these days big companies are not giving project if you do not have a strong QA department. But having said that you still need to be very proactive and learn new tools and technology to grow your skills. But I guess that is part of all the IT jobs.

According to my knowledge:

• Career in software testing has a great future. It is growing significantly in India. The reason being outsourcing of testing jobs is easier than development jobs to some extent.
• Testing is also a concept and not dependent on any kind of technology so as you work in more and more projects your market value will increase. It does not depend on Java, .net etc.
• In terms if growth in software testing career you can become a tester to test lead to test manager and from there to project manager. I have seen this growth path n number of time in my 14 years of testing career.
• On site opportunity: well, as a manual tester this is something limited. However, if you learn some niche skills in testing such as automation, performance testing, back end mainframe testing, then there are lots of onsite opportunities.
• Salary of a tester: there is a myth that salary of a tester is less than that of a developer and believe me people are just lying to you. There is no such thing. Based on your position and experience and of course negotiation skill that vary.
• Skill upgrade: there will be lot of skill upgrade as u will change your domain

                    Regarding career path, there are several levels of software testing depending on acumen. Of course there are entry-level software testing positions. But those that wish to maximize their career as a will want to not only possess expert software testing skills, but seek some programming skills to take full advantage of advanced testing tools that exist today. The Test Manager position would be the next progression leap, requiring a focus on somewhat different skill sets.

                    In software testing field, ur career can grow in following ways

• Test Manager path
• Test architect path
• Test Manager to Project manager
• Test Manager to Director Testing
• Test Manager to Sector head testing

 I tried to cover the things, best of my knowledge, if u have any point extra, u can suggest me

Mainframe feature for students

Hello friends….

      Worried @ your career?  I can suggest one good option, not good according to me it’s a best, ….that is MAINFRAME .

                    After the event like 9/11, it is very important for all organizations so keep their data safe, specially its challenge in front of bank & trade centers.  Most of the organizations, not most I can say almost all,  are maintaining their data in mainframe.  If we are talking about all world data then “More than 70 percent of the world’s data still resides on mainframes. The market is growing in terms of revamping the older mainframes and adding new features and software to the oldies. Also, the new mainframes are smaller, cheaper, more powerful and e-business ready, so the market is growing steadily.”

            Now for maintaining this data, it is very important to find mainframe skilled workers in feature.  As I mentioned in one of my last post that about 70 to 80% mainframe workers are going to retire in next 5 years. So its again very big challenge for IT firms like IBM, HP etc to find the new skilled individuals. By keeping this thing in mind, IBM has  already taken few steps for this.

     IBM is now working with over 250 universities around the world to provide mainframe courses. The help comes in:

• The creation of course material covering all the basics including ISPF, JCL, VSAM and Assembler, that all go back to the original 360 days, as well as the slightly newer z/VM, CICS and DB2 and finally the newer boy on the block, Linux.
• The provision of mainframe resources either on the campus or as a shared worldwide resource so that student can try it for real and begin to understand the power and complexity of the environment.
• Internships of six months or a year in IBM as part of a university course.

                          In India also, IBM have Mainframe labs in some of the top engineering institutes & universities. The only thing is that, it will be little costly, because mainframe ID cost very huge per hour.

        

         So frnds….start thinking about your career, take the right steps from today………good luck.