In November 2018, I gave a talk at Belgrade Test Conference on 'What I wish I knew in my first year of testing'.
Here's the second post on the series with some key areas from that talk. (Here's the link to the first post on Expectations vs Reality)
This post will focus on more "accessible" ways of being involved in the testing community (i.e. not speaking at conferences or starting testing meetups/events)
How I discovered the testing community
At my first company, I worked with a few people who were involved with the testing community - it is through them I discovered it existed. There were also a few people at the company who organised a testing meetup in Wellington, New Zealand. Later my former mentor and two other women started a testing meetup in Auckland, based off the model that was done in Wellington.
Note: The meet-ups would have a 20 minute experience report (where someone shares their experience on something) and then this is followed by a facilitated discussion where everyone can share ideas with each other (not just direct questions towards the speaker).
How I have benefitted from attending meetups (and seen others benefit)
Discovery of new testing tools and how they are being used
Expand understanding of how testing is/can be done
Networking
Online forums
Next steps: How YOU can get involved with the testing community
- Look up if there is a testing meetup in your area. Chances are if there is a testing meetup in your area, they would have listed in on meetup.com (Note: a lot of meetup groups are having online meetings now because of the pandemic).
- Anything you want to know? Post a question on the Ministry of Testing discussion forum
- Join the Ministry of Testing slack channel
- Join the TestAutomationU slack channel (you'll probably benefit from joining this more if you are taking some courses on TestAutomationU. I've taken quite a few of their courses and can highly recommend them - best part: they are all free!)
I've learnt more about testing in the past four years (when I joined a company where a colleague was heavily involved with the testing community) than I did in the preceding twenty!
ReplyDeleteNice post! I found it very useful, as I'm starting my career in testing. :)
ReplyDelete