Are you looking to hire or get hired? Looking for a new career or position in Software Testing? Looking to improve interviewing skills or your personal development?
TestBash Careers will help you achieve those goals!
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What Happened
Select a session to learn more about it.
Tip on How to Market Yourself Better as a Software Tester: Content Creation
What
TalkTopics
Description
A brief overview of my tips on how to market yourself better as a Software Tester, and a few words about myself followed by tips on how content creation can help you in marketing yourself better, as a software tester.
Learning Outcomes
- Prioritise to put yourself out there with content creation
- Recognise how blogging can help
- Recognise how video tutorial creation can help
- Recognise how podcast creation can help
Speaker
Getting Back on the Horse After 10 Rejections
What
TalkTopics
Description
I was jobless for 6 months. Not by choice but by fate. Updating your CV and interviewing when you are not mentally prepared to do so is a very difficult situation to go through.
One would think that the current market is the candidate’s market, so why didn’t I have a job for 6 months? I went through a lot of interviews. And with each interview, I started losing hope in my skill-set. This happened not because I wasn’t doing well. I was continuously told that they really liked you, BUT… and nothing.
I still don’t have useful feedback on why I got rejected 10 times. I even started questioning whether I want to be associated with the tech industry. A part of me also started thinking that I am being put forward only because I am a ‘diverse’ candidate. Turns out, it only took one person to give me a job offer during my first interview with them. They saw my strengths which was a great morale boost.
However, my imposter syndrome had settled in nicely during these 6 months. So how do I learn to ride the waves again? This is where my previous career and life coaching sessions helped tremendously. In this session, I want to share how we can continue to learn from every interview rejection. And how we can use some help from mentors and coaches to keep our heads high.
Learning Outcomes
- Rejection is not always a bad thing
- Having career goals helps to overcome the feeling of being stuck
- It is actually not difficult to start riding the horse which you have ridden before. It’s just muscle memory
Speaker
Be More Pirate by Sam Conniff Allende
What
Book SuggestionTopics
Description
In this session, Lee Marshall, aka 'The Pirate Tester' talks about the book 'Be More Pirate' by Sam Conniff Allende and how it has helped him with his career.
Speaker
Ask Me Anything with Srinivas Murthy
What
AmaTopics
Description
Srinivas Murthy works as a Principal Consultant for more than 14 years across various industries, domains, cultures and regions. Through these various roles, Srinivas has a strong influence on where the QA community can be taken to within the organisation at a global level and is hoping to share some of this knowledge with people outside the organisation and hopefully help people make an impact.
In this session, hosted by the great Vernon Richards, Srinivas will be answering questions about Careers, from our attendees live on the Main Stage.
Learning Outcomes
- Confidence about growing in their careers, attending interviews and performance reviews
Speaker
Tip on How to Market Yourself Better as a Software Tester: Public Speaking
What
TalkTopics
Description
This session will focus on leveraging public speaking to your benefit. We will cover community meetups, user groups, workshops and conferences.
Learning Outcomes
- Identify the benefit of meetups and user groups
- Identify benefits of conferences & workshops
Speaker
Tip on How to Market Yourself Better as a Software Tester: Social Media
What
TalkTopics
Description
Now we will cover how to use social media to your benefit, to become more visible to the recruiters, build up your online presence and reputation and the social aspect of your GitHub profile.
Learning Outcomes
- Identify benefits of social media, such as LinkedIn
- Identify the social media aspect of GitHub
Speaker
Lessons From Both Sides of the Interview Table
What
TalkTopics
Description
Over my 15 years plus career, I have learnt many lessons from both sides of the interview table.
Whether you are looking for your first testing role or looking for your next opportunity this talk is packed with real-world interview experiences and lessons you can apply.
Learning Outcomes
- How to navigate the entire interview process
- How to create great resumes and cover letters
- Tips for standing out from other candidates
- How to prepare for the interview and what to do during the interview
- How to approach technical interviews
- Negotiating the optimum offer
Speaker
How Come No One Told Me That? by Prakash Iyer
What
Book SuggestionTopics
Description
A great many self-improvement books exist that claim that they can change your life. Yet stories and real-life observations are what make us better human beings and can help us advance in our careers and enrich our lives.
This book by Prakash Iyer has nudged me to unlearn, relearn, and reflect. I now understand the importance of taking action to boost my career.
I will cover some insights from this book during this talk.
Speaker
The Most “Valuable” Talk Ever?
What
TalkTopics
Description
VALUE!
How often do you look at the "Value" of your work? Do you evaluate the Value of what you are doing, before, during, and (importantly!) after you do it? Do you understand your Value to your business, your department, your team, your career and even to your daily life?
This talk will teach you about "Value", from my perspective as a hiring manager and an engineering professional.
What do I look for in the candidates I interview, and how can you "sell" your Value to a potential employer to show what you bring to a business?
You can start right now to track the Value you generate each day, building-up a wealth of real-world examples that you can use to talk confidently in your career growth conversations, in interview settings, and even at conferences with peers.
By sharing my own experiences and anecdotes from a 19 year career in engineering, testing, quality and leadership, I will paint high-level pictures of some of the responsibilities I had, for you to map to your own experiences and spot the (often hidden!) opportunities to generate Value.
Come and listen to the strategies that I have used as an employee that helped me understand the context and scope of my work and team, which then helped me to start understanding how I could generate Value in that role, and how I used that to drive my career growth?
Stories like:
- How thinking about Value helped me get promoted to a "team trainer" a year into my career.
- How using Value helped me to move from a product team I didn't want to be on, to one that I did!
- How I used Value to persuade my employer to fund a 4 day training course to further my career.
- And many more similar Valuable (hah!) stories for you to think about how you too can tap into Value
Learning Outcomes
- Understand different roles and responsibilities, and have ideas on generating Value in them
- Use the concept of Value to better structure your role and responsibilities on the impact you can make
- Track the Value of your daily work (I've helped 3 people to get promoted using these ideas)
- Talk confidently about Value and impact using your own examples to absolutely catapult your career
Speaker
Across his 19 years in the field of engineering, quality and testing he's been a web developer, tester, senior, team lead, test manager, head of testing, and has helped businesses to build quality-centric engineering practices and a focus around delivering customer value. He's now leading mobile application engineering at Ada Health, to improve their mobile apps, and to mature their consumer domain's engineering and delivery practices.
We've also seen his award-winning talks at several international testing conferences, including TestBash Brighton, where he spoke about Mental Health in Testing.
Tip on How to Market Yourself Better as a Software Tester: Portfolio Website
What
TalkTopics
Description
In this part, we will discuss how can a personal portfolio be used to impress a potential employer.
Learning Outcomes
- Develop a professional tester portfolio website
- Identify the social media aspect of GitHub
Speaker
Executive Presence by Sylvia Ann Hewlett
What
Book SuggestionTopics
Description
Would you consider yourself a leader? In the book, Executive Presence, Sylvia Ann Hewlett, an expert on workplace power and influence, shows how to identify and embody the Executive Presence one needs to succeed in their career.
We have seen many people not succeed as leaders, even though they have the potential to be a leader. A key missing piece is Executive Presence.
In this book recommendation, I will share some insights into how to demonstrate executive presence and why it's so imperative for having a long-lasting and fulfilling career.
Speaker
Career Advice Session
What
Advice SessionTopics
Description
In this session, Eduardo Fischer dos Santos, will be giving advice and answering any questions attendees might have about their careers.
This is an open session, during one of the breaks, that everyone can join in (with video or just on the chat).
Speaker
Tip on How to Market Yourself Better as a Software Tester: Volunteer Activities
What
TalkTopics
Description
In this part we go through examples of volunteer activities and see how these can help you stand out.
Learning Outcomes
- Recognise the advantages volunteer activities can bring to your career development
Speaker
Our Own QA Academy
What
TalkTopics
Description
How would you hire Junior Testers? In my place, we have a method. We hire people whiling to learn how to test, we train them for 10 weeks, we train them in Exploratory Testing, Java, Selenium... we run some practice sessions and at the end of this program, we have our Junior testers ready to join projects.
In this talk, I want to explain the training program, the budget and why we are betting on these people instead of just hiring Senior testers.
Learning Outcomes
- Inspire other testers to run similar initiatives in their local markets
- How there is space in the testing world for more people, and this is a good way to enter it
- By explaining our numbers, we want to demonstrate that our model is reasonable and profitable for others to copy
Speaker
The Professional by Subroto Bagchi
What
Book SuggestionTopics
Description
A book that has had an impact on my career: The Professional by Subroto Bagchi.
A manifesto on what it takes to be a true professional in the modern world. By common definition, a professional is anyone who possesses the skills and knowledge necessary for a career-whether as a surgeon, a software engineer, or a plumber.
But according to Subroto Bagchi, our increasingly global marketplace demands more. In a world where the foolish, selfish, and unethical decisions of a few have affected the lives of millions, The Professional urges readers to act responsibly and reexamine "business as usual".
By exploring a variety of professional dilemmas across many industries, Bagchi defines the qualities of true professionals and the attributes that separate them from the merely competent. These include:
- Suffer no false attractions: It's always tempting to take the path of least resistance, but true professionals can separate the genuine from the phoney.
- Know when to say no: True professionals are not afraid to say no to things that are not worth their time, their energy, or their creativity.
- Take the long view: True professionals understand that every action, decision, and relationship, no matter how small, can have a lasting impact
Evolving the Role of the Quality Engineer
What
TalkTopics
Description
This short presentation offers an updated perspective on what most modern organizations value in terms of quality, and how Quality Engineers and QE Teams will need to broaden their sphere of influence and skillsets to meet those expectations.
We will look at it from 2 perspectives – how Testing needs to evolve as a discipline, and how Quality could expand to take on emerging roles in the organization.
Learning Outcomes
- The Quality Engineer role needs to keep evolving to be considered a high-value discipline in the organization
- The Quality Engineer can expand existing software testing scope farther (TestOps), wider (Experience QA), and deeper (Data Quality)
- The QE Team can also evolve to take on emerging Business, Process and Technology roles in a DevOps environment
Speaker
Creating CVs That Get Noticed
What
Panel DiscussionTopics
Description
In this Discussion session, our wonderful host Jenna Charlton is joined by three career experts to discuss ways to improve your CVs and make them stand out.
Elizabeth Zagroba is Quality Lead at Mendix in Rotterdam. Her goal is to guide enough testers, leaders, etc. to make herself redundant so she can take on new and bigger challenges. You can find Elizabeth's big thoughts on her blog.
Nicola Martin is passionate about increasing diversity and inclusion in software engineering. She is a panellist and speaker with over 20 years of experience in tech and she speaks at global conferences focusing on quality, testing, diversity, women in tech and mentoring.
Peet Michelsen is a seasoned software tester with over 20 years of experience who specialises in test automation, test management and continuous integration. In his work, he wants to be challenged and is always on the lookout for the next problem to solve. And when not working, Peet likes to explore the Scottish countryside and enjoy a good ale or whisky.
Learning Outcomes
- Ways to improve your CVs and how they can get noticed
Speakers
CV Advice Session
What
Advice SessionTopics
Description
In this session, happening during one of the breaks, Niko will be answering any questions live and giving tips on how to create a good CV.
You'll be able to join Niko, with video or just on the chat.
If you would like Niko to review your CV before the event and chat to him about it, during this session, please upload your CV here or send it to Niko Mangahas with the subject: TestBash Careers - CV Advice Session with Niko.
Speaker
Career Breaks and How They Shaped Me and My Career
What
TalkTopics
Description
Learning Outcomes
- Career breaks could be good, relaxing and fun if planned a little. How to leave the door open to return back to work within the same organisation?
- How to cope when the career break is not a planned one- How to join the workforce again after the break?
- Some stories both personal and from others which helped me make the decisions during tough times
Speaker
Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug
What
Book SuggestionTopics
Description
In this talk, Ioan shows how this book by Steve Krug has improved his testing and consequently, his career.
Speaker
Landing a Job on The New Island
What
TalkTopics
Description
Finding your next role can be a bit exciting and overwhelming at the same time. Another layer of complexity adds when you must find a job in a new country.
In this talk, I’ll share my experiences in job hunting when I moved to the UK in 2014 and the tips on how to land a job on a new island.
Learning Outcomes
- Understand the challenges of finding a job in a new country
- Learn how to tackle the above challenges
- Identify how can you help someone new on your team
Speaker
Conclusion: How to Market Yourself Better as a Software Tester
What
TalkTopics
Description
- Content Creation
- Public Speaking
- Social Media
- Portfolio Website
- Volunteer Activities
In this session, I'll draw a conclusion to the above and will be answering live all the questions you have.
Learning Outcomes
- Prioritise to put yourself out there by leveraging content creation - writing blog posts about testing, and creating video tutorials and podcasts
- Plan to establish yourself as a relevant professional, using public speaking at meetups, conferences, user groups and practical workshops
- Use social media to improve your online presence
- Develop a GitHub profile which illustrates your practical knowledge, to demonstrate you can make an automated checking framework, and more
- Identify how to develop a professional tester portfolio website, which can give you better visibility in search engine results - have basic SEO in mind
- Collaborate with the testing communities, and their members to increase the number of people in your personal network - a good referral can give you a big advantage over other candidates when applying for jobs
- Recognise the advantage of volunteer activities, such as pro-bono mentoring, or contributing to Open Source
- Conclude how to use all the above, to get more lucrative job offers, negotiate more perks, explain to recruiters why you are worth more than the initial offer, and/or after applying the above for a while, use it to explain at your current job why you deserve a better raise
Speaker
Our Famous 99-Second Talks TestBash Careers
What
99 Second TalksTopics
Description
It's not a TestBash without 99-Second Talks!
The 99-Second Talks is the attendee's stage, an opportunity for you to come on stage and talk for, that's right, 99 seconds.
This time we will be experimenting with something new: you will be given the opportunity to pre-record your 99-Seconds Talk throughout the conference. This will then be shown at the end of the day and/or added to the MoT Learning Platform after the event.
You can talk about anything, a testing topic you want to share, a personal experience, an idea sparked by all the amazing talks you've just listened to... the stage is yours, for 99-Seconds!
If doing the talk live on the main stage, our awesome host Callum will introduce you on stage and start the clock. As soon as the time's up, a noise will be heard and that's it: time's up!
Prerequisites
You will need to give your web browser permissions to allow your camera and microphone. Make sure these are enabled before you go on screen.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to Attend
TestBash Careers as well as all online TestBashes are included in Pro membership which makes it by far the most affordable way to attend. Pro MoT is £249.99 per year with discounts for teams and a monthly option for individual memberships. Alternatively, you can buy a ticket just for the event for £75 - these are now available!
Sponsorship
We want this online conference to be all about Careers and are actively looking for sponsors for the event. Email marketing@ministryoftesting.com to learn more about our sponsorship options.
Where is the event hosted?
TestBash Careers is hosted on Hopin, an excellent platform for events like this. You'll need to create a Hopin account to access the event.
How do I join the event?
1. Double check you're logged into your MoT Account. You'll see your avatar and name in the top right-hand corner.
2. Visit the Hopin event space at https://hopin.com/events
3. Enter the password sent to you in an email/or by visiting the top of the event page (Look for the "Join Details" section, on the page you're reading this FAQ) - Available one week before the event!
4. On the Hopin event space, select "Join Event"
5. When prompted to SELECT TICKETS, select "Sign in to join the event" (at this point you can create a Hopin account if you don't have one already)
6. Close the "CHECKOUT" page
7. Select "Join Event" again
8. Congrats, you're now in the reception area of the event 🎉