An introduction to the software testing edition of 'Open to Work'
With your help we’re polling, enquiring and supporting the testing job market.
So what? Despite 2023's ups and downs, we can see the strength and resiliency of the software testing community during times of continued uncertainty. We support each other and continue to optimise the way work is done amid mass digital transformation, workplace changes and technological growth in areas like artificial intelligence.
That's why we ask the “Are you open to work?” question each month. To help our community get a sense for the QA and software testing hiring and employment market in general. Members of our community are in need of support and information at the moment. We want to help and we want to be seen.
What does it mean when people are “Open to Work”? Broadly speaking they are either unemployed or looking for their next role.
What's the verdict? The polling data is in its early days, however we’ve witnessed a continued increase in those people letting us know they are ‘open to work’. Both in quantity and percentage.
We continue to gather insights, yet over the recent 3 month period of May-July 2024 - the difference is staggering and is not showing signs of improvement yet.
You can see a sharp increase from June. We thought it might dip down again based on comparative data but on the 26th July 2024 in our This Week in Testing podcast, the host Simon discussed the latest results for July.
The results came in literally, about an hour before the broadcast went live. And of one thousand four hundred and thirty two people, that replied to this poll, eighty four percent of people said "yes". So that's one thousand two hundred and thirty five people that let us know they are ‘open to work’ in our community and shared their thoughts. Kind of gives you an awareness of what's happening in the hiring market right now, some fascinating insight there.
Why bother? It’s worth noting that there has been quite a lot of debate as to whether this LinkedIn feature is helping, or hurting job seekers. If you use LinkedIn and are looking for a new job even if not urgently, the Ministry of Testing wouldn’t go as far as recommending that you do or do not list yourself as ‘Open To Work’ because of the potential residual bias associated with that tag (even though we don't care about labels - we have all talked about it at some point am I right…). We would, however, and can not stress this enough - encourage you to feel no shame about having been impacted by layoffs.
The job market is oversaturated with job seekers who have over-indexed down the path of SDET/automation/tool-framework-specialist-of-the-day. When hiring such a specialist I am inundated with over-qualified candidates, making it incredibly competitive. More often I am looking to hire a mid-senior test generalist/pragmatist that can adapt and grow as business needs change. I constantly struggle to find these candidates. - Keith Carpentier, Director of QA @ Glance Networks
If you struggle to find work, consider critically what the market actually needs and not what it claims to want. Some disagreed with Keith stating they always try to fit the market but the job description but roles always tend to have very specific framework to be able to be considered in the position, like only Java and selenium in MENA, python and robot FW in Europe, otherwise, you are rejected even before you have the opportunity to introduce your skills. Considering the amount of tools out there it can be alot to navigate. Many testers have the ability to adapt to any tool the job requires, develop the skills and tools knowledge to enhance that work quickly, but some are not even getting the chance to explain that in any interview
I'm in my 3rd month of not working 🙄🙄, the market is not as good as it was 2 years ago - Hesham El-Nagar SDET
The silver lining for some as discussed on 'This week in Testing' is that they have been using the time to learn about the latest tools, and interview techniques.
A staggering percentage .. that's a lof of people on the market, applying for the same roles, it's kinda scary. Coming up to 3 months soon for me, and I've been applying everyday, with 19 years experience. - Haroon Malik
Importance of community? Our polls do not reflect the LinkedIn settings alone. Rosie Sherry, co-founder and CEO of Ministry testing, often says “our network is your network”. We will repost if you are looking for work, just tag us, via our Linkedin page or any of our many other socials. Let us know that you're open to work and we will share it with our global community.
Another valuable data point that people are struggling to find work is the fact that people are reaching out and asking for help to spread the word they are available. This is where community and be powerful, we start to realise we are not alone and the help from others can life our spirits and hopefully connect us with new opportunities.
We also mention people open to work every week in our newsletters, and our live radio show and podcast “This Week In Testing” . This has been great for our community as recruiters and hiring managers listen to hear what people have to say, what they care about and how they support others.
We then see and hear recruiters connecting and sharing roles. Members of the community take their questions, problems they need help solving and the joy they get from testing to our forum The Club, in case the conversation can help other people.
We will continue to poll the community monthly and bring you updates as they come.
Resources
