These days Ten Year Challenge is doing rounds and right from celebrities to normal people, Old to young people everybody seemed to be engulfed in it.
I thought it’s a good idea to do a 10-year challenge on software testing. So being a senior testing professional, would introduce different testing cycles which last decade witnessed. The decade was full of product disintegration, reengineering, and many more technological advancements.
(2008-2013) Era of slowdown & opportunities — During 2008 slow down hit again IT industry ( after a scary 2001) and a lot of professionals in the software testing field found it difficult to sustain. Testing Jobs suddenly became redundant and developers were prepared to do testing to optimize the cost.
Being a testing member, it was not a good situation to be in and I was handling, sustaining, and getting frustrated with the situation. My family life was disturbed, and it was becoming difficult if you are not assigned to any project. To make things worse, US has put sanctions on H1/L1 visas and those were the days which saw the maximum rejection of US visas across the world, shattering dreams and affecting careers of many professionals who were planning to settle in US.
It was the era of Java/ASP.net and software manual testing jobs were not exciting. The next big wave rapidly entering was testing automation and QTP the most sought-after automation testing tool, with selenium slowly capturing the market and giving a scare to QTP. Many visionary people used that opportunity to cross train themselves in automation testing & other technologies (like Big data, Mobile app , iOS testing, etc). These professionals yielded maximum benefit by utilizing the time and opportunity efficiently and effectively. After some hiccups, I got the opportunity in big MNC in eCommerce domain, which was a blessing in disguise. Slowly things were settling down and as already mentioned “n” number of times, neither a good time nor bad time stays forever, and finally, slowdown era was coming to an end.
(2014-2018) Era of Growth and Innovation — This era witnessed hope and optimism with a surge in job opportunities all across the world. The software testing field also saw an increase in job opportunities. But there was a difference between 2014 and pre-2008. This time companies, enterprises were cautious and looking for consolidation rather than expansion. Then came Innovation, a field which was going to change the world. Suddenly companies started spending on innovation as it seems the only way forward.
Related Posts
Customers were looking for quicker, more innovative and quality delivery in lesser time. The technology stack was changing faster, and it brought focus on BIG data. Terms such as Software as service, Application as a service and infrastructure as a service were in talks in almost every discussion. Almost every company started looking for Big data Professionals and this was the time when Testers started re-skilling themselves in Big Data Testing using data warehousing. It involved knowing to test on Hadoop, Hive, AWS, Redshift etc. I was also slowly absorbing this change and got the opportunity to work on a data warehousing project for a famous apparel brand of UK.
I took external training on latest technologies and strived to keep myself relevant for the next 5 years. This change brought jobs, opportunities, learning, growth and the most important happiness in the life of professionals like me.
Today when I look back in the last ten years, it brings some not so good memories but at the same time it enforces the saying “All’s well if its End’s well”. I have become more hopeful, more positive and looking to learn more than ever before.
This is my side of the story and … yes, do let me know yours !!!
