Career Development

Introduction

I wrote a draft for this article in 2018. It has remained a draft since then. The last responsible moment to publish it is long gone. I have many notes about the topic, but I do not think I am ready to write a post about it yet. But, since a few people have asked me to share the notes, I will do my best.

I am very interested in career development. I have tried to talk about it at a [Testival meetup] in 2015 and Testival conference in 2016. (Tried means I’ve proposed the topic but it was not selected for the event.) I gave a five-minute lightning talk about it at a Testival meetup and the WebCamp conference in 2017. I led a session at the CITCON conference in 2018 and the Testival conference in 2022.

All three talks consisted of two parts. First, I would ask the audience what they think is a good way to develop a career. I would take notes. Only then, in the second part, would I share my thoughts. I did not want to influence the audience. Every time the result was different. The first two times I gave short five-minute lightning talks. They were short, but they helped me develop my thoughts. The last time was a one-hour open-space session. It was very different in many ways.

There was a few years between the CITCON conference in 2018 and the Testival conference in 2022. My thoughts about the topic are much more clear now. I might even finish and publish the article.

Random thoughts

Some of my thoughts that were not mentioned by others at the events.

You are in responsible for your career

Not your company. Not your manager. You are responsible.

Time to start thinking about your career is now

It’s too late to start when you lose a job. Prepare for the next job while you still have one. If you like the job you have, feel free to keep it for years or decades. Just, don’t assume you’ll be able to keep it for years or decades. Things change. You might be fired. The company might close. Today.

It is very unlikely that you will reach retirement age while still working for your current company

I’ve read somewhere that the average time an average person stays at a job is five years. Plan for that.

You should be the one to decide when to retire

You should not get into a situation where your skills are obsolete, and you have to retire.

Shared Thoughts

These things were mentioned at two events. I did not find anything that was mentioned at all three events.

• Contribute to open source projects.
• Go to events, like meetups, conferences and workshops.
• Speak at events.
• Read. Books, blogs, documentation, magazines…
• Establish online presence: Stack Overflow, GitHub, LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, blog…
• Networking is important.
• Have a Twitter account and use it to connect to people from your industry.

Testival

At the Testival meetup, the audience were mostly testers.

• Learn the tools needed for work. Since Testival gathers testers, they were mostly interested in test automation tools.
• Try new things. Tools, programming languages…
• Have a blog and write about work related topics.
• Watch relevant videos, on YouTube for example.
• Look for a company that would help you advance in your career.

WebCamp

At the WebCamp conference, the audience were mostly developers.

• Help organize events.
• Establish yourself as a thought leader.
• Innovate.
• Learn.
• Create projects.
• Practice.

CITCON

The CITCON session was much longer than the previous two, and completely different. The audience was mixed, developers and testers.

• There are several ways to think about career:
  • personal development,
  • climbing the ladder in your current company.
• In both of the above cases, you should talk with your manager about your career.
• Improve your development skills, with Udacity for example.
• Reflect about your career. Yearly review is a good way to do it.
• Follow the market (LinkedIn…). What is in demand?
• Be active at LinkedIn.
• Acquire new skills.
• Get a mentor. It does not need to be a permanent or formal relationship. Anybody you are seeking advice from could be your current mentor.
• Stay in touch with people you meet at events. A relevant email/Twitter/Slack message every few months should be enough.
• Focus.
• Practice interviews. Apply for a job here and there just to keep your interviewing skills.

Books

I have read a few very good books recently that go into much more detail about career development than this blog post could.

• The Passionate Programmer by Chad Fowler. The entire book is about the topic. Highly recommended.
• Lessons Learned in Software Testing by Cem Kaner, James Bach and Bret Pettichord. It’s one of the very rare books that I gave a 5-star rating on Goodreads. Chapter 10 (Your career in software testing) is full of good career advice.
• Exploratory Software Testing by James A. Whittaker. Appendix A (Building a Successful Career in Testing) has good career advice.
• Testing Computer Software by Kaner, Falk, Nguyen. Chapter 15 (Managing a testing group) has a very short but good section on career growth (page 362).