Being a QA Engineer | My experience, tasks, startups & my biggest advice on excelling

[@Kimbuucha]

Thanks so much for watching! I realized I was a little vague in some of my answers and thinking of doing a Part 2! If you'd like a more in depth video, please leave a comment below with any specific questions you might have 💖

[@alexismarotte2680]

Hi Kim. I would love a more in depth video. I work in software implementation (a nice blend of technical and non-technical skills) and want to move to QA as a tester and may want this to be my career long term. My questions are: What are important technical skills and tools that a new QA Tester should know? How long does it take to move from QA Tester to Engineer to SDET? What role does or could AI play in QA today? Thanks, Alexis

[@annakut5406]

Can you please make a video of pros and cons and differences between working in different industries? I was actually curious about video gaming

[@Kimbuucha]

@@annakut5406 great suggestion. I’ll see what I can do 🙂

[@Kimbuucha]

@@alexismarotte2680 these are great questions. I’ll see if I can incorporate my thoughts in my next QA video 🙂

[@natbud7987]

Hi! Great video, especially the points about team work and communication skills :) I've done a web dev bootcamp, got a job as a frontend developer but realized that I prefer QA. Working as a tester now and really enjoying it. I'd love to hear more about acquiring new QA skills and learning something in-depth as I'm worried that I don't learn enough on a daily basis. Did you switch industries on purpose? Does the industry matter to you at all or do you aspire to try as many different fields as possible?

[@brithegoddess]

Really appreciate you sharing this wealth of info for people looking to get into QA. I just enrolled in the Careerist bootcamp and I'm excited to start on Monday. I'm going to watch this again and make notes so I can get the most out of my education. Thank you so much!

[@bryanekong1148]

QA Engineer here. I really liked your video. I could relate to a lot of things you said and having the right mindset.

[@Kimbuucha]

Oh my gosh I don't know how I missed this comment but I'm SO SO sorry. Hello fellow QA Engineer! I appreciate you for watching and for the kind words. Mindset definitely helps and trying to remove self deprecating language is pretty big as well. Hope you're doing well and are having a great day when you're reading this :)

[@QA-Chronicles]

Thanks for being thoughtful with your answers and presenting the content like a normal conversation. There was a lot of great tips, tricks, and guidance. Keep up the great work!

[@Kimbuucha]

Oh wow thanks so much for the kind words and the encouragement I really appreciate it 🙂

[@charliezhang271]

Thanks so much for this video! Its really insightful and gives me a deeper understanding of how QA works!

[@Kimbuucha]

@@charliezhang271 oh yay glad it was helpful!

[@kamikaze717]

Thank you very much for your honesty and willingness to share your experiences with Quality Assurance. I appreciate it and learned a lot towards furthering my career in tech.

[@Kimbuucha]

Glad it was helpful! Let me know if I can help with anything :)

[@streamtec88]

Thank you for sharing your experience. That’s really valuable info especially for me as a mid QA engineer trying to level up!

[@Kimbuucha]

Glad you found it helpful. Best of luck on your leveling up and in your career 💓

[@callummander]

Great video, I am also a QA Engineer and make videos on my channel. This was so useful to hear and I can relate to a lot of what you said. Keep it up - and great video! 😎

[@Kimbuucha]

Ayyyy nice! Thanks for watching. I’ll definitely check you out!

[@callummander]

@@Kimbuucha I love your vids! Eye opening to hear about another fellow software tester

[@Kimbuucha]

@@callummander aww thanks so much I really do appreciate that! cheers!

[@eddieriven]

what's your best advice to lvl up from junior QA to senior QA? should a junior QA work in any company to get expertise? either it's a startup or a stablished company?

[@rileystein6195]

I've been having trouble breaking into the industry. I did a bootcamp, took an API course, passed the ISTQB, and now I'm learning Java. Still can't get hired and I started applying in October 2023. It's been disheartening. I even reached out to a mentor who helped me with my resume. I'm pretty lost.

[@user_16309]

Find opportunities to volunteer to get experience.

[@rileystein6195]

@@user_16309 I wish, but I barely even have time to learn Java and apply for jobs.

[@אהלןסהלן]

@@user_16309 Open source community contribution counts?

[@A.young8]

Try Utest to get experience or go with companies like Cognizant they get a lot of freshers

[@visionaryjones1111]

Where u do your bootcamp at? If you don’t mind me asking

[@kamilaa3295]

Thank so much, your video was so helpful and so interesting to watch!! I really enjoyed it. In your next videos could you pls compare the projects you worked on, teams, styles, etc. and what you liked best? and what practices you learned and think are the best from all the projects you worked on? since you had a lot of experience and people request to work with you on their project, I think it would be valuable for us to hear too

[@Kimbuucha]

Hey there! So sorry I'm getting back to your comment so late. Thanks so much for watching. I LOVE this question and will work on a video around these questions in the next few days and hopefully get it up soon. This is honestly a better topic than some of the others ones I have in the can that's probably more insightful. Thanks for the suggestion, I really do appreciate it :)

[@haoyangzhang1613]

Very good video. Thank you!

[@Kimbuucha]

Thank you for watching!

[@emonilee4787]

I’ve been in retail for 8 years and trying to figure out what to do in life. Then I decided that I want to do something in tech like qa tester and start from there. But I don’t know where to start.

[@leighroberson2185]

Thank you Kim! I did go to a bootcamp, but I am studying automation at the moment. Are there any projects that you recommend to help me stand out first recruiters? And yes I would love a part 2

[@Kimbuucha]

I think if you setup some sample test cases or test plan, that would be a great start! You can choose any website (say Amazon) and write some example test cases to do things like search, remove items from Your cart or change regions for example. Also you can get some real work experience through UTest which I would also recommend as well. Hope that helps 💓

[@kehindeaudu2343]

Thanks for the tips senior.

[@sushmakumari1974]

Thanks for the video Kim! It was helpful! Is it possible to make a video with Scenario based questions for QA with some sample answers. Also, for people with Manual Testing experience - who have a career gap and would like to restart their career - and have gained knwoledge on 1 programming language and 1 automation tool and worked on some self projects - Can you give suggestions on how to get back to the career in this present market as they would lack Automation experience and companies are seeking for experienced Automation folks. What and how many tools do you suggest to learn. And how well can we portray our knowledge in the resume so that team would think of considering our profile. Thanks!

[@Kimbuucha]

Hi there! Sorry I missed your question before. I think this is a great question. As far as a career break, I'd say the best way to get back on track is to take time to learn the new languages and tools that are more in demand, maybe creating a sample project on Github. Tools to learn: Postman (API testing tool), Cypress or Playwright (UI automation), Appium (mobile automation), and Jmeter (performance testing tool). That's a pretty long list but if you check out Test Automation University website, there are videos and tutorials on learning that you can follow alongside. Also, as far as portraying knowledge you learned off the job, you could either create a Github profile and upload sample projects or on LinkedIn, add what's called a Career Break and then list what you learned during that break. Hope that helps :)

[@1VIPWRX]

dope video

[@LastChain]

Thank you

[@ournewchapter06]

Do you know who Jennifer Gaddis is.? She has a program called Road to QA…

[@Kimbuucha]

I have heard of her and this program but have not heard of anyone who has successfully been through the program or anything to give their feedback. Do you have any input there? I'd love to hear about it if so :)

[@tangiechapman6219]

@@Kimbuucha that’s what I wanna know sometimes she has a free seminar and I feel like they are fake robots in there she has a six month program we’re over like 897 and she said she said her graduates are making 90 to 100 K with no degree

[@rileystein6195]

I bought the 3 day bootcamp and got her book. Since I already completed a bootcamp, it wasn't really that helpful to me and I think you need more skills to get hired.

[@JasmineChapman-op9ci]

@@rileystein6195 she wasn’t that good so they didn’t help you find a job or is it better to go with somebody else? She always saying how people find a jobs. But I never seen nobody. I’m nobody from that program.

[@rileystein6195]

@JasmineChapman-op9ci from what I've seen, tripleten looks like a good bootcamp.

[@yellowman617]

How hard is this from 1-10 cus I'm really thinking about this course but idk much about it

[@Kimbuucha]

Honestly, the hardest part is going to be landing your first role. The job market is really tough right now but if you can get into a QA Engineer position (or analyst), you're on your way!

[@user-yl3qt5rx4g]

@@Kimbuucha how did the market become tough? i thought this was a role thats in high demand as every company in any field needs a tester or engineer

[@Kimbuucha]

@@user-yl3qt5rx4g it’s still in demand yes, but the market is tough for a few reasons.Over the past few years, companies have reduced their budgets so they’re not hiring as many engineers as before and reduced salaries. And in addition, there are much more people in the job market due to the layoffs from early 2023 to even the layoffs that continue today. There are just a lot more engineers in the market than there are jobs 😞. Also, based on the interviews I’ve had, a lot of companies are outsourcing their QA to other countries and a lot of work is contract and not permanent. So yea, just a lot tougher than it was say 5 years ago

[@AkwiSandra]

Thank you so much i'm a tester but i want to go into automation please can you recommend me best udemy tutorial for that

[@Kimbuucha]

Hi there! I recommend checking out the Playwright and Typescript tutorial on Test Automation University before going to Udemy. They're free and a great introduction. Hope that helps.

[@AkwiSandra]

@@Kimbuucha Alright i'll make sure to check it out Thank you so much

[@Kimbuucha]

@@AkwiSandra of course! I wish I could be more help with a specific recommendation for a Udemy course but if you're trying to do web automation, anything for Playwright or Cypress is a good place to start on there. Best of luck