"Some birds aren't meant to be caged, their feathers are just too bright"- Morgan Freeman, Shawshank Redemption. This blog is from one such bird who couldn't be caged by organizations who mandate scripted software testing. Pradeep Soundararajan welcomes you to this blog and wishes you a good time here and even otherwise.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Second time, a company in India wants to hire testers in a non traditional way

What is the company looking for?

As a Test Manager of the company, I am looking for 3 testers, each of whom has spent at least 2 to 5 years testing and learning diversified things in testing. I want to challenge the tester in a permanent position in the company I work for, to solve complex software testing problems, whose main focus would be to question testability and supportability of products and write tools to augment testing activity.

Interview

The interview would typically be a telephonic followed by one full day at office premises (probably a weekend) in which you would be given a mission or different missions to achieve by the end of the day. You would face questions based on your testing activity at the end of the day.

I am not listing the skills you need to have but I know whether I should call you for an interview or not through:
  1. Write 2-3 pages about your testing experiences so far. If you reveal any confidential information, although you might be too good, I am not taking the risk of calling you for an interview.
  2. You may want to attach your CV or anything you think might interest me to call you.
  3. Fake experiences would be reported to police, so don't risk yourself.
  4. Don't mention, even if you have certification in software testing, because it just doesn't help/ better any chances nor worsens. I intend to hire you for your skills of testing and not your certificate that plenty people found it easy to clear.
If you are a fresher, Test anything over web and send me your report. I might still be interested to foster you.

e-mail me your reports to testwithpradeep@gmail.com

Here are some highlights of working with me:
  1. All testers who report to me have been enjoying freedom, which is very important for testers.
  2. All testers who report to me haven't been asked to do documentation that's wasteful or for the purpose of documenting to follow a process.
  3. All testers who report to me have got a chance to be questioned on their work quality and some have been rewarded once they practice the changes suggested and also see a value in doing those changes.
  4. At least one tester who reports to me started to blog about her testing activity and the thought process that went through to find some bugs ( without revealing the confidential information, of course)
  5. All testers who work with me have had freedom to challenge me (without bothering if I am their Manager or not) or my ideas I propose to test without bothering if that would affect their credibility with me provided they are open to learning and unlearning.
If all above looks tough to you and don't want to put in that much of hard work to get a challenging testing role, Yahoo, my filter works.

Here are some traditional stuff:
  1. Your designation might be a Senior Test Engineer or Test Lead who reports to me (but don't bother too much about that right away).
  2. Your pay is decided by the budget allocated for these positions which is in par with industry standards calculated based on some formulas that I am not aware of. Post observing your performance, your pay is not decided by any formula but solely your performance and the company's performance in market.
  3. You will be required to join ASAP or within 30 days of the date of offer.
  4. The work location would be Bangalore.
  5. The 10 year old US based medium sized company I work for respects and value testing, and post me coming in, I see more recognition towards testing given by the senior management.
  6. There might be some traveling opportunities in Q3 2008 but no guarantee and don't get attracted just because there might be a traveling opportunity.
  7. You may be a tester from any domain as long as you don't have a mental block to learn new domains and technologies.
  8. Send in your entries before others steal your chance.
The good news for those who are excited about this is, I am sure very few people would dare to compete and hence the competition wouldn't be that fierce. So the more excited and curious you are when you read this, the more likely you might be hired.

So, who are those 3 testers among you who would get this unique opportunity that probably other Indian companies might not offer.

It takes courage to challenge and skills to tackle the challenge. I am calling the skilled and courageous to work with me. Get in touch through
testwithpradeep@gmail.com

For those of you who want to know what traditionally companies ask for, hit MonsterIndia or Naukri websites and search for tester job openings. Not to my knowledge anyone asks for skills of testing from a tester, instead would focus on tools knowledge or horribly trivialize manual testing and process knowledge.

Hey look, at least some part of Indian testing is changing with more focus towards human skills! Are you left behind?

You might want to know, when was the first time a company in India wanted to hire a tester by non traditional ways... Simple, when the company I work for hired Pradeep Soundararajan ( that's me ) as a Test Manager at his age of 26 and helped him become the youngest Test Manager of India.

-- Pradeep Soundararajan - http://testertested.blogspot.com - +91-98451-76817 - pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

"Pradeep's first language is not English--his first language appears to be testing." -- Michael Bolton

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

A nice way for conducting an interview which should be highly appreciated. Where one cannot fake, or cant do parrot reading and get through the interview..
Here one needs a own talent & skills to get through ...
I will try my best...

Anonymous said...

I dont know about the candidates who come to you for jobs, but you do need to brush upon your communication skills. especially the written skills.

While your knowledge seems to be indepth, there is a disconnect in the way you express your ideas and statements. The sentences need to be structured properly with punctuation etc.

Take this as an advice in the right spirit

Pradeep Soundararajan said...

@Anonymous,

I am aware that I am not good at writing to North American standards.

While your knowledge seems to be indepth, there is a disconnect in the way you express your ideas and statements.

Here is a challenge: If there was a disconnect, how did you come to know I might have an in depth knowledge?

I am writing books and you might be surprised that at least one book out of three might be with such grammatical mistakes as you might see in this blog and I think that's going to be interesting.

As long as people can understand or think from reading these posts, my communication skill is excellent because communication is all about ability to convey information and interpret information when it is available from the other person.

I appreciate your comment. It helps me constantly remind about the scope of improvement.

However, I spotted a punctuation mistake in your comment:

...but you do need to brush upon your communication skills. especially the written skills.

Did you intend to put a full stop after skills? In case you wanted to then I suggest that "E" in especially to be in CAPS.

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

Pradeep , just leave it...don't reply for his comments.... Just ignore & you carry on your good work. We read it , we understand it & we get inspired through it.. And Remember "Stones are not thrown on Fruitless trees"

Pradeep Soundararajan said...

@Abhijeet,

First, I want you to understand that the Anonymous comment is true and I honestly admit that I am aware my writing skill is not good enough for all readers.

I value that comment because if I use correct punctuation then your reading experience might better and you might enjoy more.

Second, it is important to get such feedback, to constantly be reminded of things that I have to improve.

I challenged myself to write better in 2007 as compared to 2006 and I think I did it. 2008 is going to be more challenging, to, ensure, I, use, right ...; punctuation :)

Shrini Kulkarni said...

As a/an (Indian) writer in software testing, I too suffer from similar comments about my writing.

When I asked Michael Hunter, Braidy Tester, about it and his comments and suggestions, he said (not exact words) "You have a unique voice. Dont loose that.... which means your language would always "off" in some way. But that is OK. Only worry is that it distracts me from understanding what you want to say"

I see same thing with you. You too have a unique voice (or style) of writing. Do not loose that. We can improve our writing "correct" English to "north American" standards but not at the cost loosing our unique voice.

Personally I have seen improvement in your writing (according to my standard) in last 2 years (since that ISRO - calling testers to join ISRP post). Keep it up.

Shrini

Pradeep Soundararajan said...

@ Shrini

I too suffer from similar comments about my writing.

I no longer suffer because I see a value in writing the way I am writing.

"Who cares if you followed the instructions if it doesn't work when you're done?" - Scott Barber's Dad

Who cares if I write in correct North American style English and no one reads or helps me learn new things through that?

Anonymous said...

I LOVE the way you write Pradeep. It is thoroughly entertaining and engaging and thought provoking.
regards,
Lou

Pradeep Soundararajan said...

@Louise,

Thanks! I wish you have more people in your locality who might share the same opinion.

Anonymous said...

To me if one is able to convey the information what he wants, then it is good enough. This is the first time i am reading your articles after meeting Michael Bolton, and i enjoyed a lot reading these articles. Thanks Pradeep. Excellent Job.

Pradeep Soundararajan said...

@Kawal,

Welcome! I wish you (and your network, too) a good time here, whenever you come.

Anonymous said...

I think that the problem is the way you say things...its sounds you have no humility...i dont know if you have or not...its just a feeling....just in case, think about that...

Pradeep Soundararajan said...

@Anonymous,

I think the problem is - I dont think of it as a problem.

I write with passion and if for the sake of expressing humility ( which I dont have ) I would be forced to write in a different way - which is not my original.

I want to be what I am!