It’s a tough world out there, especially in IT and software testing. When I began contracting in 1998, I would see a job post on JobServe, submit my software testing resume and within an hour, my phone would ring to discuss the role and day rate. Life was good and it was easy to secure contracts. Back then, we didn’t have to deal with the current nonsense of SDETs (a ludicrous term) or need to understand C++ to obtain a software testing role. 😊
Fast forward to today and it’s not as simple. COVID created a situation where many software testing jobs became remote or hybrid, allowing people worldwide to apply for roles which means the competition has increased for local roles.
To make matters worse, when a job agent posts a position on JobServe or LinkedIn, they may receive up to 1000 applicants. As a result, they can’t go through all those emails and will only select a few and delete the rest. Unfortunately, you won’t even get a glance, let alone a call or message.
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Networking
Networking and building your profile are critical to your success. In addition to having a well-crafted software testing resume, you need to ensure that it is being seen by the right people. Here are a few ways to network effectively:
- Engage in our online software test community. It’s not just a platform for discussing testing issues, but job agencies also search for candidates here. The more active you are, the more visible your profile becomes.
- Actively participate on LinkedIn and grow your network. Speak with your connections and develop relationships with them. When a job opening arises, they may reach out to you. Most of my contracts came from job agents contacting me through LinkedIn.
Your Software Testing Resume
There are countless software testing resume formats out there and while I’m not claiming that mine is the best, I can attest that it has never failed to land me an interview and if I get an interview, I always get the job!
Here’s a tip to ensure that your software testing resume catches the attention of job agents. They use AI and automation to screen software testing resumes and filter them, so they don’t have to sift through hundreds of them each day. The software looks for keywords and phrases that they’ve entered.
For each job I’ve applied for, I read the job description in detail and tailored my resume to include as many of the keywords mentioned in the job posting as possible. This way, you can clear the first hurdle and ensure that your software testing resume is seen by a real person.
Now, some people might argue that this is cheating. However, software testing jobs are often worded so extravagantly, with such high expectations, that even with all of my experience, I wouldn’t be able to land a contract for WorkDay because it’s listed as a “must-have” and it’s not on my software testing resume. Similarly, I can’t get into banking because I’ve worked mostly in telco and media throughout my career.
This is despite the fact that on every contract I have worked on, I had never seen their systems or software before I turned up. And when I did turn up I very quickly learned it and became an expert on it.
A good software tester, lead, or manager doesn’t need to have prior experience with every piece of software or system they work on. It’s absurd to expect that. In fact, a software tester’s entire career is spent learning new software, only to discover that it’s:
- a GUI
- connecting via API
- running through middleware
- accessing a database (likely Oracle)
- with maybe an app bolted on
Whether or not I’ve seen their GUI or front end, or even their app, for that matter, is of no significance whatsoever.
In my experience working on a complex contract for Huawei, Virgin and EE, we had to deal with a large number of software pieces, third-party suppliers and multiple environments, as well as extremely complicated test data requirements that required a team of 10 people to create them on a daily basis.
In addition to that, we had to migrate around 8 million customers and set up two new Telco cores from scratch. To order real sims, we even had to plan 10 weeks in advance to allow for manufacturing timeframes. As test managers, my colleague and I were managing up to 75 testers on different test phases across multiple sites. So, when a job agent tells me that I don’t have experience with a particular software or system, I just smile.
It’s not uncommon in this field and if you’re confident in your abilities and can do the job, it’s important to rewrite your software testing resume to get past these AI filters and at least have a conversation with a human being.
Don’t let the challenges of crafting a compelling software testing resume hold you back in your job search. Instead, partner with our dedicated team of professionals. Our CV and resume writing services are designed to cater to your unique needs, ensuring that you receive a personalised document that sets you apart from the competition.