Better Software - April 2008 - (Page 39)

like this, you can demonstrate how career pathing can make the company more money. At the same time, a professional ladder will mean more money for those people willing to climb to the top. (Hint: That’s you.) The Career Path Less Traveled Without a non-management career ladder, testers have a false dilemma. Again, Ben Simo tells the story: “I knew one excellent tester who was pushed into management, and he hated it. The truth was that he wanted to do excellent testing, not personnel evaluations and staffing with Excel spreadsheets. So, after some time, he convinced the company to create a test architect role.” If your company doesn’t have such a path, it is up to you to carve one out for yourself. One integral part of any career management plan is marketing. As odious as that sounds to many technical people, no matter how much you know about software testing, if other people do not realize it, then no one will be knocking down your door asking to promote or hire you. The StickyNotes for this article are full of ideas that will help you grow professionally and grow your reputation. The challenge of this kind of growth is that you want the improvement to be real, and you want the credit for it. That is the “marketing” part. To get that credit, we may need to improve in areas beyond hard technical skill. One simple model for this is to think of inside skills (coding, exploratory testing, test automation) and outside skills (verbal or written communications, giving and receiving feedback, or supervision). While we don’t have time in this article to explore all these areas, I feel obligated to mention that the gap between your current skills and where you want to be might be technical and headsdown, or it might be how you interact with the world. In sales, management, liaison, and consulting roles, outside skills can far outweigh inside skills. Even the best technician is stuck if he can’t work with people or communicate his value. Getting the credit for our work can be very challenging. When I interviewed John McConda, a performance tester for Mobius Labs, he pointed out that it is very hard, if not impossible, to put “I read a book” on a résumé. Even if you read and applied the ideas in the book, it can be hard to take that credit. John’s suggestion is to learn new technology, then find opportunities to use those technologies in the workplace. Or, if you enjoy reading, then form a book club, host a brown-bag session, or champion some other form of distributed learning. Then not only can you claim it on your résumé but you also are building personal relationships, which are the best kind of recommendations. The biggest, most positive career moves I ever made were in building things. In 1998, I founded the West Michigan Perl User’s Group (“Perl Mongers”), and in 2006, I co-organized the first Great Lakes Software Excellence Conference (GLSEC.org). These led directly to jobs and interviews from hiring managers. Building events and organizations follows the general pattern of giving things away. When I say giving things away, I don’t mean a pen or a key chain, but rather ideas and your time. Start a blog or a brown bag. Learn a technique, do it, then bring the rest of your team along. It may take time, but people will notice, and when it’s your time to ask for help, they may be in a position to help you. My advice is to pick two to four things that provide the best return on investment and pursue them aggressively. NETWORKING Networking is an extremely common practice, but it amazes me how it is so poorly understood. Yes, you can go to meetings, collect business cards, and aggressively pursue relationships with people who are in a position to help you. It is even possible that this process works! It just feels a little mercenary to me. I have colleagues who “network” this way, and when I answer a call from them, the first question out of my mouth is usually something like “What do you want this time?”—only a little more polite. When I think of networking, I think of the opposite. Instead of trying to get, I try to give—finding out what I can do to help the other person. For job seekers, that might mean an introduction. For volunteer organizations, that might mean stepping in and filling a role. At conferences, it can be as simple as listening and offering advice or, even easier, listening and offering sympathy. A few of my colleagues also network in this way. When I receive a call from them, I am quick to answer it, because I know the conversation will be about an opportunity that is to my advantage. Now, when 90 percent of our phone conversations are to my advantage, and the one time comes when you need my help … that is when the professional network you’ve built can come to your aid. Tomorrow If your organization has a professional development ladder, it is probably vague by design. Sit down with your manager and find out specific, measurable goals to demonstrate accomplishment of the next level. If there is no ladder, the first part of the conversation is how to create one. If the organization balks, you can figure out where you want to be, what to do to get there, and how to make sure the effort is noticed. Earlier I mentioned redefining your role in a way that adds unique value to the company. After a few months of effort, you can ask that this new role be designated “tester II,” “senior tester,” “performance test specialist,” or so on. There are several Web sites that recommend how to redefine www.StickyMinds.com APRIL 2008 BETTER SOFTWARE 39 http://GLSEC.org http://www.StickyMinds.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Better Software - April 2008

Better Software - April 2008 Contents Mark Your Calendar Contributions eLightenment Technology Speaking - A Change Would Do You Good Code Craft - A "D" In Programming, Part 1 Test Connection - Learning the Hardware Lessons Management Chronicles - The Art of Persuading Management Cover Story - Incremental and Iterative Development Developers...Start Your Engines Where Do I Go From Here Product Announcements 10 Things You Might Not Know About... The Last Word - Software Quality and the Prisoner's Dilemma Ad Index

Better Software - April 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.