🐞 QA Stands For Quality p.10 - Common Myths About QA
Debunking Common Myths And Misconceptions About Various QA Disciplines
Hey friends 👋
Welcome to the next issue of this QA series, where I share the information that helped me become a QA and that I picked up over the years to climb from a Trainee QA to managing an entire department, and that I used to teach as a course on how to become a QA from scratch.
We briefly talked about some of the misconceptions that are out there when it comes to QA, and some of them I used to experience regularly. One of them was that “QA is easy, you just sit there and get paid by doing virtually nothing”, and to be honest with you, this is why I got into QA in the first place when I was looking for a job in the IT industry. Today, I wanted to talk a little bit about this and also other related stuff that might debunk some of the myths out there.
Alright, let’s get into it.
😌 “QA Is Easy And The Simplest Way To Get An IT Job”
First of all, sorry, no, it is not 😅
It’s definitely easier than learn a programming language, for example, or learn how to 3D Model (to a degree), but it’s still not that simple. In real life, good QA is structured, analytical work that involves:
Comparing behaviour against requirements and expected outcomes, which involves a lot of analysis and work with documentation
Designing ways to reliably trigger problems and knowing where to look for these problems in the first place
Noticing patterns, edge cases, and inconsistencies
Communicating your findings clearly and accurately, so others can act on them
Documenting any and all of the above in a way that’s understandable for anyone on your team and organisation
And we are only scratching the surface.
The job getting part is also not that easy, especially if you are right out of college or haven’t worked in the industry before. Some people I know got lucky and got the job very fast, but the vast majority (including yours truly) had to go through hundreds of interviews to get their first job, and it involved a lot of talking, test tasks and learning what to answer during each question in the interview process.
The bottom line is that all jobs are hard, but it’s worth pursuing if you are ready to put in the work.
