Are you building the career of your dreams?

Technology is evolving fast, driven by both external and internal, environmental and industry-driven factors. User communities have increasingly higher expectations with software being upgraded and changed every nanosecond. Just to give you an idea, Amazon are undertaking 50 million code releases a year – more than one a second.

As companies need to speed up their ability to deliver quickly and adapt to change fast they need to recruit people who are able to keep pace, to build teams of ‘active learners’, people who enjoy change and those that thrive on personal growth.

Active learning is a skill we can develop by ‘putting ourselves out there’, not only by learning new technical skills but also by developing ourselves and enhancing our awareness and ‘people skills’.

Here are some areas which are attracting a lot of investment by companies:

• Speeding up the testing process
• Increasing quality by encouraging collaborative working
• Automation and Open Source Tools – there are over 1,500 different tools on the market
• Blending Agile and DevOps
• Digital Testing
• Enhancing performance
• IOT T AI and Machine Learning
• Security Testing

What can we do as testers to continue to thrive and enjoy our part in the technology of tomorrow as well as develop ourselves for future opportunities.

• Have a plan – take time to think about what ‘outcome’ you want from your career (this can change and probably should over time).  If you know what you are aiming for and why then it is much easier to make a map of how to get there and adapt as what you want changes.
• Seek out a mentor – Do you know someone who knows more about a subject you are interested in? Perhaps you are keen to know more about Development to help round off your testing skills.  Maybe you could buddy up with a Developer at work.
• Interact with our brilliant testing community both online and at events to keep up to date with change and build a network of colleagues.
• Online webinars – there is so much opportunity to learn in our own time. Make a plan which includes attending at least one webinar a month, you will soon find that immersing yourself in learning new stuff is more interesting than it sounds.
• Read/listen – we are fortunate to be in an age where people are happy to share their knowledge and learnings, mostly free of charge, just listening to a podcast once a week is a good start.
• Become a mentor – grow your skillset and your character by offering to help someone who is looking to learn more about what you know. Developing mentoring skills is a great asset, helps you grow and demonstrates your growth mentality.

There has been no brighter future for people who work in the technology sector than now, there is massive opportunity to build the career of your dreams.

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