The Test Department

 Firstly I need to apologise for the radio silence, I had hoped to blog a lot more about how my experiences with self-learning. The self-learning has taken a bit of a back seat in the last couple of weeks because the good news is, I have started a new job. It has been a surprisingly quick process from the interview to being offered the job. The slightly tricky part was going through the various checks that my new employers were asking for. The tricky part was trying to track down someone from one of my previous employers for a job reference. The company that I used to work for no longer exist, they have been bought over/sold/evolved into another company. Fortunately, I was able to supply one person who still works there to provide a suitable character reference. I started work on Monday as a Test Analyst. I will be doing "System Testing" for a Testing services company that is doing the testing for a large financial company. I have worked in a similar company before so I am re...

An interesting question was posed on twitter yesterday “Is teacher vs. algorithm the next culture war?”. Of course, this was a reaction to the enormous stooshie that is happening with the awarding of exam grades. In Scotland, the outrage was so much that the Government had to step in or step back depending on how you want to spin it and junk AI results and go back to the teacher recommendations. I am not about to wade into the arguments about the pro and cons of using AI-algorithms to decide outcomes. This twitter thread will give a good overview of the grading scandal . Our whole world is now dominated by a computer using algorithms to remember that particular pale ale you like to drink on Friday night while listening to obscure French stoner rock bands from the late 1960s. For the most part, the addition of having AI in our lives has been a welcome one, for me, mostly discovering bands on YouTube. I have, however, yet to succumb to the temptation of using any of the digital assis...

A couple of things before I begin. One, a reality check. Learning to code is not easy. Some people can pick it up fast. They are just naturals and knock it out of the park without even breaking a sweat. Those types end up YouTube giving lessons and asking you to smash their subscription button. For most of us mere mortals, it is going to a long and torturous slog, with tears and despair. Two, this is not me going to tell what is the best code language in the world. To put it simply, I don't know and don't care. All this is just my experience of how I came to choose the code language that I am learning. The rest, as they say, is up to you. My first attempt at learning to code did not end well. At the time, I was working at a company that used C# for their development. I tried to learn that language. I was fortunate to be surrounded by a support group of outstanding developers who I got on with really well, and they did take time out of their busy work schedules to offer help. Ev...

I watched a BBC news piece this morning about the state of the job of the market. This did not fill me with a lot of confidence, especially when it came to us that are of a..certain age. I have applied for approximately 46 jobs in the last few months. In at least one instance I received the feedback that I had "too much experience". This was code for either "I am scared you might take my job away" or "Nope you are too old and we want to hire a young gun". Maybe I am doing that particular employer a disservice. A lot of the people in that BBC vox pop mention the companies will go the younger option. They see employing someone older as too risky. I watched a documentary last night about an unemployment office in Cardiff. I did not watch most of the program. I am trying not to depress my self any more than I am. Yet they were interviewing a woman and asking her to prove that she has spent "35 hours a week looking for a job". In other words every w...

We are almost at the midpoint of 2020, I am not sure where the last 6 months have gone. Gone they have though. On personal level it has been quite a taxing 6 months. Losing my job was big knock to my confidence, which I am not over yet. The initial feeling of " I will be okay I will get back out there and get another gig", soon melted like 'Snaw aff a dyke'*. (* For some, I realise that you need a translation. "Snow off a stone wall" ) . Jobs are asking for skills that I had not invested time in gaining. Oh hindsight you were hitting me hard and hitting me often. Reading many of the job specs did make me feel like a bit of a has-been living off past glories. I got comfortable in my wee bubble. I have been trying to upskill, but  I am already several laps behind most of the competitors. Some who already picking up their meddles and gone down the pub to celebrate. Then Coronavirus swept across the land. Overnight companies were getting rid of people rather tha...

I was catching up with my brother and his wife the other week. They both live in the US so we do not get the chance to blether. My sister in law reminded me that this would be a good time to knock my old Nanowrimo into some sort of shape. My sister in law is a successful author and has written many novels. They range from old fashioned crime in the style of Agatha Christie to modern thrillers. A few years back I attempted the Nanowrimo challenge of writing 50k words in one month. The challenge appealed to me and I thought I could do 50K. I have always wanted to write something that involved time travel/fantasy. So I plumped my self down on November Ist and went for it. I had no plant a rough outline in my head. I would not even say it was an outline. The story had immortal beings, it was set in Edinburgh in the present and the late 1780s. The story is about bad immortals wanting to return the world supernatural to our world. It's about good people trying to stop them. I am not ex...

2020 is turning into a rubbish year. I heard the news that Tim Smith leader of The Cardiacs, one best unknown bands on the planet has passed away today. He was only 59. Tim has been debilitated for a few years after suffering a heart attack a few years back. I was introduced to their music in my first year of University in 1987. I loved them from the get-go. The music is a giddy mixture of punk/prog/pop. Jarring time signatures will drag you one way and the next. The band was uncompromising. The opinion of them was into two camps, the ones that loved them and the ones that hated them. The Cardiacs influence many bands, Blur being one. I remember reading that Blur asked The Cardiacs to support them on one of their gigs. They did not go down well at all with the lager lov'in brit pop boys and gals! One of my favourite albums by them is Sing To God. I always thought that if Radiohead had done this album the critics would be all over it. As it is this album is a hidden gem. Here i...

I not being very productive at the moment. Other than my hair growth to a length that has not been since the early '90s. I have nothing to show. My Python learning is, well non-existent. If I was to go for an interview and they were to ask me to even do a simple piece of code. I would have an extensional breakdown as I did in my maths O grade exam when I was in high school. I have always had a rather fractious relationship with numbers and maths. I could never wrap my head around even the simplest of equations. The result was, as you can imagine, not doing at well in maths class. In those days, classes for those who were not good at maths/arithmetic were terrible. Full of kids with learning difficulties. Hooligans who were waiting to be 16 so they could escape the school. Most of the teachers in turn were either one drink away from being alcoholics. Worse still indifferent to our mental suffering. Not being able to do long division in our teenage heads was not their concern. I did ...

It has been almost three months since I lost my job. So time to pause for thought and how I have been doing. I have been applying for jobs with no success. When I have been lucky to get an interview, the feedback was that I came across well. I would be a good fit for their company..BUT..there the other candidate had a better skill set and so they went with them. I have been plugging away with the Python coding. I will be truthful it is not easy and the concepts are not sticking in the old grey matter. I was under no illusions that it would be easy. It is a bit disheartening, that after much head-scratching and swearing. I have to go and look at the solution to the challenge that I am doing. I have people on the Ministry Of Test tell me that the best way to learn is to do a project. There was a friend of mine who wanted to do a project with me. They are learning Javascript and I would rather stick with the Python. This individual is proving to be less than reliable for arranging a time...

Scotland appears to be slowing easing itself out of the imposed lock down. We have done this a lot slower than England and with good reason. There is still no antidote and there will not be until at least middle of next year. Even with the lock down easing I have no intention of vising any pub, cinema, gig for the foreseeable future. It does break my heart typing that.Reality is it only takes one careless individual who does not know they have COVID19. To cause the infection to take hold again. Just look at what happened in some places in the US and here in the UK with Leicester. I am not one for preductions, but I will make one. I can see local lock downs happening a lot more, espeacilly as we get into the winter months. Until we have atitdote this is going to be our reality. We did manage to get out Edinburgh yesterday for a much needed jaunt into the countryside. Walked round the lovely Jupiter Art Land estate. The estate that has various art installations in the woods...

I have been trying to keep active and go attend as many web-x talks that I would find might be beneficial to me. My unplanned unemployment and enforced lock-down have meant that I have all this free time to use. So what have I been doing? You can pretty much guess, can't you? Twittering about on Twitter, weaving about on YouTube. On the whole watching nature live webcams and vlogs about people living a hobo lifestyle in the USA. Not exactly productive Between all this I have been trying to learn chunks of Python coding. I have been following Python By Example by Nichola Lacey. I am not a great student, at the best of times, I realised that I spend more time twittering and You Tubing. I have decided that this week I would take a break from the majority of the Social Media platforms. . I will continue to use Linked and continue to dip in the Ministry Of Test Slack channels as I need to find a job. I am into my 3rd day of not using Twitter and Facebook. To be honest I...

Yes, indeed I am still very much unemployed. I have had a couple of video interviews that have sadly been unsuccessful. One of the interviews I did was with someone I used to work with so there was no hiding place in that one. There were two pieces of telling feedback from them. The first was that they thought that maybe the learning curve in the job might be too much for me. They thought I was too "Product based" and they were "Project-based" which I absolutely understand but I think I could easily transition to that kind of work process but they obviously  did not feel that. I should cotton on to that in the interview but did not at the time. The second piece of feedback was actually quite interesting and did make me sit up to think. They thought I was too negative about my previous employer and my experience there; which as I have already documented was not exactly a happy one. This has got me thinking about how do you go about talking about previous employment e...

Another job interview, once again I was not successful. On this occasion, I was not totally surprised as I did not have all the skills that they were looking for. They were looking for someone to come in and set up all their testing practices and do a fair amount of Automation. Still, the feedback from the people who interviewed me was good. It was the same as the last place, they really liked me, though I would be a good fit for their company, just the wrong role. It was intimated that if another testing role is created they would come back to me. All the same, it does give me the blues a little bit. Keeping focused is the key here and my focus is not great. I was chatting to someone via The Ministry Of Test slack the other day and they pointed me in the direction of open source project Covid Safe Paths So I have signed up for it and spent some of the mornings negotiating my round their slack and documentation. There is lot to read about it, not sure what I can do for them but I have...

So lock down continues and so does my job hunting. I've had a couple of video interviews with one company which I thought were promising.  I got on with both the people who were interviewing me and they seemed to be pretty relaxed with me. Sadly though I was not asked back for the third interview- the reason they give was that did not feel I would suit the company culture/structure. They also indicated that I was maybe a little overqualified for the position that I was going for. They seemed to think I was more suited for a manager, lead test role.  Fair enough I thought, but they then went on and listed out what they liked about me and there seemed to be a lot more positive than negative unless of course not fitting the culture was massive negative, and the long list of things they liked about me could not cancel that out.  Here is what they said "Some good points the team shared regarding your skills and experience: Very experienced test specialist Senior Tes...

..and more phone interviews I've one or two phone interviews in the last couple of days, well I wouldn't say they were interviews more a gentle walk through of my CV. I have decided to go down the route of being "Candour and Honesty" about my current situation, and so far it seems to be working. I had a call today with one "Talent Scout" who works for a fairly large IT company who are expanding at the moment. I was telling them about my experiences in the last couple of months (I should have blogged about them!). The "Talent Scout" actually thanked me for my honesty and then proceeded to tell me he knew of my current employers and had his own experience of them. Lets just say he completely sympathised with me and I will leave it at that.  We had good conversation and the "Talent Scout" said that the role I was going for was maybe a bit beyond me....BUT he was very very keen to get me in front of other heads of team because they tho...

So I had Phone Interview..... ..well I thought I did. I revived an email from the person who was going to do the interview. It would be at midday and would take half an hour at most. It was just to walk through my CV no more than that. Still it's chance to make an impression, even if it's just by phone. One problem though, my current place of work is really small, I mean really small and all the rooms are usually full of people trying to avoid other people or talking to customers. I did not want my current colleagues having to listen in to me be that less complimentary about my current situation (I hasten to add many would agree and sympathise ) I of course needed to get out of the office and go somewhere a little bit of earshot. I thought about a couple of Cafe's but then again knowing my luck I would be in mid-flow about my career to date and some loud people would plonk themselves down next to me. Also, nearly every place has some sort of music playi...

Why the rubbish name of the Blog, and what is this bad news? It is a bit rubbish isn't it, but it's my title and I am keeping it. I have been involved with Software Testing malarkey for over twenty years now almost all of it has been manually done...times are changing though this old coot has to get into the modern age or I will be put out to pasture, or wherever old testers go in their twilight years-there is probably a dark dingy dive bar full of old testers muttering over the cheap beer squinting at the occasional daylight whenever someone opens the door.  So to my bad news. A few months back I changed jobs, I moved from a relatively large, well managed, organised software company that had pretty good QA/software development process.To a relatively small software company that didn't.  I have always wanted to go to a company like that. A small company that had relatively no process, so I could go in there help create them and build on my skills as ...