The Journey of a Test Analyst: Part I The Beginning

by | Syndicated

This is Part I of The Journey of a Test Analyst Series.

Part II: Getting my foot in the door
Part III: Diving Into the Big Bad World of Testing

So in this post I’m gonna go over how I got into the IT industry in the first place; i.e. how and why I first started thinking about it.

First off, I saw the job advertisement on Careerhub. For those who do not know, Careerhub is a website for job seekers that are currently in (or just graduated from) a tertiary institution.

A few parts of the job ad stood out to me.

These are:

  • A career in the IT industry –> given our reliance on technology these days; job prospects would be good.
  • Assurity are thought leaders and that was something I wanted to be a part of.
  • Exposure to different projects and industries
  • Focus on innovation and improvement.

And last, but most certainly not least- training.

I’m now going to proceed to focus on this last point. You see, I didn’t study Software Engineering or Computer Science. In fact, I studied German and Economics.

So then you may be thinking “How do you get from a Bachelor of Arts and Commerce degree majoring in German and Economics to a career as a Test Analyst?”

You see, I gained a lot of transferrable skills throughout my time at uni such as written communication skills (from my German translation course and the International Trade essays I had to write for my Econ assignments) as well as  analytical skills (from my participation in the Alternative Budget Competition).

I’ve also been able to use these skills in my time as a test analyst so far. Although one may think that to be a test analyst you need to have a strong technical background, that’s not true.
Yes, for some roles you do need a fairly technical skill set, but I’m of the opinion that if you don’t already possess the technical skills- then just learn them. You do, however, need to pay attention to detail and have strong communication skills.

So I soon found myself typing out my CV and writing out my handwritten cover letter (meanwhile freaking out that I would make a mistake and have to start the letter again)………

NEXT: Application process and Grad Programme

And for now, here are some funny IT pics!