What do I do to make a living?



This is an effort to explain anyone who has ever asked me what i do for a living.
I had never thought I would ever blog in my lifetime. But, after facing the same question from relatives to random acquaintances i decided to put in words what i did and did not do. Even though I am sure a minority of such people will actually take the effort to read about someone's profession, b'coz they hardly read about their own, this post will relieve me of the dilemma of explaining something few people in the profession, let alone the world, would understand.

Without further ado, here’s what I do.


I try to get from what the stakeholders know about the product to what they need to know about the product.
I am the guy the manager and the coders are afraid of. I am the headlights of the SUV they are trying to drive in the dark in all kinds of terrain.
They hope and pray that I am not at my best when I am asked something to test. They try and encourage me to take it easy and not be too hard on the poor piece of code they are planning to ship. They try and drug me by offering cigarettes so that I don't stay completely alert for the next few hours I will be testing. They try to dodge my barrage of questions I have about the product they have built because they cannot answer most of them.
Does it not make you wonder why people don't want testers to do their best work? Its simple. Who wants to look incompetent? If there are bugs, the coders will be questioned and there will be no easy, if any, answers.



So, this was my sincere effort to explain my job. Hit me if you have any questions at ashutoshc58@gmail.com.



Thank you
Test Junkie

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