JuniorLearnsToCode

Change is always hard. Humans are creatures of habit, we feel comfortable and safe when we are operating within our established (predictable) patterns. That is why people resist changes, even the ones that are good for them! Getting someone to accept that a change is needed can be tricky, it will generally involve analyzing the situations and doing some persuading. If you can convince others that a certain change will bring them a certain kind of tangible benefit, people will be more open to accepting it. So let's see how would that look in terms of software testing!  As testers we often are arguing for more resources for testing, more time, trying to convince the management to give us the blessing to do more automation, to try out new approaches to testing, and to implement improvements to our testing process. So let's say we propose to change the testing process in our company, how would we go about implementing those changes? Assess the Situation First of all, get to know th...

Change can seem difficult and scary, first day on a new job will always impact you emotionally, to a certain extent - even if you changed many jobs before. In this blog post I will share a few tips to help you make the transition easier and how to beat the fear of the unknown!  Keep Your Ego in Check Important thing is to be humble and kind, and leaving a good first impression (of course also make sure that the good first impression is also the lasting impression) as this will affect how people on your team perceive you. Don't be a cocky show-off, be polite and nice to everyone. Naturally this does not mean that you should put up with any abuse. Meet Everyone  Taking time to meet your new teammates is very important, and not just meeting them, getting to know them as individuals. People who are already working at your new workplace will be a lot more busy than you are so they might not initiate these kind of things, instead, you should be the one inviting people to lunch to ge...

I had a rather bumpy relationship with Java, up to now I re-started learning Java three times - gave up in my first two attempts, due to various reasons and the third time is the charm, as they say! Learning to code is tough, it can take a long time and can can be frustrating at times, especially at the very early stages - you will be tempted to give up it. The First (Unsuccessful) Attempt The first time I tried to learn it was in 2014, I watched a few online tutorials from some university professor (I can't recall the name) and at first, on the theoretical side it seemed okay, even though, at the time I had no programming experience at all. But when the coding part started I felt so lost and confused like never before, I had honestly thought that something was wrong with my brain then. Back then (being a smart-ass) I thought I could learn coding with little effort since it was generally always easy for me to pick up new things. I had no idea at the time that learning to code...

Once you have been to a certain number of interviews, you will notice that there are a lot of common questions that you will be asked by different interviewers. Sometimes differently worded, but most of the time the similar knowledge check will be required of you. This is especially the case if you are applying for a tester role for the first time, it may be for your first job ever, or a career change in IT, or if you're coming from another background. The goal of this post is to help people ace their interviews, and also to stimulate them to learn more about testing. Simply memorizing answers by heart will do you no good in the long run - you might find yourself in a situation where you bit off more than you can chew, let's say you find online a bunch of common QA interview questions, just memorize them without any understanding of the topics, bluff your way through the interview and you start working - the employer things you know what you claimed and expects a certain level ...

This is not one of those yes or no questions, the answers is "it depends". The world is not black and white, one size does not fit all and as adults we often need to make trade-offs and compromises. In this blog post, I will try to list both pros and cons when it comes to working for smaller IT companies, compared to working for a larger IT company. You know, different strokes for different folks and all that. We all have rather unique needs and motivations and while one person might thrive in a more casual environment, that same atmosphere could hamper someone else's growth.  Working in a Small Company Since it is easier to manage a smaller number of people, there will be less management layers and generally, smaller companies have less official administrative procedures involved - for example, getting your vacation approved might be just a matter of checking with your team and updating the company's calendar. Another thing typical for smaller companies is that the p...

This is going to be a short post, as I just wanted to explain why you should not be intimidated by the official job requirements. I often notice that a lot of junior people complain about job postings, saying that job reequipments are too strict and that the list of required tools/technologies is too long. It is true that lot of jobs have inaccurate descriptions, as sometimes they are written by non-technical people and there can be a lot of copy/pasting involved, to include hot an trendy technologies, which my not even be used by the company that is posting the job! Another reason is filtering candidates by using a lot of "intimidating" buzzwords, this way company scare of many enter level applicants as they will give up without even trying. But let us look at this from a different angle. I have witnessed first hand that very often you will actually be working with just a small portion of tools mentioned in the official job posting. Many people I have talked to also confirme...

The Three Amigos is a software developer approach that is often used in Agile environments. It a highly collaborative development strategy. It places a large emphasis on communication. Perhaps it's biggest selling point is the fact that different experts are working in union, complimenting each others unique skills, thus being able to gain a broader perspective on things. This approach helps out to get clear understanding of the requirements and agree on the "Definition of Done" - what exactly is need to put the story in the "Done" status. Roles Involved in the Three Amigos We need the following roles in order to utilize this development strategy: BA  - the Business Analyst would help ensure that team understands what is expected from the user stories, so the team realizes what business value would the customer receive. In places where there is no BA, the PO (Product Owner) will take place of this amigo. Dev  - the developer can help in understanding the require...