Taking Testing Seriously

CHAPTER 20From RST to AST

By Lee Hawkins

The Start of My Testing Career

After completing my PhD in Pure Mathematics and spending three years as a software developer, it was time for me to leave the UK in search of a different lifestyle and new challenges—and so it was that I landed in Melbourne, Australia, in June 1999.

It was perfect timing in terms of looking for a job in the IT industry at the height of the “dot-com” boom. There was a separate hefty section of the print newspaper The Age published every week just to advertise IT jobs! I adopted a somewhat scattergun approach to looking for my first job in Australia, applying for roles from development to technical writing to management. Interview opportunities arose quickly, and one of the first was for a technical writing position at a company called Quest Software, with an office in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. After the interview for this position, I was offered the chance to talk to the test manager, who was also looking to hire. Being on the hunt for a job, I was happy to take that opportunity. The end result wasn't an offer of a technical writing role but instead one as a Senior Tester. I immediately accepted the offer, my first job in Australia, and the start of my career journey as a tester. Thus, like so many others in our industry, I fell into testing rather than making a deliberate career choice.

My experience of testing before joining Quest was limited to the testing of my own development work, and I soon ...