I have passed the foundation level exam, and to be honest, i'm pretty sure that anyone could pass that exam with a couple of days of studying. My question is are they certificates really of value to my career and should I put any effort into acquiring the more advanced levels?
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"Value to career" is a tough thing to call. I don't have a certification, and as far as I know, I've never hired anyone with a certification. That could be due to my location, or just a coincidence, or could be a point demonstrating their lack of value. I do know that I've never considered ISTQB/ISEB Certification of any value while reviewing candidates' resumes or during interviews. To answer the question in the title of your post: No. Testing Certificates do not prove that someone can test. They only prove that the individual can pass the certification exam. |
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I wouldn't hire someone based on a QA certification, but I wouldn't hold it against them either. In a tight job market, a person might try a lot of things to make themselves more marketable. |
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I am aware of the current "certification is evil" line going through the software testing community. I have to say that, I don't agree with this line. As user246 mentioned, people do occaisionally attain this certification to be more marketable. People also often sometimes take this certification early in their careers in the hopes of learning more. Certainly not going to hold it against them. To your question however. Certification does not prove that someone knows how to test. They can show that you have learned a set of "common" terms and idea's. They may even teach someone some of the basics of testing, however, really good testing can only be learned through experience, practice, and personal retrospectives as to what they actually learned while they were testing. If you want to put the time and money into them, I certainly wouldn't begrudge you for having them if I happened to be interviewing you, I've often contemplated the same thing myself. There are managers however, who feel that certification is a requirement. In this case, if you are in a very competitive market, it could very well help give you a one up over another candidate. |
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Does it mean you can test? As has already been stated above several times, certainly not. Does it help? I can't really think of any situations where it would be a negative (at the worst, a non-factor maybe), so it certainly can't affect your employability - which, let's face it, is a rather important part of the "software testing career" experience. On a personal note, I gained the ISTQB Foundation cert back in 2009, and it was one of the reasons my resume wasn't thrown in the bin (and for me giving an interview etc). So I can't categorically state that it helps in that regard, but on the other hand, I was thrown into an environment where I lost my bearings for the first few months and didn't apply a lot of the knowledge I'd acquired (both through previous job experience and the cert), so in that way it didn't prove that I could test at all. Luckily they were patient with me... |
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Well... No, in my opinion the ISTQB Foundation level certification does not guarantee that you can test. Learning the specifics of the job requires practice, depth of knowledge, experience, etc. ISTQB preparation teaches you basic terminology. Processes and even testing techniques are not covered well... Anyway, think about it that way: "ISTQB does not guarantee that you cannot test". :)) |
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If the effort you make to acquire certifications in the field of software testing in it's current form would encourgae you read more relevant stuff related to testing and you firmly believe that is going to help you think critically about the craft; I would say go for it. Inversely you can spend the same effort in becoming good at what you do by interacting and particaipating in different forums/activities related to testing outside your work. It largely depends on the person. if he needs to have a motivation (in someone's case it can be a certificate) to evolve as a professional, there is no harm in doing what you think is right. Having said that I still feel that the certification programs currently available hardly inspire you to enahance your cognitive and creative skills and probably also in providing any solid pratical lessons on how to evolve as professional tester. You could invest your time, effort and money in better things such as books on programming, testing, development, pyschology, critical thinking, sytems thinking, etc. and read them instead. Your long term career would be a sum of what you have learned and helped others learn by doing some inspring work on the field rather than how many medals you have managed to put on the wall. For a specific job there is a possibility that you manage with short-cuts, but if we speak of a career then it's much more than mere certificates and citations. |
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No, absolutely. The problem with ISTQB Syllabus is that it does not really reflect modern approaches and methodologies (especially in agile environments). I attended ISTQB training recently myself and I must say that at least half of it was useless (problems that were mentioned do not exist in agile team to which I belong). But... Although it does not say much about you as a tester it may be a value to your career. Depends on where you live (or where you will be seeking jobs in the future). In my area the certificate is always mentioned as 'nice-to-have' in all job adverts. From what I've heard the advanced-level exams are much more difficult and if I were you I would take at least one of them. Now, I said the certificate is good for a career even if it doesn't give you much knowledge. So you may wonder - is there any training/certification that comes with some useful knowledge? Association For Software Testing provides online training. They are not (yet?) recognized by employers, but I heard they can change the way you look at testing. I am not sure if it's truth or not (although people who told me about AST were definitely trustworthy), but I am going to take the training in September. Then I will share my thoughts here. ;) |
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No, a testing certificate doesn't prove you can test. Having said that, I have sat (and passed) the ISEB Foundation and Intermediate levels and the ISTQB Advanced Test Analyst. For each of those I read a bunch of books and articles, then paid to sit the exam. It was definitely worth reading the books - I learned some useful things. I think it was just about worth sitting the exams (about £120 each), it's possible that it will give me an edge at some point when applying for a job. |
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I have also have been on the foundation course and feel that it presented no gain in my career. The course however would have been of great help when I had first started my career as a software tester. It highlights some of the basic techniques that can be applied and tries to put the concepts behind testing into perspective. I am sure that "anyone" could pass this test and as it is only a 3 day course then I would not expect it to be too difficult. If you are looking to see what the next level's in the course teach then I am sure that they have books available that will inform you of what the course contains. |
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Not exactly. It may prove that you have understood the concepts but that doesn't mean that ur good at hunting bugs. |
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No, but it normally proves, you that you will understand what the ISTQB test manager and the other ISTQB tester mean. Many project managers think that testing is that obvious that one need no education for it, it is certainly wrong. A big value is - one would not disturb good testing process by implementing his not-understanding about testing and qa. |
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I have never even mentioned these certifications to any prospective candidate, nor have I been ever asked. These certifications have been able to thrive so much, maybe because of lack of formal education for the field of Quality Assurance. I believe these come handy when you are applying for a QA/tester job in non-technological industry where the hiring managers do not have substantial technological skills or experience and the certificates can help them filter the candidates. These certificates, maybe prove that someone knows the basics of testing - fundamentals and definitions, which might be beneficial at the start of the career. It might help getting a job initially, but is not a quality metrics for the ability to test. Again, ROI is a totally different argument. |
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Having ISTQB certifcation doesn't make you an experienced person. It just add's weightage to your resume when you are switching to another company. In few cases it helps a person who is planning to shift altogether to a new country for ex: If you are working in india and looking for a job in USA or any European countries it helps you in finding a job. |
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Why are the people with loads of experience and knowledge afraid of the certification exams? I started to doubt if these people just get along with their connections and some politicking? Just like certification, even your academic credentials can't reflect your abilities. Most Indians know of one Harvard graduate who cannot spell "Harvard" correctly. But then studying at Harvard doesn't make all those who studied there to be fools. When these kind of people are at the helm of the affairs, problems start. Because when they can't put in effort to pass, they have a prejudice against those who pass the exam. If they really believe in all that bs they dish out, they should be developing their own software instead of using the crappy software from Microsoft and oracle. |
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protected by user246 Oct 22 '12 at 11:57
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