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I need advice...

I am an Android developer with 1 year of experience. After a last project I can't find a job because everybody is looking for much more experienced developers. I did some manual QA jobs also in the past - that's why now I am considering to move into QA again (there are lower enter barriers in this field). But I'm affraid what most HR companies alredy familiar with my CV and "Android developer" profile (I live in relatively small city). And if some HR manager will receive my CV for QA position- he/she will decide that I'm developer/ not tester/ overqualified... How can I overcome this and receive some calls for QA positions?

Thanks for any thoughts!

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    Well, you have both manual testing and programming experiences. I would see no reason to interview you for test automation role for instance. I don't understand how being a developer make you overqualified. Are you saying that being a tester that automated tests, troubleshoot issues and writes test automation libraries requires less qualifications?
    – dzieciou
    Jul 31, 2016 at 15:18

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An interview is an interview, you should be interviewed for any position that you apply.

If you have 1y experience as an Android developer does not mean that you are overqualified for a QA role, even if is an automation one, coding is just a part of an QA automation role.

Keep in mind that there are people with experience that do not know how to approach some of the basic issues, that is why experience is just for getting you to the interview, after that it depends on your real skills.

Apply for any position that you would like and do your best, but keep in mind that you should decide before what you want to focus on qa or dev, you may receive a question regarding this.

If you decide that you want a dev position but you don't have an experience, see if you can find an internship or a junior position.

Your experience should help you for any position that you choose, it depends on you if is an entry level or not.

Another thing to keep in mind is ask if is possible that later you can switch to another position if needed, some companies may offer this option and even provide some training.

Good luck.

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    "you should be interviewed for any position that you apply." - that's a false premise. Finding a person matching our needs means lots of interviews. So if we can save time by filtering out not matching resumes, we do it.
    – dzieciou
    Aug 1, 2016 at 14:07
  • I agree that a lot of time can be saved by assessing based on someones CV to do a filter based on the desired skills and experience, but before you do a hire that person should be interviewed for the applied position. This is just my opinion, i do not have any experience in HR field.
    – lauda
    Aug 1, 2016 at 14:21
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Most developers look down upon testers, particularly manual testers. I even heard someone said: testers at best are washed-out developers.

You have got a developer background, that means you know how to code; but with limited QA experience, it does not make it any easier for you to find a job as a QA tester. You do not have an upper ground than a manual tester who does not know how to code at all.

But you do have upper hand if you are looking into the right direction, e.g. testers with coding experience, e.g. junior test automator.

Getting yourself a ISTQB foundation certificate may help a bit as well. I know, I know, being ISTQB certified does not mean you can test, but it beats having no certificate.

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Coding knowledge never become an over qualification for QA engineer, it will gives you an extra weightage for the position. In my opinion , it's better to seek job on "Mobile application testing" and " automation testing " .

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I worked as IT recruiter during dot-com boom. First, quickest screening is to weed out people who you will NOT interview. After screening resumes by keywords, you spend few seconds per resume to weed out resumes which you will not even read.

So best chance for your resume to be read in detail is to customize it for the job you are applying (instead of sending identical copy to apply for hundreds of positions). As minimum, you need to versions of your resume: as developer, and as tester. In each, you highlight different parts of your experience.

Get some experience testing, even if it is your own project - having code to show is a plus.

Workplace exchange has also many discussions about resumes (and interviewing and changing careers)

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  • voted up for good info.
    – Yu Zhang
    Aug 1, 2016 at 21:28

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