I am a former senior software developer who is looking to get into testing, and I would like some advice on how to structure my resume, as well as any general tips on how best to look for work and interview - considering my background.
Firstly, why did I leave development? Long story short, it was essentially a combination of the various factors discussed in this post. My mindset has always been more about analysing things than about synthesising them, but it just took a long time to recognise this because I do quite enjoy programming on a hobby level. But my level of career satisfaction was never very high as a professional developer. I always wanted to pick things apart instead of actually work on putting them together. My talents and attention to detail have always been much better in that direction than the other.
Secondly, other than the self-testing one does as a developer - I have also actually done some dedicated testing work in the past. In one of my development roles, I was rotated onto a test team for about 2 months, for a very major release. This is difficult to conclusively prove though - as the company was small and has since gone out of business, and there is no official record of me having that role (as I was still officially employed as a developer).
Also, in preparation for my career change, I just sat and passed the ISEB-ISTQB Foundation certification exam. I know that the actual value of this is highly controversial, but I thought it would help to show seriousness about my career change and to help me confirm my own internal change of mental direction.
So all in all, I have the following: 10 years of experience as a senior software developer, including ample code review, self-testing, unit testing, some TDD, and team peer review testing experience. I also have two months of actual experience working on a test team, but this one is unofficial and hard to conclusively prove. I am also now ISEB-ISTQB Foundation level certified.
I'd mainly just like to know how all this sounds, and what sort of resume style and interview attitude should be projected in my case. I am thinking of structuring my resume as a "career changer resume" - with a large Career Objective section that describes my wish to change careers, and then a detailing of my development jobs and what I learned from them and how that experience applies to a pure Testing role.
Note: I am prepared to take a fairly junior role to start out with. So this is mainly about getting my foot in the door with a first Testing job at all, not necessarily getting a great one to start with (ie I have no expectations that a strong development background will be an express ticket past a fairly junior testing role to begin with).