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I am new to software testing. I want to gain some experience and exposure in it, so, I was looking for an opportunity to gain skills.

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  • I'm struggling whether this is considered an "on topic" question or not. I really hope that we reach the consensus that it is. See I have a lot of thoughts on the matter (especially seeing as you're in Calgary!) but none of them truly answer the question, which leads me to believe this is not a great fit for the SQA.se site. That doesn't mean that it wouldn't be a helpful question to have answered. When I get some time I'll make a meta post about it.
    – corsiKa ♦
    Sep 25, 2019 at 19:12
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this doesn't seem to be a right fit for this platform.
    – IAmMilinPatel
    Sep 26, 2019 at 3:07
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    @corsiKa - this is a difficult one. I can see a lot of potential here, but I'm not sure it's possible to truly answer this question, either. I'm voting to leave open for now, because the issue of someone wanting to self-study and looking for ways to do this is definitely valid for this group, if not necessarily for hte SQA format.
    – Kate Paulk ♦
    Sep 26, 2019 at 12:36

7 Answers 7

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Gain experience from some of the following activities:

  • Help organize/run testing meetups
  • Go to testing conferences (STP, Techwell, etc).
  • Contribute to this site with questions and answers
  • Use online courses such as Udemy, Pluralsight, etc.
  • Read top books including Agile Testing (Crispin/Gregory)
  • Use TAU - Test Automation University - to get experience writing tests
  • Study blogs such as those from Angie Jones, James Bach and other leaders
  • For UI testing, pick a website to test, a language to use and practice writing tests repeatedly
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  • +1 for TAU - Test Automation University
    – Nitin Rastogi
    Sep 27, 2019 at 15:27
  • My sincere appreciation for your consideration and thoughtfulness.
    – Venus
    Oct 1, 2019 at 3:53
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There are many ways to gain experience and exposure as a QA here are some points & useful URL for self-learning:

  • Read QA blogs.
  • Read Testing books.
  • Hone your QA skills by teaching others.
  • Go to Meet-Up & grow your network it will help you to learn new technology & job search.
  • Search & Read the Research Papers.
  • Go to the Conference & Company Seminar.
  • One of the best ways to learn Ask Q/A on Stack Exchange sites.
  • Learning by doing: Work on Open Source /Crowd Testing Projects, this is very important for new QA, It will help you to gain experience of QA practices on real-time projects & the best part you can make some money for your contribution without any job as a Freelancer/Consultant.
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    Thanx, a lot for the info. As I have just entered the testing field this info will be of great help. I really appreciate you taking the time.
    – Venus
    Oct 1, 2019 at 3:50
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If you are looking for hands on experience, the first thing I thought of was Code for America. https://www.codeforamerica.org/ They focus on doing actual projects for the community - anything from website design to projects related to housing, or food pantries. A great chance to do hands on work, network and do some good.

If you want to get paid (maybe) for some hands on work there are sites out there where you can do that. Just google getting paid to test & you'll find articles on that. Personally, I am signed up with uTest and User Testing. It isn't a lot of money, but it gets you experience.

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  • My sincere appreciation for you taking the time for answering the question. I signed up with uTest too. Thanx a lot.
    – Venus
    Oct 1, 2019 at 3:56
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I think you can try offering your service on places like UpWork. My company hired freelancers from there once and it was pretty successful. You can start by joining small projects that are not requiring advanced skills and move on from there. Good luck!

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  • My sincere appreciation for you taking the time for answering the question. I signed up for UpWork. Thanx.
    – Venus
    Oct 1, 2019 at 3:59
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    Good luck @Venus!
    – Amit Yahav
    Oct 2, 2019 at 11:53
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As per my experience in quality assurance services, you may go with the following points:

  1. Always try to take initiative whenever possible.
  2. Use different automation sites to enhance your skills.
  3. Master any one programming language from development perspective and try to learn different programming language.
  4. Keep yourself updated regarding new technologies.
  5. Try to do as much as innovations after complete research on a particular topic.
  6. Take one topic at a time and try to cover all its areas of implementation
  7. Focus on practical knowledge more in comparison to theoretical knowledge

Have patience and don't give up .

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  • I am appreciative of your help. special thanx for this -> Have patience and don't give up. :)
    – Venus
    Oct 1, 2019 at 3:57
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I think you can get any amount of reading, but what matters in the first place is if you actually do testing. Try to get yourselve involved in a real project as a Tester. This is easier said than done, but you should try anyway.

And when you're on a project, then start learning from other resources as well - books, meetups, videos, your own side projects, ...

Hope you'll make it. I myself did exactly this, but the fact is that the country I'm based in is experiencing some serious shortage of technical people, so it was perhaps a bit easier in my case.

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  • :) hmmm...its a bit difficult for me as I have just shifted from my actual stream ( more than 7 years in Science stream) to Software testing. That's why want to gather as much as information from the experts :). Thanx for answering the question. Take Care.
    – Venus
    Oct 1, 2019 at 4:05
  • Come to the CZE and if you can hold a PC mouse for at least 6 hours, you'll get a pretty decent job as a SW Tester :) We have such a shortage of people in IT. I think you can do it, get pretty much anything in SW Testing. Not everything might be a good choice, but you'll learn from bad experiences as well. Actually, if I could recommend one more thing, try to get involved in some project where there're already good testers on the team. You need to develop some habits and skills and it just seems so much harder when you're completely alone for everything in some startup.
    – pavelsaman
    Oct 2, 2019 at 17:48
  • :) Thanx for your advice. I will definitely try to get involved in some projects but here in Canada, it's not that easy. Though I am trying on 99Tests and Utest.
    – Venus
    Oct 3, 2019 at 16:17
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Read (easy) books about testing stuff especially about agile testing:

Read the things what software testers do:

Youtube videos:

Use Podcasts:

Read relevant blogs/websites about testing

Go to local testing events (linkedin/xing):

  • Sometimes organizations are made meetings like here in Germany ASQF (Quality Night ASQF Events). You can search them via Linkeding/Xing, sometimes they also post relevant testing events without paying a fee. There you can get in touch with real testers and discuss with them!
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  • Hey thanx, a lot. it's a great stuff. My sincere appreciation for you taking the time for answering the question in such detail. Thanx
    – Venus
    Oct 1, 2019 at 4:01

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