Essential Tips For A Successful Career In Test Automation
Learning test automation well can be challenging. Often it’s hard even to know where to start, let alone how to make the learning stick! So here are a few tips to get you to your test automation learning goals faster:
👉 FOCUS ON DEEP SKILLS. When you are starting out with automation, the number of things you need to learn can feel overwhelming. It’s easy to be tempted to try to learn it all at once. But learning one language or tool at a time, deeply, is MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE than learning several languages and tools superficially.
👉 PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. Don’t just watch tutorials; they aren’t actually a very effective way to learn. To get the best learning outcomes, make sure you PRACTICE WHAT YOU LEARN, and GET REGULAR FEEDBACK from mentors or more experienced practitioners on what you are trying out.
👉 WATCH EXPERTS CODE. See how real practitioners do things. Live coding is one of the best ways to see how experts apply good practices and patterns on real-world problems.
👉 STAY CURIOUS, STAY HUNGRY: Test automation is a constantly evolving field, and new tools and techniques are being developed all the time. It’s important to stay current and continue learning new technologies and best practices to stay relevant in the field.
👉 JOIN A COMMUNITY: Joining a community of test automation practitioners is a great way to stay informed about the latest shiny tools and trends (what to try, and what to avoid ;-) ). Everyone can learn from others, and if you have access to a friendly community you are much more likely to get support when you need it. This can be in the form of online forums, meetup groups or professional associations.
👉 WORK ON REAL-WORLD PROJECTS: Working on real-world projects is a great way to gain practical experience and apply the knowledge and skills you have learned. This can include contributing to open-source projects, participating in hackathons or working on internal projects at your company. (In our Serenity Dojo program, for example, a key part of the mentoring program involves working on a real-world-like project with other students for several months).
👉 FIND A MENTOR OR COACH: Seek out mentorship from experienced test automation engineers, who can provide guidance and support as you navigate the field. A mentor can be a valuable resource, helping you to avoid common mistakes and providing feedback on your work. Similar to how professional athletes have coaches, mentorship in test automation can help you reach your goals faster by providing you with an experienced perspective, support and guidance on how to improve your skills and advance in your career.
Want more tips? Every tester’s journey is different, but I’ve written a short roadmap for the testers on my mentoring programs to help them come up with their own personalised plan to suite their needs and goals.
You can grab the roadmap here: https://www.serenity-dojo.com/test-automation-made-easy — enjoy!
