Tanash’s 1st month at work.

The Induction

Following his offer from last month, Tanash walked in to work on a sunny Monday morning. The receptionists re-directed him to the induction rooms, wherein he had to fill in 1048 forms to enroll himself into “Ele Info Systems”. Being smart, he quickly realized that he’d complete it far quicker if he filled in only the mandated fields. He was unable to understand why a technology company has to rely on hard-copy of forms. Wouldn’t it be easier for them to have a soft copy printed with the information and his sign at the bottom? Thinking he was being innovative, Tanash gave that suggestion only to be silenced by the HR representative. The reply he got was “Government Norms”!!!

Before he knew it, his induction formalities were completed and he was assigned an email address and a team. Though the company had advertised that selected candidates would work on “cutting edge” and “out of the world” technologies, he was a tad disappointed since nobody had actually asked him for his aspirations before he was assigned to a team.

Tanash felt like a fish in a fish market. Can a fish choose its buyer? Tanash’s minds echoed the same sentiments!!!

He was taken to meet his team by the recruiters!!!

His Manager

Tanash’s manager was named Delspe. (Meaning “Delegation Specialist”)!!! Delspe loved delegation. Some company sponsored management training program had taught him that effective managers do effective delegation, and ever since, Delspe had gotten into the mode of delegating everything. Well, not everything, of course. Most of his “Sent Items” had the words “FYI” or “FYA”. He typed those words himself!!!

Now, Delspe had delegated “Shyam”, the test lead to meet Tanash and put him on a 2 week training program along with others, before starting to test.

Tanash asked Shyam whether 2 weeks is sufficient for a person to pick up effective testing skills. Shyam replied… “Nothing’s impossible. If you have the will, and the skill, you can do it in a day”!!! Tanash was also told that he would be testing a client’s customer facing website after the training program.

Training – Week 1

The trainings lasted for 2 weeks. During his first week in training, Tanash came across a training room that said that they train leaders. Tanash started wondering if leaders require trainings. A peep into his thoughts — “Can anyone train a person to become a leader? Aren’t leaders those people who took the path not travelled by and become a leader?”!!! Tanash was also surprised when he found out that the company even had a test to certify that a person is a leader.

The 1st week training was on testing concepts. The company used to outsource trainings to an external company earlier. But, a brilliant mind in the company had come up with the concepts of doing the training in-house, to save costs. The same brilliant mind also came up with the idea of asking existing employees to train people and included this in their objectives.

Another peep into Tanash’s thoughts — “A trainer needs to be coached on “how to train others”. Teaching cannot be done by all and sundry. It needs practice, experience and patience. All my schools and colleges had a lot of experienced teachers, who had a plethora of knowledge on the subjects that they taught. What do these kids know?”

Though the training syllabus looked awesome, the training was conducted by existing employees. These employees, it seemed to Tanash, mostly did Google searches and pulled up information off the internet, indulging in unbiased plagiarism without sparing a thought for the true creator of the documents and passed it off as their own. Most of them did not make practical sense.

Another example was the session on Security testing. Most of the content seemed borrowed from the OWASP Top 10 list from the internet, and the trainer was unable to answer any question, that warranted applying thought to reply with an answer.

Training – Week 2

The 2nd week was on QTP. Tanash was silenced by his teachers when he questioned the usage of QTP. He never disliked QTP, but wanted to think if there are any methodologies outside QTP to create test automation. Though they told him to practice “lateral thinking”, and “think out-of-the-box”, they largely trained him to work with QTP when working on test automation. He realized that the company had invested in QTP and wanted him to learn the tool.

The seniors

Tanash had dreamed about having the senior test engineers sit with him and do testing alongside him, write test cases with him and guide him. He wanted them to sit with him and explain the customer business, the customer business context, share with him the success stories of testing, talk to him about infra on which the files are hosted, But, sadly, all that remained, only a dream!

Career Aspirations

At the end of the training, the company had a vice-president come in for a session on career aspirations. When he quizzed the bunch on their career aspirations, 1 guy said… “I want to keep working in robust cutting edge technology”. Another said “I want to reach the top in quick time and lead the rest of the pack”. A third said “I want to become an entrepreneur in the next few years”.

Tanash said “I want to remain a tester all life”. He was greeted by silence. The vice-president could not believe that their recruitment had picked up such a loser. The vice-president made a note of his name and passed it on to HR with comments that this person was not ambitious. Tanash was advised, in a session with the HR team, to follow the leaders of the company and grow up the ladder.

End of the training

And at the end of the training, he was disgusted with himself. Not because he had a difficult time in training. Some of the concepts that were taught were wrong. Some of the concepts that were thought were only theoretical and not practical. Some of them had taken classes without knowing the concept itself. Some of them had indulged in plagiarism. And instead of getting punished, were rewarded for being “thought leaders”. The vice-president does not respect someone who wants to remain a tester all life long. Tanash wondered where he was headed.

Well, we really don’t know… Keep reading future issues of Testing Circus to know more.

Fake Software TesterA Fake Tester's DiaryFake Tester,Fake Tester's DiaryTanash’s 1st month at work. The Induction Following his offer from last month, Tanash walked in to work on a sunny Monday morning. The receptionists re-directed him to the induction rooms, wherein he had to fill in 1048 forms to enroll himself into “Ele Info Systems”. Being smart, he quickly realized...