When I started looking for work I had 3 options: analyst, programmer and tester. The first year in university I was certain that I would become a programmer or analyst. I like that programmers can solve puzzles, create amazing piece of software using nothing but an idea and keyboard. I like that analysts need to have a view of everything when there is nothing and need to write it down with words in a way that it can be put into code. But with testing I didn`t think much of it, it seemed the easiest of them all, the "click that and see if it works" kind of job.
As I needed to choose a field finally I thought that programmers job might be too complex for me (self-esteem issues i guess) but at the same time when I would be analyst I would miss the coding. Finally I chose testing, hoping, that it represents some kind of middle ground between those two. For my surprise I didn`t find a middle ground, I found a new totally different and exciting field with totally new mindset. For many testing is a start to rise to some other field but I say they never have been a tester, they have been "checkers". By checkers I mean people who just check things, they don`t test, they just take a rule, use common sense to take a check out of it and write it down. Testing is seeing what is not written down and bringing it to the equation. The idea that checking and testing should be seen as separate operations I have taken from James Bach, who can be seen as a very controversial person but he sees what testing really is: a field of challenges, creativity and possibilities.
The best part of testing is that it is so new. Testing is a infant in a field of IT with programming as a father and...(what might be the mother?). Infant is like sponge that absorbs its surroundings and can be taught to be a bully who just is a annoyance to everyone, a sissy who does what it is told and is afraid to evolve and develop its own ideas or into a someone who deserves the respect of everyone.
Astonishingly testing has become a wonder child who is growing up fast and finding its own path while making just its first baby-steps. It is going out on its own to become a field of its own that isn`t considered as part of programming..Yes they are related very closely, like father and son, but as father and son they both have their own future. We testers have amazing opportunity to make sure that our field grows into something beautiful, independent, brave and original. There are no old rules or ties to hold us down, we can create the principles that can be followed all over the world. Yes we can stumble, but so what, as Albert Einstein has said: "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." So lets go out there, be stupid(and try new things), be brave and make sure that our infant grows into something we can be all proud of.
To those who are trying to find a field that suits them I can say that no matter if you choose programming, analysis or testing, you need to know them all, but master only one. They are all fantastic fields, I promise you that, you can do great things in all of them as long you are not afraid to share your ideas and talents.
