Testing market...dead & buried..??

[Darren_Test]

Guys,

Any thought around this..??

Is there any test manager or test consultant or test analyst here on bench more than 4 months..?? (like me..!)..

Last 2 weeks I could not see any roles in North...repeated recycled roles only in South...

Any one see any sign of improvement in mkt..??

Any one recently got testing gigs..??

Just trying to assess how bad is the testing/QA market...!!

[slickcontractor]

Guys,

Any thought around this..??

Is there any test manager or test consultant or test analyst here on bench more than 4 months..?? (like me..!)..

Last 2 weeks I could not see any roles in North...repeated recycled roles only in South...

Any one see any sign of improvement in mkt..??

Any one recently got testing gigs..??

Just trying to assess how bad is the testing/QA market...!!

what is your skillset? i think you will have to be niche to continue testing (i may be wrong). I have derivative trading platform testing experience and was on the bench for only 3 weeks of march before i joined a new gig. But expect lower wages.

[mossman]

Testing Times

I am a test analyst. Been out for 2 months. Three people I worked with on last gig all still out. Thought new financial year would bring work, but no sign yet. It's pants.

[Numpty]

It could be worse...

http://www.jobserve.com/W4D492558601B946A.jsjob

Fund Closures Project Manager

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an accomplished Project Manager who MUST have.*Soft or Hard Fund Closure* experience. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work for a prestigious blue chip organisation within the Life and Pensions sector.

Rate £1 per day

[Darren_Test]

what is your skillset? i think you will have to be niche to continue testing (i may be wrong). I have derivative trading platform testing experience and was on the bench for only 3 weeks of march before i joined a new gig. But expect lower wages.

non- banking...technology side ....telecom, mobile etc..

[SuperZ]

I`m surprised you`re finding the testing market so bad, I thought there would always be a decent demand for testers. Even when development is outsourced abroad it just makes so much sense to have independent testing done in-house especially UAT.

I`m sure there will be good future demand

[sweetandsour]

I`m surprised you`re finding the testing market so bad, I thought there would always be a decent demand for testers. Even when development is outsourced abroad it just makes so much sense to have independent testing done in-house especially UAT.

I`m sure there will be good future demand

Is anyone spending money on new development at the minute?

I'm a BA and am not seeing anyone looking to invest in new stuff right now.

[HeadOfTesting]

Hi,

I’m a long-term lurker but felt moved to respond to this because I’m similarly affected and a veteran of the 2000-2004 depression in the testing market so I have a bit of experience to share.

This is long and I’m sure some people will say “couldn’t be bothered to read it” or “not interested” etc but I’m guessing anyone suffering in the testing market will appreciate knowing that they’re not alone.

My story:

Graduated in ’98 with a 1st class comp sci degree and went straight into contract testing, riding the y2k testing wave (although I was genuinely interested in testing and wasn’t one of the many who were rubbish but were only there because demand for testers was so strong – I remember one time after an interview where I had an offer from the agent before I had even got back to the client’s car park. Happy days!).

1st Jan 2000 passed by and I’ve always thought that as an industry we seriously screwed up by not coming together to arrange some high profile failures. There was so much publicity and when nothing came to pass – joe public thought the whole thing was rubbish; stories about how your kettle might come to life to Jan 1st and strangle you with its flex didn’t help. I worked at BT in the run up to y2k and they literally had a blank cheque for the work. Without the remedies, the UK’s phone and data networks of BT would have been utterly screwed. But I digress; the key thing is that 1st Jan 2000 is where things went wrong last time.

Everyone had overspent and the equity markets were capitulating. During 2000 there were contracts (but not as many as before), rates were ok (but not as good as before) and it became much harder to get a decision on contract budgets etc. Dec 2000 is when hiring freezes had gathered pace to the point where not even the agents could keep denying it; it was also when I lost my job. We all went home for xmas and came back in Jan 2001 to find the market was completely dead; it really annoys me when people say that it was only 2002 that was difficult. Anyway it wasn’t until summer 2004 – by which time I had become a hiring manager – that candidates had the confidence to start saying “is that offer negotiable?” or “thanks, I’ve got an interview next week so that’s a factor in my thinking also”. We spent the next few years trying to manage growth from a greatly reduced pool of experienced candidates caused by people having moved on in response to the market cutting its own throat through the recession. I spent most of 2008 telling people it felt like 2000 and sadly I was right.

After losing my job in Dec 2000 I worked for 3 of the following 18 months. I knew of people working for just their train fare to the office (to mitigate CV gaps) and rates for some very senior test management roles were being advertised for about £7ph. It was horrific – far worse than now. I just managed to hold on (which was an achievement because I had committed most of my earnings to equities and had lost many tens of thousands). Eventually I went permie in May 2002 for a much more junior role and about a third of my previous earnings – I had promised myself that if I didn’t get it I would write off my IT career and move back to my parents. The money was less than I had got for my 1st job. Fair enough that first role was a contract, but having to accept that the market had assigned a negative worth to my first 3 years of experience cut me to my core, especially I was quite young (25) and had been very successful initially. There’s lots more I could say about how dark those days were, but the underlying message is: it was horrific and far worse than now.

Where are we now?

I stayed in that permie role for 5yrs (inertia meant that I didn’t fully capitalise on the post-2004 recovery) but then did 16 months in a contract position as Head Of Testing in a major organisation. This ended in mid December and I haven’t had so much as an interview since. So to answer the OP’s question – I can beat the 4 months and the testing market is in a deep coma which I expect to last for several years yet but it is not dead and therefore is not buried.

What next?

It’s all happening again:

- Intelligence-insulting adverts/calls (ok they happen in good times to some extent)

- Agents trying to tell you that things are still ok but more effort is required to dig out the roles (until you start talking rates at which point they tell you the market has collapsed)

- Etc I won’t do the list – you know it already.

Rates/salaries and in free-fall; I had someone on the phone the other day wanting to know if I was interested in a permie role managing a test function of over 200 people for £65k. I expect things to get far worse before they get better.

I’m afraid that despite all the efforts of the testing community (of which I’m a very active member) with things like ISEB/ISTQB, the SIGIST, hugely sophisticated tools and techniques etc, testing is still seen as a very low-value activity that can be done by the tea lady if need be. I even know someone who honestly believes that Java’s garbage collection renders testing redundant, as if memory leaks were the only class of defect. It is also the case that many people feel agile methods render testers and test managers redundant and if the trend towards agile keeps going, this attitude will become more common.

As a result of such attitudes and prejudices, the demand for test specialists has been/is/will probably remain highly bi-modal, with extreme peaks and troughs.

At this point, if you’re a testing specialist, you’re going to need a massive warchest (I’ve just turned 33 and I have 15 yrs worth of living costs saved, or much more if I move back to my parents). I don’t expect to need all of that, but this is going to be long and tough. That’s one of the benefits of going through a major market collapse – it really motivates you to save for the next time (not that I needed the motivation because I’m as saver by instinct but it does make you appreciate the good times much more).

Any benched testing specialist that doesn’t have the domestic and financial circumstances that allow them to hold tight may need to re-think their future.

One other important lesson I took from last time is not to spend all of your time job hunting (easier said than done I know, especially if unlike me you have family responsibilities etc). Last time all I had to show for my 15months of bench time was a pile of rejections. I wish I had spent some time developing a plan b, some time applying, some time getting fitter, some time on new certifications etc. I’ve applied this lesson this time ‘round.

Good luck to us all,

HeadofTesting

[Crusoe101]

We have just taken on 3 testers, 2 BA's for a new application.

Contract of course

[grey_lady]

I've found the testing market very hard for the last 6 months, working off and on for previous clients on very short term contracts.

From what i've heard an ad for testers on jobserve will generate a couple of hundred applicants within a few hours, so you'll be lucky if an agent sifts through all those to your cv rather than just stop after the first couple of half decent ones.

Currently i think that in testing you need to be the guy that agencies call first, they dont need to advertise on jobserve as they've got so many cv's of people they know are looking, so staying in touch regularly with agencies that you've worked through before might be a good plan.

The other thing is to step into a niche area, loadrunner, QTP, selenium, fitnesse etc there seems to be ads on jobserve for automated tools and nothing for manual testers. Selenium is free, QTP has a free trial period so cheap to pick up the basics of, think fitnesse may be free as well.

Still seems to be a few perm roles being advertised as well...