Only as good as your last contract?

[Belle]

I’ve been a Test Manager for 10 years and have progressed to large projects in large corporates. But now, I am on the bench . I’ve now been offered a BA job through an acquaintance's company. Obviously this is more junior than the roles I’ve held in the past, but it is within the IB industry (though not within a bank). Thing is – will this affect my CV for future roles? I’ve only been on the bench this week so I could hang out for a few more weeks for a TM role. But they seem few and far between at the moment so I’m worried that if I turn this down, I’ll be in the tulip. At the moment, do you take any work, or should you still stick with the plan and make sure you’re only taking contracts that look good on your CV?

[zamzummim]

I am a BA and always get involved in setting/planning test strategy, and planning/executing UAT etc.. so the roles are not so far apart, when the market is better, you'll get plenty of jobs, when the market is bad, survival is for the fittest.

My point is take the role and do it, later when the market is better you can highlight the testing parts for this role in your CV and make it sound like test analysis focused role(not fibbing, just highlighting according to your new role)
In any case variety and exposure to various roles within the project is always beneficial IMO.

Anyway, take the role and be happy you got one best of luck.

[Evil Hangover]

I would have thought your decision is a function of the length of the contract, the notice period, how bad the rate is, the your current warchest etc. the usual.

Just because the role is for a BA, it doesn't mean that it can't magically transform into a Test Manager position on your CV, when the time comes to move on...

[JoJoGabor]

Time spent in an unknown company looks better than time on the bench. Take it!

[thelace]

"I was tempted by the role for the opportunity to learn a few new skills along with the clients requirements for some of my core skills"

[Belle]

"I was tempted by the role for the opportunity to learn a few new skills along with the clients requirements for some of my core skills"

Brilliant - sounds better than trying to fudge the CV. Thanks for all the comments - huge help.

[Fred Bloggs]

I very often change past job titles on my CV to reflect a new job that might be offered. I always change the emphasis of each past job to reflect what the next prospective client wants, but without telling lies of course. I'm a contractor so I don't have things like "job titles" and stuff. So why should I be restricted to what title I put on my CV for past roles?

[SuperZ]

Go for it, it`s only a job title. Arguably some might consider a BA role better than a TM role. I prefer BA work and some BA positions pay very well

Even Test Manager positions vary from company to company. A Test Manager for example can just be someone managing the testing of something, might not even have a team under them (as I once didn`t for a while until some numpties were given to me to help out with the actual testing). But a Test Team Leader can have Test Analysts/ Senior Testers and Test Managers reporting to them. So a Test Team Leader can be more senior than a Test Manager.

I think people get caught up on the word "Manager".

Do the BA role, it will at least be another skill to add to the CV. I`m of the belief than someone who has done/can do other roles is much more desirable - I`ve worked with a few folks who have done the same work for a long time and I`ve found them to actually be quite stale

[herman_g]

With a lot of specific knowledge of my line of business ( card processing ), I just take any role - test management, business anaylst or programmer - why do I care.

I never viewed my contractor CV as needing any logical career progession, I leave the glory to the permies.

All hiring managers spend their bigger parts of their contractor budgets on efforts that will make them look better. My ability to do that will get me the role no matter what he is calling it.

And, to be honest, I don't see test management as that much different from BA work. I find BA roles can be much slower-paced, but probably puts you under more pressure to have all the right answers.

[kanulondon]

WTAS

KL