My First Job as an SDET
Introduction
Hello, my name is mpj, you are currently reading my first post on my software testing blog. Now I want to share some experience and insight about my first full-time job and it is as SDET. Yes! SDET – Software Development Engineer in Test. My job search journey started right after successfully conducted my final thesis Defense of my bachelor degree around 1 month before I write this article. My thesis is one of the best project I’ve ever done and it is written in English even my national language is not English and I discover a method to increase the efficiency of measuring Young’s modulus of wood with a nondestructive evaluation.
Okay, I have finished my final thesis defense, will be graduated in one month and ready to open the door for next phase of my life. At that time, I was a part-time software engineer for a software consulting company called Wonderlabs in Yogyakarta for 3 months researched and developed a back-end piece of several web apps. In parallel, I also interning remotely to a non-profit company in US called Open Learning Exchange where I learn automated testing there. I think I want to take a more “serious” full time job in Jakarta (a capital city of Indonesia), and I want to be either a software engineer or data scientist. I also prefer Fintech company since I love the industry and want to learn more about our financial system works.
I am neither computer science graduate nor information technology, but I love computer since I was kid when my Father give me an old Pentium III CPU in 2007. Since that, I believe that computer would open the door for everyone, now computer powered machine is helping many aspects of our life with products like smartphone, self-driving car, and many other. When I am interning in Microsoft last year I realize that now software industry is one of the most impactful industry with 4 of 5 software-powered technology company i.e. Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook filled the list of the most valuable brand by Forbes in 2017 (see here). I believe I can maximize my potential if I develop my career in Software Industry.
I see that there are two jobs which interests me. There are software engineer and data scientist. I began to apply for the following category and company
- E-commerce
- Tokopedia
- BukaLapak
- Qlapa
- FinTech
- Cermati
- Midtrans
- Media
- Kumparan
Long story short. From 9 positions, 8 of them bring me to interview. I am not attending all the interviews, I only attending 5 interviews, 2 accepted, 2 rejected and 1 bring me to final interviews, then I rejected 1 final interview and 3 other interviews. However, two company who give me the offer letter is the company who fit personality and they give me the job I want. I offered a Data Analytics Engineer and Software Development Engineer in Test positions in two different company. Although, I love both positions I choose to be a Software Development Engineer in Test because I believe that by being an engineer in test, I could learn a holistic point-of-view of the business and software I contribute to. By doing so, I can learn about software engineering practice as well as learning the business for preparing my future journey as an entrepreneur.
Now, my aim is being a testing expert in two years and want to learn as many knowledge as possible. My role model is James Bach of Satisfice.com and I aim to surpass him as a software testing expert 😃
Thank you for reading my bad writing, and please comment to support me writing better article in the future.
