I think it’s time to shake up the QA Software testing space for both manual and automation QA.
Recently I had my birthday and planned out my personal goals for the next 1,5, and 10 years of my life dealing with my family, career, and everything else. But then I sat and thought what about my platform as “The Test Lead”? What was next for me. It took me a few days, but I finally mapped some things out and created a plan and few milestones.
I am going to share it now and I am open to suggestions and critiques as always especially from people who have expertise in some of the areas.
1. Create The Largest QA Community
I have been in this field for about 8 years now. In my everyday life, outside of the workplace and a conference here and there, I never get to connect with other people in the QA space. Throughout my journey I have seen few Facebook group and LinkedIn group for software testers on both the manual and automation side. However they usually have less than 50 people and maybe 5 are actually active on a weekly basis.
Whether I am new to the QA space or 10+ years in, I wish I had a central place or platform to go to where I can talk and connect with people who have the same passion for testing as me.
Plan-Use my YouTube and Medium platform communities to create a single location for testers to network
Ideas: Discord, Dedicated website with membership
If interested, subscribe to my email list for updates on my website and feel free to email me any ideas thetestinglead@gmail.com
2. Help 100+ People Get A Job In The Space
When I first started out on YouTube and Medium I wanted to be a reference and help educate people on some of the material. When I was moving up through the ranks, finding helping information was hard for me, so I figured I would help the next generation of testers as I started to move up.
Since then I created 100+ Youtube Videos and Medium articles, been asked to be an instructor for a QA Bootcamp, and have finally released my own QA course teaching people how to learn the skillset from scratch. My next goal is to help at least 100+ people get a new job.
Plan-Continue to use my instructor position, course, and content platforms to help educate people.
Link To Bootcamp-> https://crst.co/JUSTINBA-EE9779DE
Link To Course->https://www.thetestinglead.com/courses
Link To YouTube->https://www.youtube.com/@thetestlead
If I in any way help you get a job over the next 5 years, please reach out to me! I don’t care if it is an entry level job or you switched to a new company, let me know.
3. Help 100+ People Share Their QA Journey!
I have learned that sharing your journey and experiences can help other people on their journey. It can not only be motivating, but also provide other people a blueprint for their journey.
I did a few interviews on my YouTube of people sharing their experiences, but I want to make a more intentional attempt for the next 5 years.
Plan-Get 100+ people to be confident enough to share their journey and post it on YouTube and dedicated Podcast platforms
If you or anyone you know would like to share your experience whether you are 1 on 20 years in, feel free to reach out to me!
Current people sharing their journey ->https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjHVyq6aPCTMu47PJo6BhFxMcUU0817YL
4. Create More Lifestyle And Financial Content
Many people ask me, well what do you do outside of testing? And once I raddle off a list of hobbies I become more relatable and interesting to them. There is so much more to life than just writing test cases cases or wondering why your Selenium can’t find the hidden element on the web page. To stay humanized and to emphasize work life balance, people need a reminder from time to time. I will be that reminder.
Also once people do start making tech salaries, they may need education about 401ks, retirement, stocks and budgeting. This way they wont be making 6 figured and still living check to check.
Plan-Create more well rounded content on my platforms and promote my social media accounts so people can see everyday life interactions.
Instagram->juss_bailey,TheTestLead
Twitter:->Juss_Bailey
5. Reach New Heights In Following
I follow a few YouTube people in the space who have from 50k-100k followers. They have also been on the platform for 10+ years. I want to reach new heights faster.
I want to hit 100k subscribers on YouTube and 5k on Medium. Right now I have 6k YouTube subscribers and 1k on Medium, so I have a long way to go to say the least, but I am determined.
Plan-Be consistent with posting my content, listen to feedback about bettering my content, create better content. Also hope for the algorithms to magically work in my favor.
If you have any of the platforms that I am on, feel free to connect! Without followers and my community, I would have got as far as I am now and can’t continue to reach any of my future goals!
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