Another classic definition of Testing ....

After reading chapter 5 on Automation testing of all time favorite book on testing - "Lessons learnt in software testing" and this interesting thread of discussion on "software testing" Yahoo group discussion – let me re-define “software testing” or its objective as follows

"Software testing is a questioning process that is aimed at getting information about the software product under test"

Based on what kind information one wants to know about the application under test - testing takes different shape - hence we have different types, levels of testing.

This definition is very simple yet very powerful.

Interviews, failures and being yourself ….

Continuing my tips on interviews, here are some very interesting observations on a job seeker in the interview. Louise of blue sky resumes , makes important points about interview -

• It is not a test where job seeker has to pass or employer to fail/raject a candidate.
• It is not about giving “right” answers and impressing the interviewer but about “being yourself “and giving answers straight from your heart.

He points out that a job that was obtained by some kind of “faking”- will eventually be a disaster for both job seeker and employer - as fundamentally there was a “misfit”.

I see this post carrying a distinct point of view about job interview -- it discourages the approach of “impressing the interviewer”and makes a point to look for a match between job requirements and intersts and capabilities of a prospective candidate.

Louise signs off the post with these words “If they don't choose you, chances are it wasn't the right fit anyway”. This is a practical way to fight blues of “rejection”. I personally have gone thru few such occasions and was rejected for some jobs when I was in desperate need of job. Now when I see those situations in retrospect, I am happy that they rejected me. There was “misfit” in those situations.

Gretchen, a Sr. technical recruiter at Microsoft, echoes on the similar lines

On a totally different line – don’t forget to checkout this post from monster on “exit interviews”.