[Akshay6988]

Guys I'm working as a SDET(QA) for almost 3 years, mainly doing API testing. I am very confused about whether to keep working in QA or switch to Dev role. If I decide to go Dev role, I would have to brush up my technical skills a lot. Meanwhile I'm very good at what I am doing as a sdet now, which has almost gotten me a promotion to consultant position. Really confused about this situation. Anyone here who switched to Dev role from QA role, please give your valuable suggestions. TIA

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

Do you work for IT Services ?

Yes I work in a MNC, the usual case - CS grad selected from campus recruitment.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by Akshay6988

Guys I'm working as a SDET(QA) for almost 3 years..

Do you work for IT Services ?

[warrioraks]

Originally Posted by Akshay6988

I am very confused about whether to keep working in QA or switch to Dev role.

It’s very hard to recommend considering we do not know your interests, your organisation culture and few other important things.

Highly generalised answer is - Most developers can become a QA but the reverse is usually not true. If someone has a chance to move from QA to development, it would ideally open up broader career options in the longer term.

[TrackDay]

Not sure if this is the right thread, but if not kindly direct me to the right one.

First of all let me tell a bit about myself. I am a 30 year old mechanical engineer with working experience in both India as well as the Middle East. My total work experience is around 2-3 years in the M.E and 3-4 years in India. My Domain involves HVAC engineering as well as production engineering (Manufacturing plant). In these two domains I have been involved from design to production planning, new process implementation to project manager. Extended roles have also involved setting up plant expansion and maintenance.

However as I turned 30 and with the recent pandemic I have started yearning for some change. Is 30 too late to change tracks ? I am looking forward to a job profile that will involve travelling a lot abroad, project management and even sales. However I see that most of the members on the forum are in the IT field and I have no clue or idea about programming or software language.

Any advice on what other sectors / job profiles I can shift to ?

[jkrishnakj]

Hi Trackday - I shifted to an IT services firm at 30, I was working in a manufacturing setup in a plant. I’m a Mech Engg too. And trust me, with 20 years now in the IT services, I can’t code a single line nor do I understand software. What I do carry with me is my strong functional domain.

One thought, from your experience, you can explore the design/RnD/Engg Centers/Engg services of multinationals in India. That will take care of travel as well. I’m not sure sales is what is your true calling, unless you have seen the sales folks travel places and think that it’s a good life.

[Shiftlock]

Hello all,
I am currently in my 4th year of Btech doing Mechanical Engineering and I am interested in Engineering Management as a field. With Placement season well and truly underway I am slightly confused in two things:
a) Does it make sense to get a job and work for a few years before pursuing my Masters in Engineering Management.

b) If yes, then what profiles should I be on the look out for?

Any help here or via PM would be of great help

Regards
Shiftlock

[One]

Originally Posted by Shiftlock

a) Does it make sense to get a job and work for a few years before pursuing my Masters in Engineering Management.

b) If yes, then what profiles should I be on the look out for?

Any help here or via PM would be of great help

Regards
Shiftlock

a.) I am personally a big fan and extremely biased towards working first before taking any step of further education. My reasons are:
- A job, irrespective of the field, gives a certain maturity and gets one out of the confines of a college.
- If observant, the first job helps see and understand what works, what doesn't work, starts moulding the approach towards work and people in general.
- It also gives an opportunity to explore an area we think we might like. This helps be more certain for a stream for higher studies which involves time and money.
- People with work experience gain more from what is taught in higher studies as they can relate to few things being said in class.
- People with work-ex can potentially get admission/ scholarship opportunities into a better college abroad considering that marks are not going to change at this stage.

b.) Considering what you think you want to choose for higher studies, check the background of the students of Stanford and Master courses which are reputed for Engineering Management and Systems Thinking. That might give more pointers to kind of jobs you might want to look at initially. I would however pick up any opportunity where the opportunity to learn is maximum in an area I think I will like. Sometimes people say to work in small organisations so that there is more learning. I think working even in a large organization has great learning opportunities because one gets to view greater systems/ process/ departments work (as long as one is alert).

Wish you the best in whatever you choose. With time in your hand, you will never go wrong with whatever choice you make

[am1m]

Originally Posted by am1m

I'm looking at a job opportunity that ticks almost all the boxes at this stage in my career, except when it comes to the money. It will mean a pretty significant pay cut (about 40% reduction in the in-hand salary).

My gut feeling tells me to take up this new role, take the pay cut, get out of my comfort zone, get off my butt, take up some additional responsibilities, learn a completely new domain.

But on the other hand, am I being reckless/stupid? The first new reduced payslip is going to feel bad, no two ways about it. Should I just keep my head down in these troubled times and slog along, saving as much as I can?

Originally Posted by omzworld

Take the risk and move. Suddenly your company will have a new management, they will look to do something

Originally Posted by AltoLXI

In most of the organizations, these will be classic conditions for the HR to bid good bye to the employee.

Originally Posted by Samurai

It all comes down to your risk appetite.

Otherwise, you are wading into uncharted waters. No one can really tell you whether you should take the jump or not.

Originally Posted by Jaguar

My advice is, take the plunge only if the new company and job profile are good.

Originally Posted by sunilch

This is a very big risk. This feels like your employer is vulnerable to a sudden disruption.

But for you, if you don't have any such limitations - it is better to take this risk and try something new. And it is not late.

Originally Posted by headbanger

Firstly, you are not alone in this situation. There are so many who share the same implications. Let's just say that's the way IT spanned across a particular time span.

Thought I'd post an update on this since there might be people around my age thinking about similar shifts.

Well, it's been more than a month since I made the shift and so far it's working out well. No regrets whatsoever. The new place is diametrically opposite culturally to the old workplace. It's been a challenge to rediscover my "self-starter", "move quick", and "take a decision" facets after literally more than a decade of the "follow the process", "go through the proper channels", and "let's have n-number of meetings about this" approach!

Getting to work with some much younger people who have done so much more different stuff in their careers than I have in mine and am learning so much from them. But I also find that I'm able to bring some depth to the table.

The reduced paycheck is not as bad as I initially estimated it would be, the trade-off for a more flexible work culture and this much learning is certainly worth it.

I know it's early days yet, but so far it seems to be working well and more than no regrets about making the shift, I'm glad I did and in hindsight, should have done this 4 years ago. Thank you all for your responses to my original post, helped me make up my mind.

[rajesh1868]

Originally Posted by am1m

I know it's early days yet, but so far it seems to be working well and more than no regrets about making the shift, I'm glad I did and in hindsight, should have done this 4 years ago. Thank you all for your responses to my original post, helped me make up my mind.

Congrats and wish you all the best. Not everyone would have taken the risk. Happy to know it has been going well.

[ManasN95]

Hello everyone, I'm 26 year old, and undecided about my future career path. So far, I'm part handling my family's business of flexible packaging (which I've no further interest to continue after steadying the ship for an year or so) and I have also subscribed to a couple of courses on stock market trading which I'm quite excited about. I'm a Bachelor's in Production Management, passed out in 2018. Since then it has been my family's business, which hasn't really took off until now.

For quite a long time, I've wanted to work for a startup like Powerdrift. I had an internship offer from them back in 2017 but alas my college didn't permit for time off.

Until I fixate on my further plan of action for my career, I'd love to work at Powerdrift because I've an emotional attachment for them, but any other automotive media firm would be a great opportunity for me to grow in a like minded set of people and hone my long redundant skills of being able to write and click.

If someone with a similar experience of working or of your colleagues, what exactly is needed to be able to work at a startup/firm like PD?

I'm asking about any skills & courses that I can do to make my mark in the resume.

Can somebody please help me out?

[jetsetgo08]

Hello Everyone, pardon me for a slightly longer post.

Seeking professional advice from people working in the IT industry.

After completing a decade of service in the IT industry (embedded systems software in the electrical domain), I feel that I have reached a point in the career, there would not be a substantial growth w.r.t technical or financial in the current stream. Neither there is a market demand for people working in these verticals that accentuates the lack of technical/financial growth prospects.

Due to this, now I am forced to look for opportunities elsewhere, for e.g. in demand or upcoming technologies like ML/AI , Cyber-security etc.

However, I could not envision a clear path on how to make a seamless transition from one technology to the other. Upon retrospection, some questions that pronged are -

1. Which upcoming or in-demand technology? Something that could keep us afloat for a decade atleast.
2. How to learn the technology? Are online certifications worth it?
3. For these new technologies, how do we connect the dots from the past work experience? Assuming that they are totally unrelated.
4. Is there any tried and tested method of doing particular course/certification?

Highly appreciate if anyone could share their personal experience, as it would help many here.

Thanks in Advance

[sunilch]

Looking for suggestions for a close family member / relative. Female, 30+ and Dentist by education and career experience so far. Worked as Dentist (own practice and in partnership with Trusts and Corporate Dental Chains) for over 8 years before taking a break for parenting. Currently still on parenting break for next 1 year.

Now she is planning to get into corporate(s) either directly or via education (MBA?). What are her best options?

1) Join a KPO type of company first and then do some part-time executive MBA from a reputed institute in Mumbai - JB, SP, NM, IITB-SOM, etc?

2) Directly take a stab at a 1 year executive / Sr. Mgmt program at these institutes? (If such a program is available). This after spending next 1 year in preparations for exams, as applicable.

3) Any other alternative option?

Place has to be Mumbai as relocating is not possible due to family commitments and young children at home. Field of interest will be Business Operations, Business or Product Development, Data Analytics or Strategy. Not keen on a specialized function such as Finance or Sales/Marketing.

Looking for options that may not need heavy monitory investments but reasonable expenses are ok. Hard to define reasonable but not looking at ISB type of expensive programs where the cost runs into 10x lacs of rupees.

[Siddarth_Ramani]

My situation: I'm 20. I finished 12th (PCM) 2 years ago . I was a self taught coder and am a good learner. I thought IT industry was hitting a saturation point and hiring wasn't that good back then (pre COVID). So did not join engineering and decided to take up Chartered Accountancy (CA). All went well and I cleared foundation without coaching. I wrote my inter exams and awaiting the results.

Second thoughts: Considering the hiring, hikes and starting packages offered these days, I feel like I made a mistake of switching from science to commerce. Is it worthwhile to join IT industry somehow or should I continue CA?.
Coming to CA as a profession, our batchmates (it's a collective opinion) feel that this course is losing it's sheen. The starting packages offered 8-10 lakh is at par with engineering grads and it feels low for the enormous hardwork we put and not to forget the 3 year industry experience we get in the name of articleship. Traditional practice requires a lot of time to build the reputation and now with GST audit limit increased the scope is reducing.
Besides clearing CA itself is a huge task, the odds are always against us (hardly 10k output each year). Considering that should I get back to IT industry somehow?
I really would like the input from any CA or IT industry employee.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by sunilch

Looking for suggestions for a close family member / relative. Female, 30+ and Dentist by education and career experience so far.

Now she is planning to get into corporate(s) either directly or via education (MBA?). What are her best options?

What is the reason for this shift? Can't she get back into her previous role or doesn't want to? If it is the latter, then the person's interests and aptitude should decide what path to follow, rather than available opportunities.

Originally Posted by Siddarth_Ramani

Considering that should I get back to IT industry somehow?
I really would like the input from any CA or IT industry employee.

There are plenty of opportunities for finance professionals in Fintech companies, especially the folks with programming aptitude. But most organizations will look for at least a graduate degree. So dropping your current study mid-way and getting into IT would be almost impossible. Focus on completing your CA and also pursue some coding in parallel. Post that, you can decide whether you want to continue in finance or move to IT.

[sunilch]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

What is the reason for this shift? Can't she get back into her previous role or doesn't want to? If it is the latter, then the person's interests and aptitude should decide what path to follow, rather than available opportunities.

No more keen on running own Dental practice - last one was shut just before Pandemic due to leasing issues with property owner and hence lead to capital losses. Was lucky, you can say but losses were real.

Setting up new one on own isn't feasible in a city such as Mumbai due to un-realistic capital needs upfront.

Job as a Dentist isn't a great option. Salaries are very low, commitments are high and growth opportunities are limited - and learning/upgrading too needs capital investments. Also, all practices ask for six days/week commitment. This is the fallback option though if nothing works out for her.

Limited financial resources is a primary deterrent here. Hence can't opt for expensive MBA programs and evaluating a job that pays well and has a 5 days / week ask.