

Ask HN: Interviewed for Developer and offered Tester position - bluerail

First off, I am a beginner programmer trying to break off into a programming career.. I am currently in a SysAdmin job..<p>I recently interviewed with a company for a developer position and after all the Interviews are done, their CTO suggested me to get into Automation Tester position before moving into development since they are using Python (I program using python) for tests and GO and Node.js for development..<p>What do you think of? Is it possible to switch to development once I&#x27;m in? How much coding will I do at the Testing job?
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mdn0420
I'm a software engineer at a gaming company and have never worked as an
'Automation Tester' but have worked with them on my team so I can only speak
from my observations.

You will write code and are encouraged to build well designed software.
However, the problems you are addressing are slightly different and there will
be less emphasis on writing quality software compared to writing production
code (a bit ironic). On the other hand, you may get some exposure to the
codebase in which you could learn from.

Knowing a particular language is handy but that is hardly ever my concern.
Your goal should be to master software design principles. You want to know
what patterns will make your solution the most performant, maintainable,
reusable, etc. With that in mind, pick whatever path will teach you that the
fastest.

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bbulkow
Depends on the company.

I would not hire any programmer who only knows python. I am a silicon valley
CTO. This shows a technologist at the very earliest stages of their
development.

Going carefully through online courses in Node/Javascript, Java, Scala,
Objective C, Go, Ruby, PHP and writing example programs in each one should
take you more than a few months of nights and weekends, but is the kind of
work a programmer enjoys. In my first 10 years in the valley, I worked most
weekend on my own projects, I would occasionally take a full weekend off. I
still have to learn new things many weekends, just to keep up.

The good news: no one cares about "certification" or "classes". The bad news:
you're on your own. Learn a few languages.

Should you take the job? If you want to be a programmer, what's the
environment where you'll be able to learn on your own? Which gives you the
most free time, and access to Gurus?

~~~
bluerail
Thanks.. The company is a pioneer in Movie industry and they have various
software products ranging from editing tools to projection technologies at
theaters...

As you said, it would exactly give me the environment to sit with like minded
programmers and learn from them, but I am little skeptical whether I will be
able to pick up another language for development while doing the testing
job... Also, not sure how much programming is required as part of a Tester's
job...

