Top flight developers producing quality code don't need large QA departments. They've already written well-designed, bug-resistent code, unit tests, integration tests, and performance tests, all in the course of producing something that works (the first time).
If you have to pay a phalanx of QA engineers to find bugs post-facto ("just as important as our development department"), you're doing it wrong. The bugs shouldn't have been there to begin with.
I assure you that I work with some of the best devs that are in the market right now. They are really good, but when you have to deal with millions of lines of code across a extremely complex system, bugs happen!!!:)
Unit testing, code coverage tools, continuous build systems can just mitigate the effect not eliminate bugs.
Even QAs just make sure that the quality is within acceptable parameters they can't eliminate them completely.
I blame our parents:) for telling us that a college degree will land us a badass job and a big-ass house right out of college when the unfortunate reality is that the fresh mechanical engineering graduate will take their first job as a hinge or pipe designer or that a CS grad will have to code lazy kids' homework assignments for hire!
I agree that finding a good programmer job right outta college is tough. But you can always consider working as a contractor to gain experience and then once the skill set is complete, try in comps like MS and all.
But I must say the hiring bar is quite high in comps like Amazon and all:( I speak from experience as someone who take interviews people applying as SDETS:)
You could use the QA experience to your advantage.
Since you have a QA mindset you will make a great SDET (Software Dev Engineer in Test).
An SDET writes code to test the code written by Devs. This involves writing service level automation frameworks. Test tools to make automation tasks easier and also UI level automation.
Such a job allows you to keep your QA skills and at the same time showcase your coding talent. If you show enough panache for being a coder, you can make a move as an SDE which is a much easier transition than going from QA to SDE.
Plus SDETs are paid nearly at par with SDEs.
Companies that you should be looking at:
Amazon
Microsoft
Research in Motion
Real Networks
Google.
Another way is to join consulting firms like Volt which allows you to work as a contractor in Microsoft. If you do well and get recognized, you can apply in MS and get selected.
Hope this helps:)
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They do have some decent QA contrary to what other ppl think :)
Top flight developers producing quality code don't need large QA departments. They've already written well-designed, bug-resistent code, unit tests, integration tests, and performance tests, all in the course of producing something that works (the first time).
If you have to pay a phalanx of QA engineers to find bugs post-facto ("just as important as our development department"), you're doing it wrong. The bugs shouldn't have been there to begin with.
I assure you that I work with some of the best devs that are in the market right now. They are really good, but when you have to deal with millions of lines of code across a extremely complex system, bugs happen!!! :)
Unit testing, code coverage tools, continuous build systems can just mitigate the effect not eliminate bugs.
Even QAs just make sure that the quality is within acceptable parameters they can't eliminate them completely.
I blame our parents :) for telling us that a college degree will land us a badass job and a big-ass house right out of college when the unfortunate reality is that the fresh mechanical engineering graduate will take their first job as a hinge or pipe designer or that a CS grad will have to code lazy kids' homework assignments for hire!
I agree that finding a good programmer job right outta college is tough. But you can always consider working as a contractor to gain experience and then once the skill set is complete, try in comps like MS and all. But I must say the hiring bar is quite high in comps like Amazon and all :( I speak from experience as someone who take interviews people applying as SDETS :)
You could use the QA experience to your advantage. Since you have a QA mindset you will make a great SDET (Software Dev Engineer in Test). An SDET writes code to test the code written by Devs. This involves writing service level automation frameworks. Test tools to make automation tasks easier and also UI level automation. Such a job allows you to keep your QA skills and at the same time showcase your coding talent. If you show enough panache for being a coder, you can make a move as an SDE which is a much easier transition than going from QA to SDE. Plus SDETs are paid nearly at par with SDEs. Companies that you should be looking at: Amazon Microsoft Research in Motion Real Networks Google. Another way is to join consulting firms like Volt which allows you to work as a contractor in Microsoft. If you do well and get recognized, you can apply in MS and get selected. Hope this helps :)