A Tester Works in a Product Company: Advantages and Disadvantages

A person can be hired there in one of two cases: starting his/her work in a non-IT company with a product team or in specialized IT companies.

The first case is not always a good fit for a junior QA engineer.

Such companies may treat a product team and a QA engineer improperly.

This happens due to several reasons:

• A limited budget;
• There is no proper competency and understanding of the IT department’s role.

Let’s analyze all advantages and disadvantages of such employment for a junior QA engineer in quality control companies.

Why should you work there?

• You will have the possibility to sink in a product and work on big long-term projects. The project scope generally depends on available resources and a number of company employees but you will definitely have a chance to sink in a project and analyze its peculiarities. You can also hone your skills in a certain technical field.
• The presence of mentoring and onboarding. Medium-sized and big companies usually have their own team leader or a manager that can follow newcomers in their projects and help them to analyze the tasks during the initial period and this decreases a stress level in a new place and helps to understand it rapidly;
• The possibility of additional learning. If a company is ready to enhance its employees’ skills, it offers them various corporate courses, conferences, certifications, paid by a company and so on. It’s great if a company has the possibility to transform this learning into the entire corporate philosophy.
• Constant work environment. It’s hard not to agree that it’s pleasant to be an inside person. Not only be inseparable from a corporate community but also learn how to collaborate inside a team. It’s not only interesting but gives you more chances to learn new skills;
• Sinking in a product. If you work in a product company, you will have a chance to track all project stages;
• Corporate bonuses. We think that nobody will reject them.

What may you not like?

• You will acquire only a limited set of skills. If you constantly work on one project only, in one field, it will be difficult for you to learn new skills. For example, if you perform only web testing, you may have difficulties with mobile testing since mobile devices require specific skills. You won’t be able to rapidly test IoT software if you have never worked with it.
• Unclear grades. This leads to one more issue. If you eventually decide to move to another company for the same position, you won’t get it since this will require other technical skills;
• Professional burnout. In some time, it will be boring for you to work on the same project. Every new day will be the same as the previous one: test cases that you have studied completely, repeated bugs, etc.
• The same team. A team and a number of its members can be either an advantage or disadvantage while working with a product company. It will be very bad if you have issues communicating with a development department.

Conclusion

A product company can give you experience, a chance to work among your teammates, test complex software, work on long-term projects and develop your professional skills.

There is only a problem with what skills can be acquired working on a project and if you won’t face emotional burnup after working on the same position for a long time.