Tips to create an effective Portfolio for a successful career in Testing

Posted in: Career Shaping in QA

Tips to create an effective Portfolio for a successful career in Testing

In this catchy IT sector, every tester whether a novice or an expert, needs some extra ammunition in his / her armory by which he / she can standout of the rest, especially when facing an interview.

Now let us try to know the unique identifier that can make you different?

That is a nicely organized portfolio. This becomes our flagship, and can improve our employability. Armed with a good portfolio loaded with sparkling personal information, one can compel any selection team to go in for a decision in his / her favor.

Next question arises is � What my personal portfolio should contain?

Following hot tips on organizing vital personal information being a part of your portfolio can be:

Tip – 1: The beginning is made with a decent folder having provision of inserting many sleeves, which could last for couple of years.

Tip – 2: Keep few copies of your resume or curriculum vitae that must be powerfully portraying the first hand information about your career in testing. Remember that a good resume itself is able to answer several questions shot by interviewers.
Tip – 3: Keep a chronological history of your entire career neatly typed on a sheet.

Tip – 4: Keep copies of complimentary letters or e-mails received from time to time.

Tip – 5: Keep testimonials & detailed mark-sheets of various professional courses.

Tip – 6: Keep copies of non-confidential reports engineered by you. Remember that it must never contain any intellectual information or property of any of your client. Such information is viewed as espionage & is never liked by any interviewer.

Tip – 7: You must preserve documentary evidence of lectures or presentations delivered by you at your client or an employer or at some other knowledge forum.

Tip – 8: Keep a neatly typed sheet listing out an analysis of your skills versus gap, which could be quite helpful on many occasions.

Tip – 9: Copies of your performance appraisals from different employers are helpful in outlining the credentials effectively.

Tip – 10: Keep some documentary evidence of your testing activities listing out details of projects handled by you, your role in them, ultimate achievements. Remember not to include the names & details of the clients, unless your client has made such information public on its own.

Tip – 11: Keep copies of all professional articles written & published by you.

Tip – 12: Keep copies of patents of inventions made by you.

Tip – 13: Keep documentary evidence or details of team builds exclusively led by you.

Tip – 14: Keep a summary of lessons learnt especially from your mistakes which helped you to move on. Such a document is regarded with great respect by the interviewers.

Tip – 15: Keep a list of your personal strengths & weaknesses or a list of your Likes & dislikes. This would be extremely helpful in coming out of certain odd situations usually created by some irritating interviewers.

To tackle the obvious uncomfortable question of describing one�s strengths & weaknesses; it is ideal to memorize a minimum of 10 qualities of your good points and perhaps 1 or 2 bad points or weakness. The idea of memorizing is to make it look natural and smooth during your interview session. With some practice, you will appear to be wonderfully articulate & confident and not like a tongue tied & fumbling inexperienced fool. This will help you in patching up your weakness and being a bit more aware of your own limitations of capabilities.

It is ideal to memorize your entire portfolio, if it is a bit concise, but sometimes it is not possible do so. In such a situation, nicely written documents supporting each & every artifacts should remain handy with you all the time you are out on career building expeditions.

Our career portfolio must not end at above list of 15 suggested do�s or don�ts. Rather we must keep on expanding the list with more & more artifacts from time to time.

Conclusion: With a potent combination of a powerful portfolio backed by your real professional expertise, you can smartly knock off all competitors and march towards a glamorous career in testing easily.

Best of Luck !!!

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