Our Keynote is Finished, and I have an Announcement To Make

 Today I had the chance to deliver my first keynote talk at a conference. Matt Heusser and I delivered a talk about "AI in Testing: Hip of Hype?" and by all accounts, I think it went well. We set up the talk to play off each other, where I represented the hip elements of AI, and Matt highlighted the Hype aspects. At times it may have come across as a bit of an Abbott and Costello routine but that added to the fun of it for me. I will do a more in-depth post on our keynote later but I did make an announcement here that needs to be broadcast.

On October 1, 2024, I started working as a Senior Development Test Engineer for ModelOP. They are based in Chicago and are focused on providing monitoring and management solutions for AI Governance. If that seems vague, it's because I'm literally learning about all this as I go. My job responsibilities will be testing-related, with a major emphasis on automation and accessibility. 

We made a point in this talk that this would be the last of the series of times Matt and I have taught together or spoken together where I was working specifically for Excelon Development. Matt gave me many valuable insights into what it took to be an independent consultant and how to work effectively in that space. I hope to leverage those lessons in this new role and ultimately be effective in that capacity.

It's been a strange journey over the past fifteen and a half months but I learned a lot through it, I think I grew a great deal, and I learned I had capacity in areas I didn't think I had.

What Do I want to Do With My Next Job? I want to TEST!!!

This was a draft that I never published. It's rare that I do that, to be honest. My drafts folder is very lean but I wanted to hold off on this one. I didn't realize that it would be close to a year before I actually published it. Regardless, I wanted to share some sentiments about looking for work, dealing with that reality, and what my expectations and realities turned out to be. I should mention up-front that this is primarily in the past tense, and I have inserted some new information in a different colored text so you can see what was part of the original draft and what I've added today.

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Intended Publish Date: 11/16/2023

As fun as it was, and with great thanks to my dear friend Gwen Iarussi who reached out to me with an opportunity that I gladly took, that opportunity has reached its end. 

It's okay. Contracts do that. 

We are asked to accomplish a task or a goal, we go in and we do that, and then when it's all done, we wrap things up with a bow, take a metaphorical bow, and exit stage left. 

Of course, the challenge is that, unless something else is lined up and ready to go, we fall prey to the irregular income cycle. We can be well rewarded for our efforts for a time but we may have lean periods we have to weather between opportunities. Such is life and such is where I'm at right now.

Thus it should come as no surprise that I am now at that point where I am actively looking, trying to figure out what my next move will be, where it will be, and who it will be with. Of course, I am reaching out to any and all with these messages. Today on LinkedIn, I posted this update:

I have had many shares and some wonderful comments from a number of people (And to everyone doing that, thank you very much, it is greatly appreciated) but I want to draw special attention to something Jon Bach did with his reply to me. He said he'd be happy to keep an ear out for me but in classic Jon fashion, he added a little challenge for me. Looking out for me is all well and good but what exactly should he be looking out for? Specifically, what is it I actually want to be doing given the choices.

I gave a reply and then realized there was much more here I wanted to both ponder and put into better thought, so I'm taking the opportunity to take my original reply and expand it here:

That is an excellent question.

I listed above areas that I'm most definitely interested in. You may notice that I didn't mention "test automation"?

There's a reason.

It's not that I *can't* do it or *won't* do it (heck, my last several months have been focused entirely on teaching a class how to use C#, Visual Studio, MSTest, NUnit, and Playwright to do *exactly* that) but I am a weirdo who genuinely enjoys the exploration of testing, the detective work of testing, the journalism of testing. Given my druthers, I would much rather be involved in doing *that*.

I want to encourage the broader adoption and understanding of Accessibility and Inclusive Design. I want to advocate for Testability on products. I want to see a world where people who choose to use a particular set of health and wellness products don't have to force themselves to upgrade and abandon everything they've put together to help them achieve their goals.

I enjoy learning, I enjoy teaching, I enjoy being an advocate. I'm a fan of doing. If that seems squishy and not very well defined, it's a work in progress but honestly, I want to confirm or refute hypotheses, I want to experiment... I WANT TO TEST!!!

Star Date: 10/15/2024

Be careful what you wish for, because you may find out that you both get it and don't exactly get it (LOL!). Much of 2024 had me focusing on technical writing rather than testing. In short, I did very little of what I WANTED to do but I was 100% happy to do the work that I did. I learned a great deal in the process and I found that, perhaps, the greatest thing I could have spent my time doing was putting my own writing under a microscope. More to the point, I had a chance to compare my writing to what many AI tools were generating. I confess I was amused that I was being asked to do a writing gig for an extended period at a time when people were commenting on the idea that AI was going to take all of those writing jobs away. I even asked why they would want to hire me when there were so many AI tools that were out there. The answer was intriguing... "Yes, we have experimented with and worked with the AI tools but they don't sound or feel convincing. We think a real writer and human that is involved in this space will bring insights and emphasis that AI tools do not." I experimented with that idea and decided to do some A/B Testing, prompting sites to help me write versus writing directly. My goal was to see how long it took me to take to have a presentable draft or final product I would be happy with.

Did AI do better than me? Depends on what we mean by "better". Did it outwrite me? No. At least not from a writing quality perspective. Literally, nothing I used AI prompts and generated output from was good to go from the get-go. I had to proofread, fix spelling and grammar, and reword a lot of stuff, as well as examine claims made and verify that they coincided with reality and could be backed up by real-world examples. When compared to my regular approach of writing from scratch, the time to a complete product was about the same in both cases. Where did AI excel? It helped me identify potential areas I might have neglected or had blind spots to. In short, it was a nice nudge to look at areas I might have glossed over or had little personal experience with, and encouraged me to look at those areas. No question, that's an AI win. It didn't do the work for me but it definitely helped me frame areas I was less alert to. I could then decide if those areas made sense to explore and include (many times, it didn't but a few times, it genuinely added to my overall knowledge and experience.

Where do I want to work? I've decided it doesn't really matter where I work as long as I can be effective and useful. I'm fond of saying "I'm a software tester and I can test any software out there". On the surface, that's true. If the goal is to help you make your product more usable, more accessible, more inclusive, and more responsive, I can probably do that with any organization. However, to borrow from Dirty Harry, "A (man) has to know (his) limitations." Odds are, if a biotech company were to look to hire me, they would not be looking for my skills to help make sites accessible. They would be looking for me to investigate how software helps answer biomedical or bioengineering problems.  It's hard to make headway in those areas without previous experience. Not impossible, but I'd definitely be several steps back from people who have already worked in these industries. 

Star Date: 10/15/2024

This is still true. Frustratingly so, in fact, and we can argue all day long about why this is problematic. I fully believe that testers can be effective in many environments but understanding the problem domain is going to absolutely stand any candidate in a better position. Having said that, testers bring many skills to the table and a lot of the skills they bring might not be obvious. Over the past two years, I have worked as the Marketing Chair for PNSQC, the conference I am attending this week. A great deal of my efforts has been to discover how to interpret the data of marketing efforts, trying to make sense of sentiment and expectations, learning about and examining analytics, having debates on the value (positive or negative) of SEO, and what initiatives actually produce engagement and interest. Before my layoff, I had very little understanding of these areas and how I could leverage these in things like my own job search or presenting ideas. Many tech people know about the inner workings of a product but struggle with why someone might actually want to buy or use it. My marketing education has given me significant insights into these areas I didn't have before, as well as how to use them.

I know that the current time will require me to put a lot more attention into seeking a job than I would like to, and the competition for jobs out there is fierce right now. I cannot count the number of jobs I have applied to that at least on the surface make sense to me to apply to, and I either hear nothing back or I am rejected infavor of other candidates, even with my years of experience. I keep seeing comments from people saying "Wait, *you're* having trouble finding a job?!" It's a weird feeling wondering if you are still fighting for work with so much experience. I wish I had an answer for that.

Star Date: 10/15/2024

I'll not be so bold to say I have an answer for this but I will happily share some observations:

- Every tester who is cold applying is going up against everyone else out there applying. You are effectively a number and a score sheet at this point. If a job has 500+ applicants, odds are that, even if you are a 93/100, there are probably a lot of people who are 94/100 or better. If you are outscored by others in some capacity, you are likely not going to get a second look.

- If you know someone at a company you want to work with, reach out to them. If nothing else, they can give you an honest assessment as to whether or not where you are would be what the company is looking for. Additionally, those people, if willing to vouch for you, do put you at a significant advantage over a blind resume. The point is that you now at least have a chance of being seen as a human being as opposed to some output score or metric. Never underestimate the value of that.

- Be willing to reach out to people in your network and start conversations stating you are looking and perhaps be able to tell them some challenge or issue that they have that you could potentially solve. Even if you can't solve their immediate problem, you have shown initiative and interest in what they do. People remember that.

- Be helpful with your network and if you know of a position that someone might be able to be filled by them. Again, even if they don't get hired, they will remember that you went to bat for them in the past. That makes them much more likely to go to bat for you. Note: I'm not saying this cynically, I seriously mean that if you try to help people sincerely and honestly, those people may very well be your best bet to get in front of a hiring manager they know later.

- Ghost jobs are real, I'm sad to say. Many companies post job listings hoping to get resumes from the cream of the crop, and they will keep a job open until they get "the perfect candidates". We can argue all day long as to the value of doing that (there is no such thing as "the perfect candidate", and "the perfect candidate" will quickly get bored with the job they are an exact fit for). The point is, there are job listings that stay open forever, it seems, and get renewed regularly without getting filled. These are fishing expeditions. Just be aware of that.

- Your "passion project" may be what ultimately gets you interviews and a gig but just as often, it's the mundane work that needs to be done that is more readily available. It may not be what you were immediately looking for but being willing to do some mundane work can again open an avenue to discussing the work you really want to do with people who have now seen and experienced your work ethic.      

Feeding on Frustration: The Rise of the "Recruiter Scam"

 This is truly not an article I wanted to write, but my hope is my experience may help some people out there.

To put it simply, I have been applying for a variety of jobs because, well, that's what you do when you are between jobs. I have, for the past several months, been working with an organization performing training for a cohort of learners. That started at the beginning of June, and it has recently been completed. With the classes finished, I am now the same "free agent" I was in May.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that I am applying for the jobs that are being posted and that I feel might make for a good fit. Additionally, this is part of my certifying for unemployment benefits. You have to show a paper trail of the companies you are applying to and demonstrate your active job search and the results of that search. Thus, I am making several inquiries each week. It's not surprising that the deluge of messages one gets when they are actively involved in this process makes it difficult to determine what is legitimate and what might be a scam.

Last weekend, as I was working through some things while waiting in my car to get an oil change, I received a message saying that they had reviewed my application and wanted to "short-list" me for interviews and potential hiring. To help with that, they sent me a questionnaire to fill out. I've done many of these, so I didn't at first think anything of it, though as I worked my way through the questions, I started to think, "Wow, this is pretty cool. So many of these questions feel almost tailor-made for me." Part of me was getting suspicious, but I thought, "Ah, you're being that paranoid tester again. It's not like there's anything in here they're asking that weird or harmful." So I decided to submit it.

A few days go by, and I receive an email message saying, "Congratulations! We are pleased to offer you the job of Remote Quality Assurance Engineer at (Company). To facilitate a formal job offer, please provide us with the following (full name, address, phone number, and email)". Again, at first, it seemed logical, but then... hang on... if they have my resume, it already contains all of that information. Why would they need to have me send it again? Now my tester spidy sense is tingling. This is starting to feel like a scam. Do I disengage at this point, or do I see if I can catch them red-handed?

I figured, "What the heck? Let's roll with it". My name, address, phone number, and email are readily available. We can discuss if that is an intelligent practice another time. In this case, I figured, "Let's go with it."

I received an offer letter. The company looks legitimate. It's a company I applied for. The job description looks beautiful. It matches all of the items I would be looking for... all of them. Now, for anyone who has applied for a job, have you ever seen a job description that was a perfect 10/10, or in this case, a perfect 13/13? Everything felt tailor-made for me. The pay rate also felt right in the pocket. However, here's where things started to go sideways.

"We will send you a check so that you can procure the needed equipment from our preferred vendors. Once you are set up and have everything in place, we can start the necessary training and get you up to speed. We can set up the payment for this procurement by direct deposit, or we can send you a check."   

Ohhhhh, yeahhhhhh!!! Now they are feeling confident (LOL!). 

They have someone willing to give them sensitive information. Did I mention that with the signed cover letter, I was to also send them a copy of my driver's license, front and back? I understand the idea of verifying identity and ability to legally work, but that's what I-9 verification services are for. They are also secure entities. I am not sending my license details over email. With this, I was pretty certain that I had a scammer. Thus I went and did the next things that felt obvious to me. I went back to look up the company and determine if the information they were sending me was accurate. Company name? Checks out. Address? Yes, accurate. Let's do a little search on the name of the person recruiting... oh, would you look at that? There is no LinkedIn profile for this person associated with this company. Hmmm, let's see their job listings... okay, there's the Quality Assurance Engineer's job listing. A quick review... now that's interesting. These are not the same requirements they sent to me. Not only that, but that perfect 13/13 job match was now reduced to an 8/13, with a few of the requirements that I was qualified for not even in the listing, and a few additional items that were not aligned with what I was working with. Yeah, that's a lot more typical. Also, the pay rate was lower than what the scammer was advertising.

With that, I scanned to see who the company listed as their official recruiters and I reached out to them via LinkedIn and simply asked if they were familiar with the individual who contacted me and if they were aware of the odd request to send me a check to buy equipment.  The net result was that, less than an hour later, I saw a post from the company warning people to steer clear of any email communications from one "Maxwell Keen" as they were posing as a recruiter for the company but did not nor had they ever worked with them.

All's well that end's well, right? We caught the scammer, I reported them, and now that's all done, right? Maybe, but I have a feeling that this person is still out there and probably looking for their next target, so with that, consider these some quick safeguards you an take.

- If you need to keep track of your job search, create an intermediate table in Excel or elsewhere that stores the information about the job and who you are communicating with, if possible. At the very least, review the job descriptions on LinkedIn and on their site and verify that they match.

- If there is a contact information space, note it down, especially if there is a contact person with a phone number. You don't need to contact them immediately, but you will want this information should you receive a reply back.

- Getting a questionnaire is fairly standard but it also makes it easy to "cheat" and write down the answers you search for. Again, it's not the most red of flags but I'd argue it's also not very helpful so be leery of anyone sending these and not asking for a phone call/screening.

- If you get an offer for a job where there has been no interview or phone screen or a direct conversation with a human being (either over Zoom or in person), expect that this is probably a scam of some sort. Otherwise, how are they vetting these people?

- Look to make sure that, if you receive an offer letter, there are no misspellings in the document. It's a simple thing, and perhaps petty, but offer letters have a fair amount of boilerplate text for legal purposes. Any legal document will be fine-toothed for any grammatical errors or misspellings. There may be some grammar variation but misspelled words should automatically give you pause.

- Any reputable company will either work with you to set you up with VPN or other security details to use your equipment as is or they will ship you out a system set up with the software they expect you to use. Being asked to receive a check to procure equipment is an indication that something illegal or shady is happening.

- References are something worth having and including upon request. as my friend Timothy Western pointed out, though, if they are asking for them too quickly or at the very beginning of the process, hold off on providing those. They may be harvesting that information from your references to target them. 

Some additional items you can do that should help determine if you are dealing with a reputable recruiter or a scammer:

- Look up recent news about the company to understand its current market and technical position and future outlook. Discussing the latest product launches, partnerships, or corporate changes can help flush out what they know or don't know about the company.

- Read up on employee testimonials on sites like GlassDoor and see if they match what the recruiter is telling you. While this may not necessarily tip you off if they're a scammer, it will help give you some inside perspectives on working conditions and employees' perspectives on their work culture.

- If possible, try to connect with current or past employees who can offer firsthand insights into the company. definitely see if there is a secondary recruiter there who can at least confirm the interactions you are having.

- If publicly available, review financial reports to assess the company's stability. Ask them some questions to determine what they might know and if their answers corroborate or refute your findings. 

Finally, make sure that everything you see in any communications can be traced back to interactions you initiated and make sense/match the experience you started with. 

Do not trust. Absolutely verify. 

Many of us are struggling with the reality of needing to find work. Let's do what we can to stop these parasites from making this already challenging search even more so.