How I used KOTA to get into IT
Hi all! My name is Alexey Lysenko, I am a back-office software tester at RSHB-Intech, a subsidiary IT company of RSHB.
Today I hold the position of leading testing engineer at the Middle level. Before joining an IT company, I worked in the field of information security. I had reached a dead end in my development, I was bored with monotonous and routine work, and there were no opportunities for career growth. I actively began to explore the world of vacancies in our country. In the end, I found information about KOTA, a school of testers, which became my guide to the world of truly complex and multifaceted information technologies. Thus, CAT helped me get into IT.
According to many experts and experienced IT workers, testing is considered one of the most comfortable ways to enter IT. I would like to point out right away that there are several ways. You can graduate from a university with a specialty related to software development or even testing, but since I had already grown out of student age, this was not my path. I also considered courses related to software testing and development – this is a good option, but financially expensive. Moreover, it is dubious, since most courses on the Internet give a general and rather vague idea of testing, basing the material on examples that may never be useful in the future. My goal was to find courses after which I could actually get into IT. I will tell you how I achieved my employment goal, as well as how my training went.
So, get into IT! How was it? I’ll start with the fact that almost by chance (actually, not quite, I was still looking for an opportunity to start working in real IT) I came across information about recruitment to the testing school “How to Train a Tester” RSHB-Intech. As you might have guessed, although I had experience working with software, some skills and even an understanding of the software development process, I had no experience testing or working with banking software. But I still filled out the application and passed the entrance test, which, as I now understand, assessed my soft skills and basic IT understanding skills. Next is the interview. There’s not much to say about the interview, it was a stressful experience, but as they say, five minutes of shame and you’re a specialist. The most interesting things began already at the CAT school.
The training covers several areas, one might say, disciplines: financial literacy, business etiquette, working with software under test, testing techniques, including test design, organization of software development and much more. For each discipline, classes are held in the usual way: watch training videos, then a joint meeting of all students in the group with the curator is held to discuss the material studied and analyze any questions that have arisen.
It is noteworthy that the video lessons were recorded by real employees of our Quality Assurance and Control Unit for the release of software changes (abbreviated as Quality Unit), whom the curator often invited to our internal meetings. We had the opportunity to torment each of the lecturers with our questions – it was very cool. I can say that the training is intense, you have to study a large amount of information, but everything is laid out “on the shelves” and the information is structured, and there are always people to whom you can ask any question, and most importantly, get an answer.
Our intensive and therefore even more interesting study of disciplines was diluted by regular visits from the head of the school, she personally immersed herself in our learning. We talked with her on various issues, shared difficulties with mastering the material, and discussed potential employment. This adds motivation for diligent and fruitful study of some very complex disciplines, for example, banking software, which will be tested in the process.
The point is not so much that it is difficult to understand many aspects and mechanics of this software on your own, but that it is necessary to simultaneously study internal banking operations. This includes accounting, integration interaction between different systems, and a bunch of other complex operations: background processes, completion of the operating day, not to mention loans, deposits, cards, valuable coins, etc.
My training at the testing school took place full-time. When the video and lecture material was mastered, we began to apply our studied material in practice, for a moment, on a real test circuit, with a real test base, with real operations, in real time. After completing the theoretical training of the module, each person was personally given or given a mentor – a working employee of the Block, a tester in a certain specific area. It was incredibly difficult and cool!
There were obligatory daily “homework”, when you yourself, in splendid isolation, carry out all the actions and this is even more difficult. You are left alone with this monster (software, if anyone doesn’t understand) and the task at hand. But, again, the next day you report to your mentor about your victories. Upon graduation, each student is assigned a mentor. This is an employee of the Quality Unit. Having praised you for your work, he gives you an even more difficult task, and you realize that what you have been agonizing over for several hours is actually done in about a minute and a half.
For me, who had never worked in a bank, these were difficult tasks, for example, selling precious coins to a client. There is a so-called technical map, which describes the actions in detail, but it is not always possible to achieve success by blindly following the algorithm. Here you need to try on the roles of several bank employees – an operator, a controller, a cashier, and, like real employees, perform all the necessary operations. The complexity of the process involves many details. It’s good that all this is covered in the school’s video lessons. Despite the failure of the training task, this experience later helped me in testing a defect associated with the lack of additional control when dispensing cash from the cash register. And this remarkably shows that without thorough knowledge, in particular of banking processes, it will be impossible to test banking software efficiently.
After studying and practicing these operations, I started reviewing and passing real test cases. The video lessons explain each step in a real test environment and explain why everything was done this way and not differently. It was this process that allowed me to learn completely new material most quickly and easily. Afterwards I moved on to writing my own test cases. I used the testing techniques I had learned, and, of course, I sorted out errors with my mentor, how could I do without it. And so on in all directions for everyone. The mentors really supported us on the path to becoming a tester.
At the beginning, close interaction with curators and lecturers who directed us on the “true path”, communication with instructive and motivating leadership. Then the mentors who controlled and supported our successes all paved the way for us to our, essentially, new professions. It was in this way that the learning process was structured that allowed me to become a tester of complex banking software.
Of course, based on the results of training, certification was carried out, where would it be without a control section of knowledge. Again, success depends on the student, but I am in IT thanks to CAT.
After passing the certification, they signed a basic employment contract with me, and I plunged headlong into the most interesting and diverse world of testing banking software. This is a huge amount of knowledge about the bank and its activities in general, front office, back office systems and their integration. I also want to say about the amazing team of specialists in which I work, in a hybrid mode of work and various bonuses from the bank and its partners. In this job, I had the opportunity to grow both vertically within the team, as a team leader and beyond, and horizontally in teams in other areas, and all this thanks to KOTA. You can also go diagonally – after training, go into analytics, may the management forgive me.
Today, again, thanks to specially designed school courses, I have increased my knowledge and skills to the Middle level, passed certification and received a position in the team, but that’s another story.
