My path to testing. Comparison of two courses. Part 2
Introduction.
Hello, my name is Vitaly and I continue to share my learning experience on various online platforms.
In the last article, I compared the process of choosing a school, the process of admissions stages, mentors, general approach, etc. in two schools.
In this article I want to highlight the differences in approaches to such an important element that is present in both schools as the “career track”. In my case, the presence of a “career track” played, if not a determining role in choosing a school, then a very significant one.
In addition, the very approach of the two schools to the implementation of the “career track” differs like heaven and earth. This does not mean that any of the approaches is better or worse. They are different… And the difference begins with the fact that in the First School their training ends, and in the Second School it begins.
So, in order…
First school.
General description.
As I said in the first article, this is not a school or courses as such, it is a digital platform that provides access to pre-recorded short videos, but for convenience I will call it “First School”.
The advertisement and the official website of the school indicate that the school undertakes to provide assistance in finding a job or return money for tuition if the student is unable to find a job. I’ll make a reservation right away that I didn’t find any clear criteria for returning money (maybe I didn’t look well).
Access to the “career track” is provided upon compliance some conditions:
1) Completed the basic courses of the training program.
In my case, access was opened after completing the “Web Application Testing” course. To the credit of the school staff, during the consultation they immediately noted to me that for better results I need to complete the “Manual Testing of Mobile Applications” course.
2) Successful completion of the course.
The main criterion is the success of completing homework.
3) No interruptions in training for more than 1 month.
I also had long breaks to “search for myself” and “reflect,” but this did not affect my admission to the career track.
“Help in Employment” is designed as an additional course, within which:
– an initial consultation is held, at which the student’s soft and hard skills are assessed, and a “resume” template and access to the profile telegram group are provided.
– providing access to participation in beta testing of commercial products.
– preparation for the interview is carried out in the form of additional consultation;
– Distribution of current vacancies in the profile telegram chat.
My course progress.
I’ll say right away that initially I didn’t attach much importance to this course. In general, looking at the advertising slogan, I naively thought that the school itself would decide the issue of my employment. I don't want to say that the school misled me in any way. She told me, quite honestly: if you fulfill all the conditions, we will help, but no more… But… Some time frames are not specified and they do not exist.
So, what is the “career track” and how I went through it.
Upon completion of 80% of the main course “Testing Web Applications” and successful completion of the courses “Basics of Web Development” and “Basics of SQL”, access to the “Help in Employment” course was opened on the platform.
The course consists of several short videos that cover general questions: What is the program for? How does it work? How can participation in pet projects help?
After viewing, the course is marked as completed. ALL?!
From the videos I learned how to sign up for a consultation, but the school wrote to me first and offered to undergo a consultation.
Consultation.
At the initial consultation, I was praised for my good results, my chances of getting my first job were highly rated, but they were advised to improve them by forcing me to take the “Manual Testing of Mobile Applications” course. My knowledge and skills were not assessed during the consultation; we talked about how to properly compose a resume, the importance of cover letters, how to prepare for an interview, etc.
In particular, to build a portfolio, I was offered to undergo an internship at Otkritie Bank and VKontakte as a beta tester.
Resume and cover letter.
I was given a template with the school logo to use for my resume.
As a result, I had to send it to the school, but since the “Work Experience” section was empty, I decided not to send it for verification. Moreover, no one demanded it from me.
As for the cover letter, they told me its importance and what information needed to be included in it.
One important comment: This is not a SCHOOL, where a teacher will follow the student and push him. Here everything depends on the student himself; it is HE who is the initiator of all “movements”. He pulls the DZ inspector so that he explains everything in detail. He sends his resume for review and requires comprehensive comments.
Stage Preparing for an interview somehow passed me by, and I did not participate in it. I devoted all my energy to actively searching for vacancies).
Active search for vacancies.
In addition to external search, the school also provides internal search in the school’s partner companies.
In a separate chat, where almost all students of the school are members, messages with possible vacancies in all areas and links to the response form are sent.
Only resumes made in the school template (with logo) will be accepted for consideration. Here you need to write a cover letter (you don’t have to write it, but then the response will be considered after responses with cover letters).
After the response, the application is reviewed by a school employee and, if it meets certain requirements (CV format, relevant field of study, cover letter), then he forwards it to the partner company.
Based on the results, a letter is sent to the mail with an invitation to the further stage of selection or with a refusal.
Second school.
General description.
The career track begins from the first day of training. It is a list of tasks that the student must complete and submit to the teacher for review.
Conventionally, the career track can be divided into two stages.
At the first stage, the student prepares himself for a successful job search. The stage consists of classes under the guidance of a teacher.
The second stage is an active job search, and it also takes place under the guidance of a teacher.
My course progress.
First stage.
My first classes on the course were precisely the topics of the career track. Thus began the first stage of the “career track”.
Some of the classes at this stage were held in the same way as the main classes of the course according to a unique 3-level training model. I will talk in detail about the training model in the 3rd article of the series, but now I will note its levels:
– independent study of material from the textbook;
– participation in an online workshop led by a teacher (practical lesson);
– doing homework.
The other part of the classes is given to students for independent study, which includes completing homework and sending them for testing.
In my opinion, the importance of the topics covered in online classes cannot be overestimated. Honestly, I should have asked these questions much earlier, but they didn’t occur to me. In these classes we studied and practiced practical tasks to understand issues such as:
who is a competitive QA engineer, what knowledge and skills should he have;
what the labor market in the QA field is like today and which companies are most interesting to a particular student, why these companies and how students can benefit them;
which companies (startups, fintech, telecom, state-owned companies, commerce, grocery, outsourcing, etc.) are preferred by a particular student and why;
your strengths and weaknesses;
how to correctly formulate the learning process, drawing up a training plan for the course.
The remaining classes were devoted to the importance of properly preparing various artifacts (resumes, social media profiles, cover letters, video presentations) and were conducted in a self-study format:
– independent study of the material in the textbook;
– doing homework and sending it for checking.
All work is checked and grades are given. You are allowed to correct your work, but no more than once.
Grades for stage 1 of the “career track” affect the overall grade for the course.
Second stage.
The second stage began towards the end of my internship. It is designed as a separate course and is open to students who have received at least a certain grade point average for the course. Our entire group enrolled in this course, with the exception of 3 students who had already found employment by that time.
The course is intended to be completed independently under the guidance of a teacher.
Within the course:
– polishing your resume and LinkedIn profile.
– activities are performed in accordance with a checklist with strict timing from the teacher. Those. If a student does not show proper activity, then why should the teacher waste his time on him?
I’m now at the last stage, and I’ll tell you about how the learning processes themselves differ from each other in the next article….
