Testing Blog

The SET Career Path

Tuesday, April 05, 2011
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Labels: Jobs

12 comments :

  1. Mark RoddyApril 5, 2011 at 10:31:00 AM PDT

    Hey James,
    I'd like it if you could also discuss the career path of a SET outside of Google. SET sounds like an interesting position that I would enjoy, but I've never applied for it as I'm concerned that in the future my career would be hindered as people would see me as "just a tester". (I'm not saying this stigma is warranted, only stating that it does exist).

    -Mark

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  2. KelseyApril 5, 2011 at 10:48:00 AM PDT

    On the topic of potential outside influencers, are there SETs in every Google location that there are SWEs? Or are the SETs gathered together in just a couple main offices like Mountain View and New York?

    Seems it'd be a shame to have a passionate tester end up taking a SWE role just to live in a specific location.

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  3. LiliaApril 5, 2011 at 12:48:00 PM PDT

    Thank you for this great post! It's good to hear that transitions in both directions occur. I am curious whether you have seen SET->SWE change occur more often than the other way around?

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  4. JoeApril 5, 2011 at 1:25:00 PM PDT

    "Bottom line: do the work you are passionate about and capable of and the right job title will find you."

    A terrific life lesson for everyone!

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  5. RaghavApril 5, 2011 at 8:19:00 PM PDT

    Thanks James! Also, at google how good is the career path for an SET as an Individual contributor?does it go all the way up to Principal SET?

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  6. UnknownApril 7, 2011 at 10:05:00 PM PDT

    What about the Test Engineer role? What is the career path for this role and how much automation or technical aspects is this role concerned with?

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  7. michaelApril 13, 2011 at 12:19:00 AM PDT

    I like the bottom line.

    I was wondering though, what's the ratio of SWE to SET?
    I know google invests heavily in automation, having read te chrome browser comic ;) I was wondering how much though.

    Thanks for this series, I find them very interesting.

    Michael.

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  8. James WhittakerApril 25, 2011 at 8:49:00 AM PDT

    To Joe: Wow, you finally LIKE something I wrote?

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  9. James WhittakerApril 25, 2011 at 8:50:00 AM PDT

    To Lilia: I can only speak for my team. I have the exact same number of SWE-->SET conversions as I have SET-->SWE.

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  10. James WhittakerApril 25, 2011 at 8:51:00 AM PDT

    More to come on both TE and SET career paths. I promise.

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  11. James WhittakerApril 25, 2011 at 8:53:00 AM PDT

    To Raghav: Yes it does. Being a manager is not a requirement here. However, the SET role is newer than the SWE role so there are not as many ICs at the top.

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  12. Lucas SilveiraJune 27, 2011 at 5:09:00 AM PDT

    Hey man!

    I'm pretty new on the testing career, I've just got effective on my job, I was working as an intern before so I have lots of things to learn about testing. I started to work with some testing automation, and I just want to know how you guys at Google do the automated scripts? Using selenium or something like that?

    Thank you!
    Lucas

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