Standout
$10.00
Minimum price
$15.00
Suggested price

Standout

A career guide to gainful employment as a skilled software tester

About the Book

There is no shortage of material out there to help you become a better tester, but what about landing a role as a tester in the first place? How do you set yourself up for success? How do you set yourself apart from everyone else?

This book guides you through how you present yourself on paper and in person so prospective employers can see the best you have to offer. There’s a lot more to it than sending out your resume, a chat with a recruiter and an interview or two. We’re going to focus on

  • Putting together a standout CV
  • Techniques to improve your interview skills
  • Building your personal brand and,
  • What to do when you’re not actively looking

To make sure you’re prepared when the time comes to begin your job hunt or when opportunity comes knocking.

About the Author

Benjamin Kelly
Benjamin Kelly

Ben Kelly has been in the testing industry for well over a decade. He has worked at companies ranging from startups to large enterprises. Notably, he was Head of Testing for eBay's European Product Development department where he ran a team called S.H.I.E.L.D. (Software Heuristic Investigation Exploration and Local expertise Division). He is now the managing director of House of Test UK.

Bundles that include this book

$30.99
Bought separately
$15.00
Bundle Price
$34.99
Bought separately
$22.99
Bundle Price

About the Contributors

Table of Contents

  • Acknowledgements
  • Foreword
  • Introduction
  • Personal Brand Management
    • Early Career - Establish Your Brand
    • The Journeyman - Build and Expand Your Brand
    • Mastery
  • Job Hunting
    • Utilising Your Network
    • Applying Directly to Companies
    • Running the Recruiter Gauntlet
    • Job Boards
    • Alternative Paths to Employment
  • Your CV - Your First Work Product
    • The Cover Letter
    • Targeting Your Cover Letter
    • The 2-Pager
    • Make Further Details Discoverable
    • What to Include in Your CV
    • CV Do’s, Don’ts
    • Do
    • Don’t
  • Interviews
    • What Do Interviewers Want?
    • Interview Techniques
    • Common Interviewee Errors
    • Preparation
    • Phone Interviews
    • In Person
    • Other Types of Interviews
    • Interviewers Behaving Badly
    • Questions for the Interviewer
  • Negotiating Salary and Benefits
    • Early Career
    • Mid Career
    • Late Career
    • Your initial salary sets the benchmark for future raises
    • Remuneration Negotiation
  • Rejection
  • What To Do When You’re Not Job Hunting
    • Keep a log
    • Create Narratives
    • Discuss your career objectives with your line manager
  • A Final Word and a Small Request
  • More Tales From The Trenches
    • The Quiet Achiever
    • Trying on Many Hats
    • Try Before You Fly
    • Interview-bot
    • An Interview With Attitude
    • Hiring - Beyond Interviews
    • Ready, Fire, Aim
    • Interviews Are Hard Work
    • Monkey See, Monkey Poo
    • Hidden Biases
    • Interviewing is a Two-way Street
    • How I Hire
    • The Importance of Being Authentic
  • Appendix 1 - Questions and Prompts to Build Narratives
    • Testing
    • Agile
    • People and Soft Skills
    • Self Awareness, Improvement and Career Drive
    • Industry
    • Other Common Interview Questions
  • Appendix 2 - Interview Practice Scenarios
    • Scenario 1 - Conservative Bank
    • Scenario 2 - Startup Company
    • Scenario 3 - Agile to the Core
    • Scenario 4 - Enterprise in Transition
  • Appendix 3 - Further Reading and Resources
    • Job Hunting, Interviews, CVs
    • Apprenticeship Links
    • Testing Fundamentals
    • Coding
    • UX
  • Notes

The Leanpub 60 Day 100% Happiness Guarantee

Within 60 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.

Now, this is technically risky for us, since you'll have the book or course files either way. But we're so confident in our products and services, and in our authors and readers, that we're happy to offer a full money back guarantee for everything we sell.

You can only find out how good something is by trying it, and because of our 100% money back guarantee there's literally no risk to do so!

So, there's no reason not to click the Add to Cart button, is there?

See full terms...

Earn $8 on a $10 Purchase, and $16 on a $20 Purchase

We pay 80% royalties on purchases of $7.99 or more, and 80% royalties minus a 50 cent flat fee on purchases between $0.99 and $7.98. You earn $8 on a $10 sale, and $16 on a $20 sale. So, if we sell 5000 non-refunded copies of your book for $20, you'll earn $80,000.

(Yes, some authors have already earned much more than that on Leanpub.)

In fact, authors have earnedover $13 millionwriting, publishing and selling on Leanpub.

Learn more about writing on Leanpub

Free Updates. DRM Free.

If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).

Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers) and EPUB (for phones, tablets and Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.

Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.

Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them

Write and Publish on Leanpub

You can use Leanpub to easily write, publish and sell in-progress and completed ebooks and online courses!

Leanpub is a powerful platform for serious authors, combining a simple, elegant writing and publishing workflow with a store focused on selling in-progress ebooks.

Leanpub is a magical typewriter for authors: just write in plain text, and to publish your ebook, just click a button. (Or, if you are producing your ebook your own way, you can even upload your own PDF and/or EPUB files and then publish with one click!) It really is that easy.

Learn more about writing on Leanpub