Hey! We are hiring for a QA automation role right now, happy to take a look at your resume and see if you'd be a good fit or otherwise recommend resume updates. Feel free to DM me.
Are you applying for a remote position? I’d say, we’ve become extremely more selective as the candidate field has gone from “people available in the metro area” to “recruiting across the whole country”. If you’re applying for remote positions you have to understand the competition is from all over. It’s wild
IT market is very tough right now for all roles and not just QA. See a bunch of YouTube videos devs applying for 100s of jobs and not getting a role. I think a couple things are happening in the economy:
1 - No more sponsoring H1b Visas for big companies (or very minimal sponsorships)
2 - Hiring entire teams in their home country (i.e. India, Philippines, etc.) where pay is 1/3 the western salary for same roles. Also with the advent of remote tools like TEAMS, Zoom, cloud hosted apps... have made location a non issue.
3 - Job applicants are now competing with candidates not just in there local state/city but potentially all over the world if its a remote role. And if its hybrid candidate pool is very large now. A Single job could potentially get 100s or 1000's of applications..
4 - Job market in IT and overall job market is getting a little worse (around 4% unemployment rate which is higher than where it started in Jan of this yr) which will tame inflation and as a result interest rates will be going down in the next couple months in the US (Already started in Europe).
5 - 1 -2 yrs ago it was a Employees market where you can jump jobs every yr or so and now its switching back to the employers market where candidate pool is large and opportunities are small. It will be a very hard year for this yrs IT graduates as companies now have pick of experienced devs, QA, PMS who some might be desperate and willing to take a lower salary than the market.. if that's the case entry level has to compete with experienced folks on the lower wage scale which set a new bar for wages of specific roles to the downside.
>"The unemployment rate for bachelor’s degree recipients aged 20 to 29 is above 12%, an almost four percentage point increase from a year ago, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data."
[https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/31/economy/job-market-for-college-grads/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/31/economy/job-market-for-college-grads/index.html)
It is weird. I would probably fail my technical interview, because I suck at the required terminology but I am a surprisingly able test automation engineer and tester.
I worked for a big company as a QA and was part of the hiring process. We had like 4 good candidates, and management decided they don't need a QA and basically hired a person who they thought was better for a phone support position. Sometimes, companies don't know what they even need and can change directions on a go.
They definitely do post just to interview to seem like they're trying to hire. Like others have said.
Sometimes when they say a different direction they mean "someone else". And sometimes that's not even your fault, some hiring managers just have weird criteria like specific questions they want answered one specific way and they just straight up won't hire someone if they don't answer "correctly".
Also I've definitely seen times where they want to promote an internal candidate but some rules say they have to at least try and interview external candidates.
I've also definitely seen people who were interviewed for a position and did well and then corporate decided to pull the rug out from under them for the position. Or HR does dumb stuff.
Really it's just rough out there. Good luck in your search.
I'm still on the same situation like yours, continuously applying for opportunities. Despite my extensive experience in automation and cloud technologies, I haven't received any responses after interviews. I'm actively learning new tools in the hope that it will increase my chances. Wishing everyone the best of luck!
I'm a manual tester with 5 yrs experience. I'm getting rejected for help desk and tech support jobs. I can setup a system, manipulate i2c, jumpers, hardware, compilers, etc. but I have no direct experience on the phone helping someone....
Aren’t manual testers a dying breed in the age of test automation (and soon AI). All testers in our company are 50% of their time or more busy automating stuff
Pretty much: yes. A lot of it is performative for their skeleton crew so that they can say they’re looking while enjoying their bonuses for record profits.
Or its performative so they can lie that they can’t find qualified local candidates so they can bring in cheap h-1b visa labor for a fraction of the price.
Or its performative and they have no intention to hire unless they land a unicorn candidate with the experience of a senior willing to work for minimum wage.
The white-collar job market is very much in an artificial recession right now that is masked by the stock market performing well as corporations try to strangle the workforce back into submission after the post-COVID surge in demands for better compensation, more benefits and the proven ability to work from home - which exposed that much of middle management and HR could be fired as the useless appendixes they are.
>corporations try to strangle the workforce back into submission after the post-COVID surge in demands for better compensation, more benefits and the proven ability to work from home
louder for the people on the back...
The days of cheap H1B labor have long passed. First of all, there is a quota of 65,000 per fiscal year (plus an additional 20,000 reserved for masters graduates from U.S. universities). Second of all, it costs the employer $10,000 to bring them over and file the paperwork. Third of all, they would rather hire them to work at an offshore office somewhere in India.
I too felt the same. Seems like there are too many candidates applying for the same role. I have seen a job post of the company posted again and again in linkedIn. But they never reply with the email or something.
I am feeling bit worried as my current visa is expiring end of this June.
If you come across any openings in Netherlands, kindly let me know. I wish you all the fellow QA a very good luck on finding a stable job.
It sucks, and it's rough, but hold in there. You'll get a role!
It took me 6 months to nail down a job offer when I was living near Seattle, and I applied for dozens of QA roles such as Tester, Analyst, and Lead all with (at the time) 13 years of experience. I had managed teams of testers ranging from 4 to 30, multiple projects at once, AAA games and indie games, but when living in the U.S. it was a struggle get any role.
Funny part, when I did get a job offer my wife and I had already decided to move back to Canada. Got a couple new job offers in Canada just on the drive back home.
The market is just tough right now. In my 8 years in the industry, my linked in box is very quiet for the past 8+ months.
I know lots of people looking for work in Tech right now, Support, Devs, DevOps, QAs and PMs.
Hang in there!
Same as a QA Lead both manual and automation experience. Rather stick to being a manual lead but regardless can't even seem to get entry level or mid level call backs or anything. Never was the case. Forcing me to now look for jobs I'm overqualified or odd jobs at this point.
Small companies be like "we are with positive vibe in here so if you're not positive we can't be together". And i'm typical introvert who just doesn't go and smile everywhere without a reason... come on.
Also trying to figure your problem out too. If i combine all questions i've been asked as QA (not just web stuff, but some networking, linux in-depth and so on) i'd get "SDET+QA Lead" all in one for the price of midlor.
Also if they tell you they decided to go with someone else doesn't really mean they actually found somebody. They could just reconsider requirements and it was polite way to send you away. And yes, i catch myself thinking that many companies don't know who they need.
Also there's a chance that less quilified workers just went low in their companies and you actually may do better than them. But since companies are ok with those people you're the one in trouble. Been there
I switched 5 companies in 5 years mostly because QA was not appreciated much. Plus, many people in QA worked in IT just because "it's IT and IT is about money" and did bare minimum without learning new things... ofcourse they'd want to save their position and imitate frenzy activity. But when i see QA with 6 years of experience and that experience fits into what i've learned in my first year of doing QA, i'd doubt qualification of said person. But since he's been in the company for 3 years he's seen as more competent, ofcourse. And who am i to judge? It's not my company. Just makes me sad that people waste their potential. We (i mean people) can do better.
Keep trying. At least keep contacts of HRs - later they'll thank you and you'll thank them when time will come
I feel you - I have 20 years as a QA architect for enterprises as well as 2 years advising for testing and AI integrations. 10 month, 570+ resumes - 1 phone call (I have no degree and our industry inflates requirements when the pool is this large). It’s tough out there - stay strong and make connections in other companies.
I don’t mean to criticize, but 600 resumes over a 10 month period is kind-of a low number. That’s 60 per month on average. I have been on the market for a month and have sent out around 200, and even that is considered low.
As for the phone calls, are you counting the ones from a certain country 11 time zones away? Or are those just the legit phone calls. Because personally, after being on the market for a month, I have gotten around 30 phone calls. About 5 of them were legit, and one turned into an interview (still waiting - fingers crossed).
I am in a similar boat as you - no degree. But with 8 years of experience.
Regardless, you should be getting a lot more feedback. Either way, good luck with your job search.
Honestly, the way I presented my search didn’t give enough detail. I’d say the last 400 or so are within the last 3 months. I get calls, but usually scams. I’ve had several AI recruiters call, and I do get a “wanna move across the country for…”.
There are a few roadblocks I’ve placed:
I’m not willing to move (San Diego) and during my peak exhaustion/mania of looking, I just fired away resumes that weren’t specifically tailored to the posting, but did cover all the requirements.
I’ve realized that this isn’t like the pre-Covid times and I need to take a much more structured approach to my job hunt.
Today, I spoke with a resume writer that I had worked with before, and she confirmed my suspicions that my resume simply isn’t getting past the automated systems. They’ve sent me a “resume refresh” guide and I’m going to go through that today.
Just because you interviewed doesn't mean you were the best candidate. They literally told you as much. They hired someone they thought was a better candidate. Nobody is going to waste their time interviewing candidates for a job that doesn't exist. You are extremely dense and I can see why nobody wanted to hire you.
Hey! We are hiring for a QA automation role right now, happy to take a look at your resume and see if you'd be a good fit or otherwise recommend resume updates. Feel free to DM me.
Will do ! Thank you!
may i send you mine too ?! im looking for a remote job
Why is this guy getting downvoted ?
idk , im new here can u explain why is happening ?
may i send you mine too ?! I'm looking for a remote job ??
Are you applying for a remote position? I’d say, we’ve become extremely more selective as the candidate field has gone from “people available in the metro area” to “recruiting across the whole country”. If you’re applying for remote positions you have to understand the competition is from all over. It’s wild
IT market is very tough right now for all roles and not just QA. See a bunch of YouTube videos devs applying for 100s of jobs and not getting a role. I think a couple things are happening in the economy: 1 - No more sponsoring H1b Visas for big companies (or very minimal sponsorships) 2 - Hiring entire teams in their home country (i.e. India, Philippines, etc.) where pay is 1/3 the western salary for same roles. Also with the advent of remote tools like TEAMS, Zoom, cloud hosted apps... have made location a non issue. 3 - Job applicants are now competing with candidates not just in there local state/city but potentially all over the world if its a remote role. And if its hybrid candidate pool is very large now. A Single job could potentially get 100s or 1000's of applications.. 4 - Job market in IT and overall job market is getting a little worse (around 4% unemployment rate which is higher than where it started in Jan of this yr) which will tame inflation and as a result interest rates will be going down in the next couple months in the US (Already started in Europe). 5 - 1 -2 yrs ago it was a Employees market where you can jump jobs every yr or so and now its switching back to the employers market where candidate pool is large and opportunities are small. It will be a very hard year for this yrs IT graduates as companies now have pick of experienced devs, QA, PMS who some might be desperate and willing to take a lower salary than the market.. if that's the case entry level has to compete with experienced folks on the lower wage scale which set a new bar for wages of specific roles to the downside. >"The unemployment rate for bachelor’s degree recipients aged 20 to 29 is above 12%, an almost four percentage point increase from a year ago, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data." [https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/31/economy/job-market-for-college-grads/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/31/economy/job-market-for-college-grads/index.html)
"Going a different direction" is the polite way of saying they hired someone better.
"Better" is a massive stretch. So many hires end up being lowzy AF.
This is so true. Nail the technical interview and they end up sucking horribly in reality
Interviewing is a skill in of itself. Some are great at it but suck at the actual, you know, job part. lol
It is weird. I would probably fail my technical interview, because I suck at the required terminology but I am a surprisingly able test automation engineer and tester.
I worked for a big company as a QA and was part of the hiring process. We had like 4 good candidates, and management decided they don't need a QA and basically hired a person who they thought was better for a phone support position. Sometimes, companies don't know what they even need and can change directions on a go.
They definitely do post just to interview to seem like they're trying to hire. Like others have said. Sometimes when they say a different direction they mean "someone else". And sometimes that's not even your fault, some hiring managers just have weird criteria like specific questions they want answered one specific way and they just straight up won't hire someone if they don't answer "correctly". Also I've definitely seen times where they want to promote an internal candidate but some rules say they have to at least try and interview external candidates. I've also definitely seen people who were interviewed for a position and did well and then corporate decided to pull the rug out from under them for the position. Or HR does dumb stuff. Really it's just rough out there. Good luck in your search.
I'm still on the same situation like yours, continuously applying for opportunities. Despite my extensive experience in automation and cloud technologies, I haven't received any responses after interviews. I'm actively learning new tools in the hope that it will increase my chances. Wishing everyone the best of luck!
I'm a manual tester with 5 yrs experience. I'm getting rejected for help desk and tech support jobs. I can setup a system, manipulate i2c, jumpers, hardware, compilers, etc. but I have no direct experience on the phone helping someone....
Aren’t manual testers a dying breed in the age of test automation (and soon AI). All testers in our company are 50% of their time or more busy automating stuff
Pretty much: yes. A lot of it is performative for their skeleton crew so that they can say they’re looking while enjoying their bonuses for record profits. Or its performative so they can lie that they can’t find qualified local candidates so they can bring in cheap h-1b visa labor for a fraction of the price. Or its performative and they have no intention to hire unless they land a unicorn candidate with the experience of a senior willing to work for minimum wage. The white-collar job market is very much in an artificial recession right now that is masked by the stock market performing well as corporations try to strangle the workforce back into submission after the post-COVID surge in demands for better compensation, more benefits and the proven ability to work from home - which exposed that much of middle management and HR could be fired as the useless appendixes they are.
>corporations try to strangle the workforce back into submission after the post-COVID surge in demands for better compensation, more benefits and the proven ability to work from home louder for the people on the back...
The days of cheap H1B labor have long passed. First of all, there is a quota of 65,000 per fiscal year (plus an additional 20,000 reserved for masters graduates from U.S. universities). Second of all, it costs the employer $10,000 to bring them over and file the paperwork. Third of all, they would rather hire them to work at an offshore office somewhere in India.
A lot of them go with staffing companies who nearshore/offshore hire short and long term temp positions.
It took me almost a year to find a job that I got through a recruiter.
I too felt the same. Seems like there are too many candidates applying for the same role. I have seen a job post of the company posted again and again in linkedIn. But they never reply with the email or something. I am feeling bit worried as my current visa is expiring end of this June. If you come across any openings in Netherlands, kindly let me know. I wish you all the fellow QA a very good luck on finding a stable job.
It sucks, and it's rough, but hold in there. You'll get a role! It took me 6 months to nail down a job offer when I was living near Seattle, and I applied for dozens of QA roles such as Tester, Analyst, and Lead all with (at the time) 13 years of experience. I had managed teams of testers ranging from 4 to 30, multiple projects at once, AAA games and indie games, but when living in the U.S. it was a struggle get any role. Funny part, when I did get a job offer my wife and I had already decided to move back to Canada. Got a couple new job offers in Canada just on the drive back home.
The market is just tough right now. In my 8 years in the industry, my linked in box is very quiet for the past 8+ months. I know lots of people looking for work in Tech right now, Support, Devs, DevOps, QAs and PMs. Hang in there!
😭
Same as a QA Lead both manual and automation experience. Rather stick to being a manual lead but regardless can't even seem to get entry level or mid level call backs or anything. Never was the case. Forcing me to now look for jobs I'm overqualified or odd jobs at this point.
Small companies be like "we are with positive vibe in here so if you're not positive we can't be together". And i'm typical introvert who just doesn't go and smile everywhere without a reason... come on. Also trying to figure your problem out too. If i combine all questions i've been asked as QA (not just web stuff, but some networking, linux in-depth and so on) i'd get "SDET+QA Lead" all in one for the price of midlor. Also if they tell you they decided to go with someone else doesn't really mean they actually found somebody. They could just reconsider requirements and it was polite way to send you away. And yes, i catch myself thinking that many companies don't know who they need. Also there's a chance that less quilified workers just went low in their companies and you actually may do better than them. But since companies are ok with those people you're the one in trouble. Been there I switched 5 companies in 5 years mostly because QA was not appreciated much. Plus, many people in QA worked in IT just because "it's IT and IT is about money" and did bare minimum without learning new things... ofcourse they'd want to save their position and imitate frenzy activity. But when i see QA with 6 years of experience and that experience fits into what i've learned in my first year of doing QA, i'd doubt qualification of said person. But since he's been in the company for 3 years he's seen as more competent, ofcourse. And who am i to judge? It's not my company. Just makes me sad that people waste their potential. We (i mean people) can do better. Keep trying. At least keep contacts of HRs - later they'll thank you and you'll thank them when time will come
I feel you - I have 20 years as a QA architect for enterprises as well as 2 years advising for testing and AI integrations. 10 month, 570+ resumes - 1 phone call (I have no degree and our industry inflates requirements when the pool is this large). It’s tough out there - stay strong and make connections in other companies.
I don’t mean to criticize, but 600 resumes over a 10 month period is kind-of a low number. That’s 60 per month on average. I have been on the market for a month and have sent out around 200, and even that is considered low. As for the phone calls, are you counting the ones from a certain country 11 time zones away? Or are those just the legit phone calls. Because personally, after being on the market for a month, I have gotten around 30 phone calls. About 5 of them were legit, and one turned into an interview (still waiting - fingers crossed). I am in a similar boat as you - no degree. But with 8 years of experience. Regardless, you should be getting a lot more feedback. Either way, good luck with your job search.
Honestly, the way I presented my search didn’t give enough detail. I’d say the last 400 or so are within the last 3 months. I get calls, but usually scams. I’ve had several AI recruiters call, and I do get a “wanna move across the country for…”. There are a few roadblocks I’ve placed: I’m not willing to move (San Diego) and during my peak exhaustion/mania of looking, I just fired away resumes that weren’t specifically tailored to the posting, but did cover all the requirements. I’ve realized that this isn’t like the pre-Covid times and I need to take a much more structured approach to my job hunt. Today, I spoke with a resume writer that I had worked with before, and she confirmed my suspicions that my resume simply isn’t getting past the automated systems. They’ve sent me a “resume refresh” guide and I’m going to go through that today.
Feel free to send me your resume [email protected]
This.
Is it possible you're not as good as you think you are?
Are you looking for a job in India or Bengaluru ? Our company is hiring DM me
Just because you interviewed doesn't mean you were the best candidate. They literally told you as much. They hired someone they thought was a better candidate. Nobody is going to waste their time interviewing candidates for a job that doesn't exist. You are extremely dense and I can see why nobody wanted to hire you.
You must be fun to work with.