Don't put me in a box

I'm trying to find a new assignment as a self-employed Test Consultant, and this confronts me with some facets of job searching that I don't really enjoy.

My main complaint is that most roles try to fit you into a neat little box, and I don't fit in any of the standard testing role boxes, so to say.

I am not a SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test). I don't mind supporting test automation, figuring out where it makes sense and where it doesn't, designing automated tests and writing code, but doing only that? Hell naw. If I wanted to be a developer, I would never only write test code. This is such a weird divide in IT that I have never understood. Automation in testing is a piece of a much bigger whole, and I don't want to specialize in just one part of what testing has to offer.

I am not just a tester on a team. You can put me on a team, no problem, but don't expect me to never look beyond the confines of the team to solve test problems. I have mostly operated in frontend teams, and without fail, we would run into problems that threatened our software quality that were not caused by us. That's exactly the challenge I like. Diving head first into the problem, tracing it down to the source and figuring out who we need to solve it. I usually find these problems in the first place by doing exploratory testing, my favourite way of testing.

I am not just a tester. After 12+ years in IT, I am so much more. I can write reports about the state of testing that get to the point and inform people quickly. I share publicly what I am testing, anyone can critique my work. My writing skills also come in handy when it comes to clarify requirements, or any other type of technical documentation.

You need test management? No probs, I can do that too. I have a strong opinion about how testing should be organised, and can help teams create test strategies that are based on actual risks and actions we're going to take. A test strategy should not end up as a huge document that no one will ever read. I can coordinate testing over multiple teams, but don't expect me to give up doing actual testing myself. Need to keep practicing what I preach.

I can help other people to develop their testing skills, usually by working in a pair. Or, I can also give workshops or presentations to larger groups.

I have done Ops work because I have worked in DevOps environments. I was happy to have skin in the game, and could solve smaller problems in production. I learned a ton about observability.

I like working with developers who also like testing. Testing is a team sport, the divide between testing and development never made sense to me. I like showing developers that they can also be excellent testers, by teaching them how to shift perspective from "creating" to "critiquing". (When I learned iOS development back in 2020-2021, I learned that it was extremely hard to combine these two modes in one go. When I was writing code to create something new, I was focused on that, and it was hard to also find the bugs. After a while, I would take a break, get a coffee and come back to find faults in my own work. The short break enabled the perspective shift, and I could easily test and criticize my own code.)

You need a retro organised? A meeting led? A backlog managed? Don't want to be the only one doing it, but sharing this responsibility? Sure thing!

Point is: I can do so much. I'd rather call myself an IT generalist, but that is a box that for sure doesn't exist (right?). I have seen so much at work, been through so many IT projects, all that experience is useful. Most of it is in testing, but which box do I fit in? None! And a bit of all of them!

This presents a practical problem now that I'm trying to find a new (temporary) assignment. Finding a new assignment via network is preferable, as those people can vouch for you and explain what you bring to the table. But if I end up having to find a new assignment via a recruiter, I'm worried what will happen. I fear I'd have to pretend I fit neatly into a box, and hope for the best when I land a new assignment. I'd rather not do that. The recruiter is a hurdle here, as I think they operate via checklists (skills and tools proficiency, etc) before they bring me into contact with a company. The whole system is a bit weird, if you ask me.

Anyway, if you need my expertise, I am now actively looking for an assignment. I am located in the Netherlands, but can also work remotely for European countries. I do want to stay self-employed for now, so you can only hire me as a contractor.

If you want someone with tons of IT project experience and don't mind that I don't neatly fit into a box, send me a message!

Bonus material

Agile Testing Days OG's remember:

Christian Waidner on Mastodon, when I published the first version of this post:
"I totally feel you. There is so much a person can contribute, so why limit this?
A few weeks ago I did a barcamp talk on Generalism and it clicked with so many people who told me afterwards that they feel liberated that someone doesn't like to be fitted in a box."

I replied: "usually when you accepted a box (a role) and start working, you can break free. But finding a job means trying to fit into this box, and it's making the job search harder than it needs to be."

Also Christian: "Definitely. This is why this sentence is relevant: "Specialists are looking for jobs, generalists are looking for a good employer". Fingers crossed that you will find what you are looking for."

On LinkedIn & recruiters...

When I put my LinkedIn to "Open to Work", I was doing so to reach my network. But of course, LinkedIn is for people paying for the site and not actual users. Recruiters that pay for LinkedIn (I presume) got a notification and within 15 minutes my phone started ringing. I answered the first three calls, but after that I silenced my phone.

I also received a metric fuckton of Direct Messages, not all of them pleasant.

In the Netherlands, we are currently in a not-so-handy period when it comes to being self-employed (Wet DBA). Most messages implored me to start working in different construction (pre-lanse, mid-lanse, or whatever the fuck they're called) and I do not want that.

I can already see that my intention to reach my network and see what happens has been totally overshadowed by reality (recruiter hell). I replied to most messages for now, but I don't think I can keep that up. If people don't read the boxes I ticked (short-term, contract), that's not my problem, and they'll be ignored.

One recruiter was totally awful and took the Asshole of the Day award. He sent me a message saying "that I just missed a role that was fulfilled!" Wouldn't I want to avoid that next time and quickly call for another role that was supposedly available? I did NOT appreciate the method used by this guy and told him to lose the FOMO talk. He responded by saying that my reply was rude. So yeah, fuck that guy in particular. Blocked.

I slept 10.5 hours last night after the absolute chaos that was yesterday. Fun times.