For getting a testing project/job/contract we have not to forget that, to get it, the most important thing is not the testing skill.

Most of the time people interviewing you are not testers or not testers with the same ideas like you about testing.

The things that will matter  more can be:

• Reputation, this will help you getting the project without being asked too many questions related to your skills
• Ability to talk and convince, especially enthusiasm or maybe seriousness that can click your probable client’s interest.
• Being cheap, this is to consider, even if is not pleasant.  This is the main criteria this days for a lot of companies.
• Some hiring people have some … weirdness… a rule that they use in their own life. They like people that: have family, play golf, go hunting, are over-organized or whatever… This is just how they take the decisions.
• General set of skills, most companies use check-box lists and then select based on  that…
• Being non-aggressive, not causing problems and conflicts at work

And there is a huge list of items that come before the actual testing skills, and this should not be frustrating as it its an unwritten rule in every area.

Participating in EWT again made me re-think  of impossible problems. I don’t think a tester should spend too much time figuring out what a functionality should be or trying to guess the expected behavior. A tester should though recognize an impossible problem or to clarify the requirements.

First of all we need to determine the oracle, the set of references that tell us that something is a bug or not. And for this we need to clarify the requirements for things that are documented and for things that are not documented.

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