Being a QA Engineer | My experience, tasks, startups & my biggest advice on excelling

I'm back with an honest chit chat about being a Senior QA Engineer and tips I have. I've been in QA over 10+ years and worked for various different companies and startups. In this video I talk about:
- My experience as a QA Engineer
- My thoughts about qa bootcamps and certifications
- Typical tasks, expectations and responsibilities as a QA Engineer
- Tips to help make yourself stand out in an interview
- Tips on how to move up at a company
- What to expect working at start ups and more!

I don't talk too much about how to get started but more so what it's like once you get started in your career and how to do well.

🔎 In this video:
00:00 Introduction
00:42 What is a QA Engineer
02:07 Other roles in QA
04:20 How I Got Started & experience
05:09 Qualifications and & Degrees
06:16 My thoughts Bootcamps & Certifications
07:50 Responsibilities & Tasks (over the years)
16:07 My experience working at startups
18:25 Being a Senior QA Engineer & how to move up
21:08 Interview Tips (that aren't specific questions)
22:30 A very overlooked part of the interview
26:53 My biggest advice on excelling
29:26 Wrapping it up

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If you are new (or returning) to my channel, thank you so much for clicking into this video. I hope you enjoy! I love all things Lilly Pulitzer fashion, being a black software engineer, motherhood and content creation.

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Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide, I may receive a small commission. This helps support me in creating content for you ✨

#qaengineer #blackengineer #qualityassurance
Senior QA Engineer, Quality Engineering, QA Engineer, Quality Assurance, Software Testing, Test Automation, QA Process, Software Development, Bug Tracking, Test Cases, QA Tools, Test Management, Agile Testing, Regression Testing, Continuous Integration, Defect Management, Code Quality, User Acceptance Testing, QA Best Practices, QA Career, Software Quality, black woman in tech, black female engineer,

[Kimbuucha]

Thanks so much for watching! I realized I was a little vague in some of my answers and thinking of doing a Part 2! If you'd like a more in depth video, please leave a comment below with any specific questions you might have 💖

[GodsChildBri]

Really appreciate you sharing this wealth of info for people looking to get into QA. I just enrolled in the Careerist bootcamp and I'm excited to start on Monday. I'm going to watch this again and make notes so I can get the most out of my education. Thank you so much!

[QA-Chronicles]

Thanks for being thoughtful with your answers and presenting the content like a normal conversation. There was a lot of great tips, tricks, and guidance. Keep up the great work!

[bryanekong]

QA Engineer here. I really liked your video. I could relate to a lot of things you said and having the right mindset.

[Juli-bmyl]

thank you for your invaluable insight, kim! i have experience in cybersecurity and currently looking to change fields and this has given me a really good idea of what the qa engineer experience is like. it seems like it will be a great fit for me and i'm really glad you've picked something that you enjoy as well!

[charliezhang]

Thanks so much for this video! Its really insightful and gives me a deeper understanding of how QA works!

[kamikaze]

Thank you very much for your honesty and willingness to share your experiences with Quality Assurance. I appreciate it and learned a lot towards furthering my career in tech.

[streamtec]

Thank you for sharing your experience. That’s really valuable info especially for me as a mid QA engineer trying to level up!

[callummander]

Great video, I am also a QA Engineer and make videos on my channel. This was so useful to hear and I can relate to a lot of what you said. Keep it up - and great video! 😎

[kamilaa]

Thank so much, your video was so helpful and so interesting to watch!! I really enjoyed it. In your next videos could you pls compare the projects you worked on, teams, styles, etc. and what you liked best? and what practices you learned and think are the best from all the projects you worked on? since you had a lot of experience and people request to work with you on their project, I think it would be valuable for us to hear too

[leighroberson]

Thank you Kim! I did go to a bootcamp, but I am studying automation at the moment. Are there any projects that you recommend to help me stand out first recruiters? And yes I would love a part 2

[emonilee]

I’ve been in retail for 8 years and trying to figure out what to do in life. Then I decided that I want to do something in tech like qa tester and start from there. But I don’t know where to start.

[sushmakumari]

Thanks for the video Kim! It was helpful! 
Is it possible to make a video with Scenario based questions for QA with some sample answers. 
Also, for people with Manual Testing experience - who have a career gap and would like to restart their career - and have gained knwoledge on 1 programming language and 1 automation tool and worked on some self projects - Can you give suggestions on how to get back to the career in this present market as they would lack Automation experience and companies are seeking for experienced Automation folks. What and how many tools do you suggest to learn. And how well can we portray our knowledge in the resume so that team would think of considering our profile.
Thanks!

[yellowman]

How hard is this from 1-10 cus I'm really thinking about this course but idk much about it

[eddieriven]

what's your best advice to lvl up from junior QA to senior QA? should a junior QA work in any company to get expertise? either it's a startup or a stablished company?

[AkwiSandra]

Thank you so much
i'm a tester but i want to go into automation please can you recommend me best udemy tutorial for that

[rileystein]

I've been having trouble breaking into the industry. I did a bootcamp, took an API course, passed the ISTQB, and now I'm learning Java. Still can't get hired and I started applying in October 2023. It's been disheartening. I even reached out to a mentor who helped me with my resume. I'm pretty lost.

[ournewchapter]

Do you know who Jennifer Gaddis is.?
She has a program called Road to QA…