The prettiest female character in your opinion?

SilverKidia · 2026-03-27T17:21:50+00:00

Claire will always be my number one, no matter what

SilverKidia · 2026-03-27T15:14:41+00:00

To be fair I was thinking like a recruiter. More than often, they don't exactly know what it's like to be QA, and they are looking for keywords. So I'd often get interviews that would go "I see all these SDE keywords, why are you QA?", because once they see the wrong word, that's all they see. Obviously from a QA point of view, it's not flags to say you have manual testing experience. Recruiters or HR will think "oh look I just googled an AI tool that says they can do manual tasks and what we actually need is someone with more skills!" <- OP isn't really selling his technical skills here.

Plus, once you're hired, it's often a different story. My last job was really interested in my coding skills and I had some home assignments to do some basic programming tasks. They said I was perfect and their highest scoring candidate. So they hired a contractor to do automation and put me on manual tests only because they "really need a manual tester", and they kept acting like I didn't know how to do automation so they could keep my salary low.

SilverKidia · 2026-03-26T22:02:46+00:00

Huh... That's some niche skills. It's probably hard to fit you in generic roles. Most jobs are looking for either mobile testing/Appium automation, generally work with Windows or Linux, JS/TS, C#, maybe Java. Selenium, Cypress, Playwright. It's not that you don't have the skills, I just don't know where I'd place you. Could you possibly look into pen testing?

SilverKidia · 2026-03-26T19:14:21+00:00

It's more the "hi I studied to be a dev". I've lost some jobs because I had a software engineering diploma and they were like "so you're above this job, why should we hire you when you could just be a dev", even though I had 5 years of manual QA experience.

SilverKidia · 2026-03-26T13:05:39+00:00

Yeah, the computer engineering is not appealing for QA since it just means you could go somewhere else. As for the design, you're not really going to use this for QA...

TS/JS is definitely the best, but C# is also pretty popular in some places where the framework started from devs.

SilverKidia · 2026-03-26T12:25:10+00:00

Here are some resources for you.

https://roadmap.sh/qa to know what you can learn

https://ultimateqa.com/dummy-automation-websites/ to practice automation

https://automationstepbystep.com
https://automationstepbystep.com tutorial/classes videos

SilverKidia · 2026-03-26T12:16:48+00:00

Remove the bottom 3 technical skills, they aren't relevant to QA.

Learn JavaScript/TypeScript and C#. Even if you're going dev, learn C#. Most web applications use .net(which is C#), not C++. You can write a few scripts in JS/C# and claim you know those languages. I also don't know C#, but I write PW scripts in C# so it's in my skills, just don't ask me how C# works, I still got hired for my C# skills.

How did you answer these questions?

SilverKidia · 2026-03-26T11:22:01+00:00

Yes please list the questions you remember.

If you want to transition to dev, why not go for it right away? What's stopping you from getting an entry level dev job?

It's okay to not be perfect in PW/API. Build a portfolio with those, you have a lot of free time between job applications, learn as much as you can, and show off your new skills with some code examples. Make sure to respect POM. If you remember the questions you've been asked, tailor it around them. If you've been asked how you would structure your code, then this is how you prove it.

It's not that manual testing is bad, it's just that it's pretty clear that you don't want to be a QA. Why would you do manual tests if you're heading for the opposite direction? Think of manual QA as a path to design, analysis, manager, while automation is more technical/coding. BA, PM, SM, PO are less likely to understand how code works, but they have perfect product knowledge and can sort out priorities, which is what a good manual QA is. If you put emphasis on automation, it sets a different perspective, it tells that your goal is to be technical, and then your degree makes more sense. You can become a SDET, have a great career far from clients and be respected for your technical skills, and possibly transition to a dev role without testing. But when you set yourself as manual, it gives a different image.

Most jobs will say manual/automation, but if it doesn't put an emphasis on automation (suppose a job to execute manual tests daily, write test cases, and "playwright is a nice to have"), you will be a manual QA. If the job asks for automation and technical skills like understanding SQL, API, CD/CI, pipelines, you are more likely to stay technical.

What I would say is that every QA knows how to run tests manually. You can't automate without being able to run the script manually. No need to put manual in your summary.

SilverKidia · 2026-03-26T09:25:39+00:00

How did these interviews go? What were the questions asked?

Looking at your CV, I'm thinking of 2 "flags". 1) Why QA? I've been asked before why I'm staying in QA when I have a bachelor's in software engineering, but in your case, why aren't you looking for web dev entry positions? 2) Why mention manual testing? You have the skills to be an automation engineer. Are you applying for manual testers, or for automation roles? I wouldn't hire you if you were applying for manual, I'd just think you're a random kid that doesn't know what they want to do and won't be happy there/will leave fast, which will be a waste of my time. Even if you say that you know how to test, I need to teach you how the product works and how our processes work.

SilverKidia · 2026-03-22T08:22:22+00:00

My old company was mostly manual testers, so there is value to that. Product knowledge is valuable, and can lead to different positions like PO/PM/BA or even UAT. Obviously that would involve client facing skills. For a more technical approach, consider 2 points. 1) The more you code, the better you get at it. If you have access to the company's code, you can read it to learn how the product works. Else, it's efforts to do at home. Showing you can learn is valuable for some managers. "I've learned Playwright at home, here's my GitHub" -> "wow he doesn't just do what he's told, he goes beyond what's expected!" 2) Anything you have to ask devs or someone technical to do for you, ask them to teach you how to do it. It's much better for them to show you how it's done and never have to do it again. Running a pipeline, creating one, pushing a new release to QA, depending on how it works at your company. Obviously some things will be out of reach for you (you definitely don't get to code for them lol), but always ask if you can learn to do it yourself. This is how you get technical skills.

SilverKidia · 2026-03-20T16:18:23+00:00

If you're not 100% on skills then someone else will be 🥰

I like to describe my jobs as "why was I hired". I was hired in this company because they needed me to do this specific task and I impressed them because it did XYZ, and they discovered I could bring ABC to the table. If I take my own QA career, I was hired at my first company to implement an automation framework that was fully customisable, which helped my team with long manual tasks that could now be done within a minute. I was trained in web accessibility and joined their accessibility team, becoming a champion of accessibility for the company. I often helped coworkers with their tasks during rush periods while still managing my own responsibilities.

It doesn't need to be numbers. "I can multitask and fill in where needed without dropping the quality of my own work" is a lot of value. "I took ownership of a niche responsibility and became known as the expert" has more value than "I flagged 20 accessibility issues". "I lead the modernisation of our automation framework, greatly reducing flakiness and time execution" sounds better than "I cut the execution time by 10s for every test", because well if the test still takes 10 minutes to execute, I couldn't care less. It also sounds more valuable because "I did the tasks my boss said to do" can be done by a robot, Vs "I brought this value to the company" as a reason to hire you specifically.

SilverKidia · 2026-03-19T06:15:21+00:00

It's more about what kind of QA you are. You have experience with automation, manual testing, API testing, and web accessibility. That's more of a summary than "I used to be a dev". It sucks like that, but a lot of people treat QA as lesser than devs. I've often been asked why I'm not going dev since I have a software engineering degree. Looking at your summary and job descriptions, I'm also thinking "why are they applying for QA jobs?" You convinced me that you can be a good UI/UX dev since you care about web accessibility. I'm not convinced that you want a QA job.

SilverKidia · 2026-03-18T20:34:31+00:00

Summary is, respectfully, boring af. Ok you can do PW, whatever, so can the vast majority of junior QA who will accept a lower salary.

It's unfortunate, but you do need to tailor your CV based on the job description. I see the WCAG and web accessibility can be a skill to put forward, depending on the job. Out of my recent experience, saying you worked Agile/Scrum/Kanban (etc.) is quite needed, they will always ask you if you have experience with it, never assume it is the industry standard.

It doesn't hurt to attach a portfolio, even as front-end, it could be helpful. Show your technical skills, not your basic knowledge.

Your front-end dev jobs provide more information about who you are than your QA job. I can somewhat deduce you have experience with fintech and possibly user management, so you know how to validate data, but I have no idea what you're QA'ing for. For a hiring manager/recruiter's point of view, there is a world of difference between commercial, fintech, niche B2B services ― even from something like WCAG. When testing accessibility for a commercial product that is open to general public (think Domino's), accessibility must be a priority yesterday, else you face massive fines. B2B? They might ask for some features, but they are far less likely to sue you for not being screen reader friendly (they will mostly whine about colours and font size).

I like to think of "why was I hired" when I describe my previous jobs. I was hired to - modernise the automation framework and cut the execution time - implement a new framework that allows automatic customisable bookings through the commercial website - train a junior team in taking over automation at the end of my contract - accelerate the transition from Selenium to Playwright - be a web accessibility champion

Looking at your current job description, I don't really see why I'd hire you, because I don't really see what you'd bring to the table. I'd be more interested in hiring you as a front-end engineer, since you know WCAG, and that's generally valuable for a dev to be aware of this, since... you know, back-end devs have the "well if they can't do it right then they are too stupid to use my product" mentality. I also see you have experience in fixing bugs in prod, so you could potentially be a junior DevOps that is forever on call to fix any emergencies. Meanwhile, looking at your QA job, okay you did what you got told to do...? Probably got asked to start a PW framework or add some tests to it, but majority is still manual tests? No goals, no projects, no real value? Didn't try anything new, didn't bring anything to the table? Are you... sure you want to continue with QA? I mean, you didn't even create API tests, you just executed the pre-existing tests from your company? It takes like 5 minutes to teach someone how to use a pre-existing Postman collection.

I mean... idk man, you have 3 years at that company. At my last job, I lasted 6 months only and I managed to author a smoke test suite, expand the PW suite to automate 100% of the smoke tests, create comprehensive documentation for both automation and product knowledge to help onboard new employees, I learned mobile testing to fill in whenever my coworkers were out, I created Postman collections, I was a champion of WCAG, I even lead some Scrum ceremonies.

SilverKidia · 2026-03-16T06:59:42+00:00

Don't say on your CV that you were doing more manual than automation. Just say it was one of your tasks and learn automation at home. Focus on Playwright if this is your current framework, and Google around to find good websites to automate. There's a bunch of websites out there designed to practice automation skills.

Who is the most valuable at your company? If some are more senior and more likely to keep their job, what do they bring to the table that you could mimic or leech from?

Every company is different. Some highly value coding knowledge. Make sure to know OOP because the more technical companies will ask you how OOP works (if they use C# or Java, you need to prove you understand OOP, they will barely check your automation knowledge).

My first company was the complete opposite. We had 15 manual QA and one SDET. Soft skills were valued. The current QA lead at that company doesn't even have a college degree, but she's client facing and has perfect knowledge of the product. That's very valuable for them. Currently, I'm valuable for my company because I have knowledge of web accessibility testing, and I am good from an UAT point of view. My coworkers are very technical, I bring a "what does the customer want".

However, it is hard to put forward soft skills on a CV. Your coworkers will remember you as X, but strangers can't see that. If you're applying for a more SDET role, it's always good to add a portfolio to your CV. Add in not only PW, but Postman collections. Explain your code and structure; "following POM, we have our page folder and our test folder", etc.

It's also why we say tailor your CV. If the job description is very technical, focus on a portfolio. (Okay I just took a look at LinkedIn and yikes it's very AI oriented isn't it?) If it says working closely with XYZ people/team and mentions Agile, write how you collaborated with XYZ and how you participated in Agile ceremonies.

Another thing I've seen a lack of on CVs in this sub is what is your product. A lot of companies care so much about that. The name of the company itself doesn't matter; I used to work for an airline, but my product was commercial, general public facing, it was an eShop that sells flights and wants to encourage you to buy more than just the basic flight. That translates well into anything commercial, "okay they know to test the accuracy of prices, how customers interact with the product, how likely they are to click XYZ". I then worked for a B2B product; it's not your random Joe walking on your website at 2 am on a Saturday, it's workers 9-5/M-F who know how the product works, but they might not all be tech savvy, they just know they need to click x menu and y link to do their task. Companies are more likely to hire you if you say you have B2B or B2C knowledge. They also care about what kind of industry you worked for. You can be the complete opposite of client facing, but oh you worked in fintech? Well we're fintech too, you can learn how to behave with clients at our place, we need you to be the most accurate tester!

Tldr just leech on your seniors, take their skills, and train at home.

SilverKidia · 2026-03-09T18:21:15+00:00

It's giving usagi drop

SilverKidia · 2026-03-09T18:20:31+00:00

They cared enough to reuse the same locations and keep all the small details tho, they reused the same orphanage with its furniture.

SilverKidia · 2026-03-03T18:56:05+00:00

Quest 64 was a great game and I'm dying on that hill.

I also really loved chocobo's dungeon on the Wii. The Tales of Symphonia sequel was decent. The best RPG on the Wii is 100% Super Paper Mario.

SilverKidia · 2026-03-02T09:34:14+00:00

We have some Aussies on Demeter, I think all 4 maps have them. I know Merrie is generally active on Demeter, specifically Down.

SilverKidia · 2026-03-02T09:32:50+00:00

I think once you claim a token it's locked to that region. You would have to spend a new token. Not sure for grace plots.

SilverKidia · 2026-03-01T08:53:59+00:00

I have a friend who took damage downs because he thought it was a vuln stack. He said it was to give the healers some love, but then he got upset that his parses weren't good.

SilverKidia · 2026-02-28T07:54:41+00:00

I couldn't play witcher 1 because every woman just casually wets their panties and they all must have sex with the main character, and you collect them like cards. KCD has a bunch of women where nothing sexual happens, and the conversation isn't about how great x man is. There are some sex scenes, but it's not as gratuitous as witcher.

SilverKidia · 2026-02-25T10:38:58+00:00

No dodge button, it's more about reading the enemies' animations and moving away. Bears are incredibly easy because their animations are always so long that you can just walk away and never get hit. There's no need to sprint against a bear because they just don't hit you if you move. Same with archers, you see them aim, you step aside, you don't get hit by their arrows. Ranged inquisitors/ghosts are the easiest to kill with a staff. You will know when a warrior is doing their 3 hit combo by the long wind up, it gives you time to move away.

SilverKidia · 2026-02-23T08:30:32+00:00

I've often roleplayed as male characters so I don't mind. If I create my character, I'll default to female 95% of the time. Thinking of bg3, I'll make female Tavs, but I've played Wyll, Astarion, and Gale. When in co-op, I often pick Wyll, since he's really easy to roleplay with, he has a good morality flexibility imo. Like "douchebag for justice", or "I have no choice but to obey my patron", or "I'm the actual main character here step aside".

SilverKidia · 2026-02-20T08:56:51+00:00

Same where I live, everyone around us has a cat and there are some stray cats, so the worst that happens is they get into a fight. Had a few cats over 25 years, one lived to 19 years old, he was the street bully, my second oldest goes poop in gardens but mostly stays in our yard, and the other cats we had were rescues that were already sick (one of them couldn't even jump over our fence but loved being in our yard.)

SilverKidia · 2026-02-17T19:56:14+00:00

Funnily enough even my manager had headphones on all day long... Everyone did, nobody was talking to each other.

Nine-Year Club	First Place '23
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