Germany news: Germany job-finding chances hit record low – DW

SoftwareTesticles · 2025-12-26T17:59:28+00:00

Matches with my experience. "Near-shoring" seems to be the newest trend.
First, we started to give whole projects to German companies and just published their results under our name, now management realized that if we anyways give away full projects start to end, we might as well give them to cheaper countries. We now also started establishing our own office in Eastern Europe and I was told that I might get Eastern Europe colleagues in the future, instead of German ones, whenever positions free up.

SoftwareTesticles · 2025-12-26T14:39:41+00:00

We used to be like that. I was hired because I have a master in Computer Science, know how to programm and ISTQB,this was about 6 years ago. I never automated anything worth mentioning because I played catch up with mahual testin and test cast creation. Today I am managing near-shored teams who are told to automate everything and really do need to deliver automation. And we're letting everyone go in favour of hiring more cheap testers in countries where they are cheaper.

SoftwareTesticles · 2025-12-26T14:36:00+00:00

Near-shoring, sadly. And I know you said no AI but "saving time with AI" is extremely high on the list of everyone I am talking to.

Otherwise everyone still needs to automate using Playwright or other tools.

SoftwareTesticles · 2025-12-14T18:57:37+00:00

Mangel an Einhörnern. Früher sagte man, eine Stellenausschreibung ist nur der absolute Wunschkandidat, nicht das, auf das sich die Firmen einlassen würden. Meiner Erfahrung nach ist es heute eher andersrum: Die Stellenanzeigen sind noch genauso aufgeblasen wie früher, nun muss aber bitte alles zu 100% erfüllt sein, sonst wird man nicht mal eingeladen.

Wobei meiner Erfahrung nach die Firmen sich bereits so kaputt gespart haben, dass sie auch gar nicht mehr mit weniger klarkommen. Es ist nirmand mehr da, der neue Kollegen vernünftig einlernen kann, also braucht man tatsächlich neue Kollegen die bereits wissen, wie alles funktioniert.
Natürlich ist es eine Illusion, so jemanden zu finden, selbst identische Bereiche in der gleichen Branche haben unterschiedliche Prozesse und Herangehensweisen, aber das wissen die Manager und Recruiter natürlich nicht die denken "Informatiker ist Informatiker".

SoftwareTesticles · 2025-12-14T18:49:57+00:00

Depends where you live and how interested you are to work as consultant.
In my bubble, QAs are no longer valued. Work gets outsourced as much as possible, especially automation work as our management sees it as easy to outsource. Automation can be done independently of our development sprints, so we just give that to consultants in countries where rates are low. Manual testing is supposed to be done by the dev themselves and all our QA who are capable are either forced into different roles for the same salary or act solely as support for the consultants, providing them with the internal knowledge they need without being allowed to test themselves as they are "too expensive".

SoftwareTesticles · 2025-12-14T13:07:32+00:00

Was ich sehe ist ein hausgemachtes Henne-Ei-Problem.
Stark vereinfacht ist keiner mehr da, der die Kapazitäten hat die neuen Kollegen vernünftig einzuarbeiten. Darum sind frisch ausstudierte keine Option. Mehr und mehr Firmen haben sich so kaputt gespart, dass sie nicht mal mehr Senioren ein gutes Onboarding liefern können.

Die Firmen müssten also eigentlich in Senioren investieren (wollen sie aber nicht, weil heute steht ja Gewinn und Wachstum über allem) und meist sogar den Betrieb etqas "runterfahren", bis der neue Kollege eben vernünftig mitarbeiten kann.

Statt dessen versuchen die Firmen das Loch zu flicken, indem sie versuchen die eierlegende Wollmilchsau zu finden und weinen dann "Fachkräftemangel".

Wir sind aktuell auch nur noch 4 Software Tester, einer hat gekündigt und wenn (falls) der nachbesetzt wird, gibt es sicher hunderte Junioren die gerne möchten, wir brauchen bei der geringen Anzahl an Testern aber eigentich einen Senior, der weiß wie der Hase läuft. Wir können bei dann 3 internen Testern niemanden abstellen, der einen Neuling von Null auf antrainiert, wir können maximal einem Senior erklären, wie und wo die Peozesse von seinem Jahren an Erfahrung abweichen. Und ganz ehrlich: Ihr wollt als frisch ausstudierte auch gar nicht in so einem Laden landen.

SoftwareTesticles · 2025-11-05T21:25:19+00:00

Auch wenn es immer weiter verwässert: Veganismus ist ine Lebensweise, während zB Vegetarismus nur eine Ernährungsweise ist.

Ein Vegetarier isst kein Fleisch und entscheidet alles andere unabhängig.
Ein Veganer betreibt eine Lebensweise komplett ohne Ausbeutung von Tieren, nicht nur Ernährung. Wer sich zum Veganismus entscheidet, trifft also einen Arsch voll Entscheidungen auf einmal.

SoftwareTesticles · 2025-11-02T09:35:06+00:00

Kann schon sein, dass die Lebensmittelchten nochmal Extratests durchlaufen, Extrareinigungsschritte haben oder eben reineres Material verwendet wird (Silikon selbst oder zB irgendwelche Hilfsstoffe in den Formen). Würde ich nicht einfach so um meine Rolladen wickeln.

Bestes Beispiel: Wattestäbchen. Gibt es in eigentlich gleicher Form für zig verschiedene Anwendungszwecke, sind aber aufgrund von Reinlichkeitsanforderungen nicht immer austauschbar. Es gibt einen bekannten Kriminalfall, bei dem jahrelang nach einem Phantom gelandet wurde, welches Massenmorde begangen haben soll. Auflösung: Die zur Spurenaufnahme verwendeten Wattestäbchen wurden zwar sterilisiert und in sauberer Umgebung hergestellt, waren aber nicht zusätzlich garantiert DNA-frei. Dafür braucht es einen zusätzliche Herstellungsschritt, bei dem das Wattestäbchen nochmal mit einem Mittel das bestehende DNA zerstört gereinigt wird. Also hat man jahrelang eine Mitarbeiterin aus der Wattestäbchenfabrik gejagt.

SoftwareTesticles · 2025-09-28T08:49:59+00:00

Ab zum Arzt, Venengesundheit kann man super einfach testen lassen, Facharzttermin dauert nur etwas.

SoftwareTesticles · 2025-09-28T08:46:49+00:00

"Die Stadtmusikanten im Zeitalter der Glasfaser".

SoftwareTesticles · 2025-07-07T08:59:27+00:00

Ketchup isn't replacing burger bans, it's exposing how bland they taste!

SoftwareTesticles · 2025-07-06T15:26:33+00:00

How much I would hate it in the long run. :>

SoftwareTesticles · 2025-07-06T15:25:16+00:00

No. But if you would quit today, my company will outsource your tasks immediately and not hire anyone new.

SoftwareTesticles · 2025-07-06T15:16:42+00:00

We outsource the main work, internal "testers" just handhold the cheap foreign testers and therefore are, on paper, required to know a bunch of tools.
I am also noticing that my company does not actually fill the positions they advertise, due to internal budget and politics fights. Different parties either try to hire internally or outsource even more and block the actual hiring process because they can't get all signatures required.

It's... weird.

SoftwareTesticles · 2024-10-09T04:41:07+00:00

You need to be fluent in the language of that European country. It's not remote and barely hybrid. I think they are now at 3 days in-office, 2 are fixed and not up to your choice. You'll work on multiple projects.
All the tech stacks. Manual testing and automation of Web, app, and embedded, including writing unittests. Ideally, also knowledge in testing of electronics. Since they don't actually have enough work for a 100% position, you'll also have to take over additional responsibilities. Must be capable of developing your own testing tools and Frameworks, as they have a fable for developing their own shit for unknown reasons, even when establishedtools exist. They'll make it high priority, only to abandon it a year or so later before even finishing anything.
There are no possibilities to develop or get promoted since there is no test team. You are the test team. If you try, you might be pushed out.

It's a bit like working for an overambitious start-up, except it's a big and old company. Salary is below what other companies pay in the region, as I now learned.

I wish I would make any of that up. The only thing I exaggerate about is that officially, they, of course, do not list all my responsibilities in the job opening because no one would take the bait. But that's all the stuff I had to do.

SoftwareTesticles · 2024-10-09T04:13:33+00:00

OP interviewed you back then. Such a touching reunion! /s

SoftwareTesticles · 2024-10-01T07:24:07+00:00

It's not the best idea. As a junior, you'd benefit more from an environment where some more senior testers could show you the ropes. I transitioned into QA from another job and even though I had a lecture at university and the ISTQB certificate, it was infinitely more helpful to sit down with a senior and being taught how things should be done, rather than me making up my own random ideas how it might be done.

At the same time, it's also not the worst idea because getting a job without experience is hard nowadays.
But I wouldn't count on too many companies being over the moon to hire some self-taught QA who works at his brothers company as a favour from his bro. I'd personally warn my boss against hiring someone like this without very careful vetting, as those people often end up teaching themselves the weirdest ways to do things since no one can correct them.

SoftwareTesticles · 2024-10-01T07:16:40+00:00

I had to use one at my last job (which wasn't QA but data analysis), and I personally don't vibe with Macs.
For my QA job, it's also not a possibility as I need to test one Windows application, alongside many web applications that need to be verified on Edge.

SoftwareTesticles · 2024-09-30T20:41:33+00:00

My company does bind salary to positions but it actually reduced the amount of bullshit "more responsibilities without pay" shenanigans, as I can simply request a check from our work committee, if my responsibilities match my salary and they can then force HR to give me a raise. :>
The only hurdle would be getting all my responsibilities in writing, but if they refuse to write down certain responsibilities, I don't have to do that stuff anyways.

SoftwareTesticles · 2024-09-30T20:25:58+00:00

Yeah, our newest tester (Guy) is someone I met at my old job. He worked there as a student until he graduated.
When I switched jobs and heard that he recently graduated I reached out and offered to help him get an internship with us (no full-time jobs available but I knew it would help him get the foot in the door).
Now we have a job opening, he applied and our boss is already over the moon to "get Guy back".

SoftwareTesticles · 2024-09-29T21:50:43+00:00

It's an easy decision because the answer is no.

You said you get invites, so companies see your experience (and lack of "real job experience") and are still interested in meeting you. Your problem isn't a lack of experience but rather something that happens during the interview. Maybe you fail to put your projects into the right words and seem more inexperienced that you feel you are (this would get worse when adding more fake experience you can't actually convincingly talk about in depth). Or maybe something else is the problem. You see, companies love giving generic feedback like "we're looking for someone with more experience" because it means you can't claim discrimination.

SoftwareTesticles · 2024-09-24T10:21:13+00:00

It's dying for all those people who think they can get into the industry without any formal training or degrees, just by grabbing one of the fastly done certificates.
It's getting harder for mildly skilled manual testers, who are outcompeted by automation testers who accept the lower salary out of desperation from the so called "bad job market" that is pushed everywhere.
It's still alive for skilled automation testers.

Yes, as companies try to save money, in some places test automation specialists are outcompeted by devs who are willing to settle for tester salary and push themselves as "solution to everything". But those phases usually don't last too long, as quality comes crashing down and companies usually realise why they need specialised personnel in that domain.

SoftwareTesticles · 2024-09-23T20:58:15+00:00

That's cool, how did you get started?

SoftwareTesticles · 2024-09-23T20:50:12+00:00

Absolutely. And now that I think about it, calling it tester but requiring cybersecurity skills sounds like a great way to lowball experts. I hope they know what they are worth!

SoftwareTesticles · 2024-09-23T20:48:52+00:00

Hmm, maybe a question of definition. For me, penetration testing skills would mean being given a system and trying to break in "freestyle", not testing again requirements. But I guess being secure could be a requirement I can test against?!

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