Dear Career, This is a letter of farewell and thanks to you, my Career. Yes, that’s right – my 33-year career in computer software testing is coming to a close. I am making this choice after heavy thinking throughout a sabbatical that has spanned many months and capped a change that had been simmering for the past five years. Writing this farewell to my Career has become important to me. Important to publicly announce and acknowledge this change as opposed to withering away or disappearing. Important to me as a reflective activity that is helping me prepare for my next career. And, in tech (and perhaps as most industries these days), no one will be giving me a gold watch to say thanks and to send me on my way, so I am doing this for myself. I hope my letter offers a model of how to exit for other people as well. And frankly, I need the closure. This isn’t easy. You, Career, have been by my side my whole adult life and have served as a large part of my identity – although you, Career have never defined all of me. While we were together, we had good times. I thank you for all of it. Let’s look back and enjoy some moments before moving forward.
What I loved Learning. I love to learn. No one is ever done learning in technology. To be good in the field, you have to love to learn and keep learning. In a field that was so new when I joined in the mid-1980s that there were few books, and in a niche career path such as software testing that didn’t even have newsletters, how do you learn? The internet didn’t even exist in common practice. I had to find information in many ways and often on my own. I would have read the online help file, but when I entered the field in 1985 I was the person writing the online help or product documentation! Back then it was called the “product manual.” Yeah, I wrote the manuals, and I wrote the online help for several software products.
Teatimewithtesters.com
April 2020|17
