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April 21, 2006
IT Recruitment Agencies Should Think Outside the Box
I find it interesting how IT recruiting companies (and many HR departments for that matter) tend to see things in boxes. For example, if a company is looking for a QA Analyst to do automated testing, then they don't know what to do with someone who offers to do full automated testing solutions instead of a junior person who happens to know how to use a test tool.
I'm currently exploring the option of using IT recruitment agencies to generate leads. The jury is still out but one thing is for sure - I'm not the run-of-the-mill person they're accustomed to dealing with. For one, I have an automated tested company. For another, I offer an automated web testing tool, (ABCWebTest), that is different from the standard commercial test tools out there. And finally, I have many years of experience implementing low-maintenance automated testing solutions, and not just using record-playback tools (which break down for complex testing scenarios).
While this all presents a nice offering, I find that IT recruiters don't quite know what to do with me. I don't blame them. After all, the companies that hired them are asking for a normal tester to do automated testing. They might not be aware that automated testing takes a lot of planning, technical knowledge and experience to implement properly.
So if you're an IT recruitment company reading this (or a company that's hired a recruitment company for an automated testing consultant), keep in mind - automated testing is a development activity requiring as much forethought, planning, and technical knowledge as regular development. Don't fall for the hype of commercial test tool vendors.
Posted by Misha Rybalov at April 21, 2006 06:01 PM