Kami

I am currently a test lead for a fairly large company. I have been in this position for nearly a year, but am getting somewhat bored of doing manual testing and writing simple automation scripts day in and day out.

Today I was offered a position as install manager, which would involve doing the install scripts for all products in the company. This is tempting, as it would get me out of the QA group, but my concern is more in the long term. I know that my security within the company is very high and I would still have the opportunity to move around, but if I chose to move to a different company, would being a WISE install specialist (WISE guy) be limiting? I'm woried about going into an interview and hearing them say "so you know how to do installs, what else can you do?" and not have anything else to show them.

However, if I stay in my current position, there is a chance I could become the QA manager in the next little while. However, I really don't want to get stuck in QA for the rest of my career.

What I'm looking for is opinions. In the long term, would I be better off staying in QA, or moving into writing install scripts? If I was to apply for a coding job at another company, what would be more impressive? 3+ years of QA, or 1 year of QA and 2+ years specializing in install scripts?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Infinite Recursion

In my opinion, you can do whatever you want in terms of QA or Wise... as long as you maintain alternative skillsets outside of work. There are languages that I taught myself, that I learned outside of college and work... and they are on my resume. As long as you are proficient in the subjects contained in your resume, I'm sure you will be fine regardless of your job title when you begin searching for other jobs.

Bottom line is, if you are not happy in QA, you sould relocate to another department within the company or elsewhere. A Wise Install Specialist position sounds fairly limited in terms of action. Keep in mind that not all companies use Wise. Focusing on one product, in my opinion, is not a good idea. You need to be flexible, a team player, and above all... willing to learn.

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"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."