A Microsoft tester spills his guts about testing resources for devs, chugging the kool-aid, and dancing zombies The geek in question Justin Wilcox The task title Test Lead, MSMQ MSMQ,
Office Enterprise 2007, huh? Good Microsoft acronym. Break it down for me.
MSMQ stands for Microsoft Concept Queuing,
Purchase Office 2007, which ships as part of Windows. We're a messaging platform that developers use if you've received an software on Personal computer A that wants to deliver facts to Laptop or computer B, you utilize us to assure that specifics will get there, even if there's a failure (e.g. devices burst into flames, a person trips over the Ethernet cable, asteroids, and so on.) following you sent the specifics. So wait around, what the hell do you basically do?
We publish code to test all day, as if we had been developers/consumers. We just use our product in fascinating and tricky situations. Our audience is us, inside a sense, so we're testing a item that we'd use — and in truth it's a item that many Microsoft teams do use. And you received into this gig how?
I've been with the company now for four years, right after doing two internships. I applied for my first internship during all the anti-trust stuff,
Office 2007 Download, and I thought to myself,
Office Professional Plus 2010 Key, "Wow, these guys are incredible — so much so that they're in trouble for being so excellent. Lemme go,
Microsoft Office Pro 2010, see what they're up to, let me go get some facts, and then see where else I can go with that specifics." My internship was cool — I acquired so much responsibility — so I came back again. Then I started liking the people and decided to come on full time. I've taken a full gulp of the kool-aid. I started as an SDET on the MSMQ team, and then immediately after almost three years I moved into the Test Lead place I'm in now. Dang! College to Lead in four years? You must have learned fast, young cricket.
Besides learning a whole world of testing mentalities and strategies — there's just so much you don't learn in school — there is also tons of managerial stuff I've learned since I became a Lead. The last year and a half has been incredible. I mean, where else can a can a recent college grad lead a team of experienced engineers, learning how to do it in a year or so with a ton of excellent support? I've got five full time employees and two contractors working with me, and the learning experience has been incredible. I mean, still have a lot to learn — I've started taking on some responsibilities that typically a PM would do and I'm even going to Barcelona this fall to represent our team at TechEd. That's one the things I love about this company — there's so much to learn, and so many people who want to help you learn it. So wait around, did I hear rumors about you and dancing zombies?
My latest project is leading up a local chapter of an international group attempting to break the world record for the most people doing the same dance simultaneously. We're all learning Michael Jackson's Thriller and hundreds of thousands of us from across the world are going to dance together at 3pm on October 27th, Seattle-time. Feeling clicky? I acquired the links for you. MSMQ item page Motley Queüe, Justin's team blog Thrill the World, the fab freaks who are all dancing Thriller Are you a decent enough developer to be a Microsoft SDET?