Dang it, I got the same old non answer "we'll look into that". I finally realized that I need leverage against my manager, need to threaten to leave Q, or just leave Q and comeback. But most important, I realized the following, bear with me. I realized I have not done anything to earn that transition. I haven't created anything great. I just tap the shit out of the Android UI, make reports, and read emails. I figured that showing up most days and being there aren't enough. I didn't realize that they can't just put me, a senior into a jr coding position and still get paid the same. Or me being a jr tester becoming a jr coder and get paid more. I didn't realize that a lot of my tester friends want to be coders too, and management can just rotate a bunch of coders into testing because the coders would be pissed as hell. I didn't realize that even if a coder were to rotate to testing, that coder would only want to do it for a month at most, and I would be back to tapping the shit out of the Android UI. I didn't realize the time i spent between graduating from college to now, I haven't coded much and probably forgot the most basic things. And speaking of college, I didn't realize it's cheaper and often better to hire a fresh graduate to do the coding work. I realize now that asking this question of rotation, everyone in that auditorium and on the stream probably thinks I'm an ass for throwing my manager and team under the bus. And finally I realize, I'm right were I belong, tapping the shit out of the Android UI, making reports, and reading emails.
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Haha...that was me a few years ago @ the Q. When I first joined they told me I had to do 2 years to be eligible for a switch. When I finished 2 they made it 3. I couldn't take it anymore. Its not that testing is a bad job but in Qualcomm in a lot of test teams you can actually leave your brains at home especially if you are testing applications. Unfortunately the above statement is also true for a lot of so called development jobs at Qualcomm. I say get out.
Nice to know I'm not the only one. My advice: Leave ASAP. I wish I'd done it a year earlier when QC "ran out of R&D jobs" like the ones I had been assigned to previously.
When I interviewed for my first job out of college, I thought I was getting a good coding position, but I was placed in what was basically a support role. I was only a SW engineer by title. I switched jobs after 8 months to another company. I was a contractor, but that was the best move I made. Maybe I could have found a full-time position then, but this was the first offer I got. Not sure where I'd be if I was still at the old company. Lesson: don't be afraid to take a contract position if the opportunity is good.
Sure OP. Good luck. The best way to prevent from getting pigeon holed into something you don't want to do is to make sure you don't get pigeon holed to something you don't want to do. :) once you get a development offer, see what the Q will then offer. Then think carefully. I wouldn't necessarily rule out the Q if they gave you a revised offer. It's kinda like a girlfriend that takes you for granted. If you find yourself being treated like shit, occasionally you need to show up with a younger /prettier woman friend to remind her you aren't going to take any shit.
Thx all, and thx for laughing, I needed that. Decided to go the outside Q route
Oh, and the way I got hired into development by a startup company? For about 8 months beforehand while I was waiting for my IOS transfer opportunity, I took advantage of Qualcomm's then generous educational-reimbursement policy and took some UCSD extension courses on C++, OOP, operating systems. I had the Q- library buy me a lot of books to read on data structures and threading. And back then, I self taught myself a infant language that most of the industry had not taken seriously yet...Something called "Java" from a company that I never heard of called "Sun Microsystems"...It turns out the startup company wanted to hire me because I they wanted to try to do something with Java, and no one really wanted to take the time to learn it at the startup.
It's kind of funny. When I was in school, I was a E.E. and spent considerable amount of time learning about signal processing, communication systems, information theory, and spent a many years with graduate courses in probability/random processes thinking it was going to be useful once I joined a wireless company...And then the first two years at the Q I'm working on testing "fault tolerant hardware "by pulling cards off a backplane, something a high school dropout could do......And then on the flip side,the remaining 18 years of my software career was based on the 8 months of UCSD extension courses + self-taught knowledge. ....Go figure.
If I have any career advice to give, it is if you're good enough to be in development, never get suckered into a company's sweet talk about "you're so good, we want you to start in test. We'll take care of you and move you into development after 1 - XXX years." Never take a test position thinking "one day, you'll be able to move into development"... Rarely does a company ever make that happen. I haven't seen it happen to any tester that I've worked with for the past 20 years of my career, and it's unlikely that will ever change.
Once you start in test, it's just that much harder for you to get out. And once you get older, if most of your experience is doing test, it gets that much harder to get hired into development, because most companies won't want to hire an "entry level developer" for someone that's been working 5 or more years as a tester, nor would you want to take that "entry level developer" compensation package 5 years later.
Before, when working at the Q, one had to weigh the pros and cons of staying ,because back then the Q was much more generous with the stock option package and because the Q was just starting out in it's growth, so you really had to weigh between doing something useful for your career to move into development or staying at the Q and hoping your stock options would have been worth something. In the specific case for the Q, financially it would have been about the same if you stayed or if you hit a good IPO in the bay area..
This day, the Q's compensation package for most young people isn't really that much better than other companies. So it's a no brainer...Find the company that is willing to pay you to be a developer, even if it means they are willing to train you.
Being a tester isn't all that bad. For example, it's probably much easier to move into management/non-technical positions if that's what you want to do. If you're good at talking and less so at technical work, then it's probably also a good career to start. Also, if you want to system engineering and/or marketing, it's probably also a better place to be because you get a much broader experience with the system than most developers get. But if none of those things are your cup of tea, get out as quickly as you can. Especially since now, Qualcomm doesn't really have a financial incentive for you to stay anymore so than any other employer that would hire you as a developer.
OP.. Lol, sorry to laugh, but what you describe is exactly what happened to me two decades ago. I was a top student at a top rank university and while I was meant for development, I was hired into a test organization at the Q. And naively, I was told everyone "starts in test", so I took the bait. When I got to the Q, I was considered a top performer in my organization. So naturally, when i asked if I could IOS out into a development position, they told there was a mandatory 2 year in the test org before they would let me IOS out and besides "you're too good doing what you are doing, we don't want to lose you". After 1 year, people who were "bad performers" were able to IOS out into a development position quicker than me. That was a slap in the face. And then at the 2 year mark, when i started to try to IOS out, the development groups basically said, we need to start you doing unit test in development organization. Great, more testing.
I gave the birdie and went to the bay area, entertaining one of my 6 offers I got that paid a lot more, with then pre-IPO shares of a company that eventually went public. Only when I handed in my resignation letter did the Q try to keep me by offering me any position I wanted that I previously applied for, but by then it was too late. I worked at a startup for 3 years, they trained me to be a good developer, and it was the most important 3 years of my career working at that startup honing my development skills. And being in a startup, I got to do a lot more and learn lot faster than I would have at a really big company like the Q. After the startup IPOed and I cashed in 75% of my vested stock, I reapplied for a development staff position at Qualcomm and was rehired into two levels above where my peers were stuck at. Meanwhile, my peers that were as smart and as good as me that started out at the same time ended up being pigeon-holed into the test organization at the Q. When I returned, they were still a test engineer and still at the same level as they were when they first started.
Moral of the story, if you don't take care of your career, don't expect the company to take care of it for you. If you really want to move into development, you better do something about it yourself. Otherwise, you might end up staying a tester for the rest of your career. Not that there is anything wrong with it, if all you care about is a paycheck. Me, I was bored to tears after 3 months.
You sound young. Welcome to the real world. The best thing you can do is find a coding job on another team or outside QC and break this image you're establishing as a tester. Do it sooner than later, or you risk the whole industry seeing you as a tester for your career.