7 ways to budget training for testers

If you look at the various IT professions, you get the feeling that testers have more “moves” than in any other direction. It is understandable: the industry is young, immature, and the level of qualification is lagging behind in comparison with the western one.

In this case, it may seem that learning is difficult or expensive. No matter how wrong! Testers have plenty of opportunities to study, either completely inexpensively or generally for free! Today I want to share news in the world of testers training: I hope everyone interested will find something suitable for themselves.

1. QA Forums - Bug Battle Analogs

Finally it happened! In Nizhny Novgorod, the first meeting of testers, who ... tested! For my own pleasure, for the sake of new knowledge, for the sake of interesting communication. The event was successful, so expect to continue in the near future! In the meantime, you can chat with the organizers and offer any ideas, suggestions, or report an error :)

By the way, so that the organizers understand exactly what you communicate with them, feel free to indicate the name of the event in the subject: “The First International Professional Forum of Software Testing and Quality Control Specialists” no one confuses this simple name. And if you are too lazy to type, just call it PSPPSPTiKKPO :)
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When: The date of the next QA Forum will be announced soon.

Participation fee: free of charge.

2. Mailings for testers

Recently, fashion has gone on various newsletters.

Victoria Ptitsyna and a team of 4 people conduct the “official” newsletter of the main portal of testers runet , in which they aggregate all the latest news, blog entries and articles on testing.
I launched a newsletter for very, very beginner testers , in which we analyze both the main testing topics and employment issues, discussing specific difficulties in a closed forum.
Literally the other day, Gleb Rybalko launched his newsletter for testers , with subscribers who promise to also share free webinars.

When : regularly, on average once a week

Subscription price : free

3. Online conference for testers

Portal Software-Testing.Ru this year is preparing a real candy! Namely - the conference ConfeT & QA . Its main difference from everything that ever was - a practical orientation, as many as 15 reports, the possibility of remote participation and an inconceivably low cost of participation. At the same time, the main slogan of the conference is no theory, only specific advice that can be applied the very next day after participation. Taking into account that the quality of reports is monitored by the CAM , there is no doubt as a result.

When : October 17-21
Participation fee : from 700 rubles

4. Meetings of tester communities

Where did the fashion for the community of testers go - a mystery. But the barely noticeable trend avalanche went into an epidemic! Communities are open in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Kiev and Dnepropetrovsk, Nizhny Novgorod and Novosibirsk, Saratov and Voronezh, Kazakhstan and Kazan, Kharkov and ... Oh-oh-oh! There are so many of them! Want to know what their meaning is? Regularly gather, share experiences, invite experts, talk about the latest developments, organize all sorts of interesting goodies for testers ... Moreover, almost every club has opened its Skype chat, where you can quickly seek advice from colleagues - and, as practice shows, get emergency help.

Not a member of the testers club yet? Then we go to you!

When : on average, once a month in each city
Participation fee : free of charge

5. SQA Days Conference

Well, who does not know about SQA Days ? And this year it will also be the jubilee, the 10th! It will take place in Moscow and plans to gather up to 500 testers! There are many reports, interesting speakers, the reputation of the conference is at its best - delighted reviews prevail from year to year.
By the way, in the wake of the last conference, almost all the reports, presentations, video recordings and / or slide castes were collected. You can get acquainted with them, discuss and ask questions to the speakers in a special section of the testers forum - " SQA Days Online ".
Of course, SQA Days is out of this list at a cost that is far from the most democratic. BUT! First of all, these are two whole days and a huge pile of reports. And secondly - I know a way to get to the conference for free! All you need is nothing — an excellent report and an equally excellent mood :)

When : December 2-3
Participation fee : 5.000-10.000 p.

6. Free seminars, webinars, reports

I'm afraid to repeat myself, but testers are unthinkable social creatures. They just to talk! Therefore, they always participate in all sorts of conferences, meetings, gatherings, invite colleagues in advance, and then also post various records of various events in their blogs and forums.
Examples of records can be viewed here or here , and examples of invites to plague events - here or here .

Envious of not seeing this before? Afraid to miss other events? Do not worry, I'm with you :) And even ready to share a little trick: subscribe with one click to the RSS channel of all Russian testing blogs . Then you definitely do not miss anything!

When : blog updates every day
Participation fee : free of charge

7. Guess what?

Right! On Habr'e not so many sensible articles on testing! Let's communicate, share information, ideas, useful links. Activate, activate!