A Note about C#

I have seen a lot of QA positions that ask for C# experience/knowledge.
Here are a couple of links for C#:

- Download C# studio from here .
- Code Samples
- C# Tutorial

Next Steps

I had promised myself to pursue certain career goals, and I am trying to keep up with it.
Immediate goal is to do a TDWI certification. The appropriate site is tdwi.org .
Following are the exams that I am planning to give:
- Core
- Data Warehousing Management
- Systems Development (Data Integration).

Job Search

Here are names of some of the staffing agencies/firms that I actually interacted with.

Disclaimer: I am posting these names, only in the interest of information. I do not represent them in any way, nor do I intend to advertise them. I do not stand to make any gain by posting their names.

adeccousa.com
http://www.qanalysts.com
http://www.spherion.com
http://www.ebasusa.com/
oakbrush.com
us-buxton.com
http://www.alltechconsultinginc.com
www.synergykraft.com
http://www.abstargroup.com/
www.valiantica.com
http://www.jamesmoore.com/
http://www.okayainfo.com
itcosolutions.com
www.VeritudeJobs.com
www.maxonic.com
infotechnologiesinc.com
http://www.modis.com/
qualityitsource.com
www.TheFountainGroup.com
gravitypeople.com
softsolresources.com
kforce.com
www.sisinc.com
strategicstaff.com
global-infotech.com
mindsource.com
coretechsinc.com

Job Search Strategies

Apart from internet job boards (dice, hotjobs, monster, careerbuilder, craigslist, linkedin etc), it is a good idea to communicate with consulting companies/staffing firms/agents. Make sure that these services are free (no cost to you). Most of these firms allow you to create your job search profile and submit your resume online. It's a good idea to actually call these firms and speak to someone working there. If possible, try to arrange an interview with one of the recruiters.

Typical Interview Questions

Here are some of the most-frequently-asked Interview questions in a QA interview:

General
what does QA mean to you?
which bug-tracking tools have you used?
what would you do if you find a bug an hour before the release? what will you do to avoid such a bug in future?
how will you proceed if you have to release a product today and you don't have enough time to test?
what are contents of QA plan and test plan?
how will you decide which tests to automate?
what is the most difficult issue you ever faced during automation?
If selected, what qualities and values can you bring to the table?

Technical
what is normalization?
what is inner/outer join?
What are materialized views? How are they different from ordinary views?

-----------------------------
Always ask these questions to the interviewer

How big is company? How big is engineering and QA?

Company type: Public/private/startup/profitable

Programming environment

QA Environment

How many customers?

Tips for self study

Here is what you can do, when you want to learn something on your own.
SQL/DBMS:

SQL Server
SqlServer 2005 Express is a free version of SQLServer 2005. It can be downloaded from here. Download SQL server Management studio from the same site.
You can also download 10 sample db schemas from the same site.

MySQL
- Download mysql dbms from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads .
- Download toad for mysql from http://www.quest.com/toad-for-mysql/
- Download sakila database from http://downloads.mysql.com/docs/sakila-db.zip

Collection of Useful Links

Here are some links that one might want to go over, while preparing for an interview. I find them very useful.

QA
Capability Maturity Model (CMM) Performance White Paper
QTP Tutorials & Interview Questions:
Test Plan Template: Most commonly asked question in a QA interview
What is a test plan?
Testing Terminology: Very useful site
QA Glossary
RUP

SQL
TSQL Tutorial
Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days
T-SQL reference

RDBMS
Database Journal
Normalization with Examples: A very good article from Database journal

Data Warehouse
Data Warehousing Guide
Kimball Group: Data Warehouse Training: Articles
ETL: Simple Tutorial from Microsoft
ETL Guru

PeopleSoft
PeopleSoft HRMS Doc Library
General User Guide

Java
JavaWorld
Gamelan

General
DevGuru Home
Quick Tutorials

BI
TDWI