Portfolio Ideas for Testers: Showcasing Your Testing Journey!

Everyone has their own unique testing journey, but not everyone has it documented online for others to see. Nowadays, everything is online in almost all spheres of work. So, the important question is, “Are your professional skills, capabilities, and offerings visible online?” Surprisingly, only a small percentage of testers have a portfolio they can share. However, this is a great opportunity for new testers to create their portfolio and stand out. 

In this article, I’ll share some easy and creative portfolio ideas for testers to showcase their skills, capabilities, and offerings. Let’s explore how one can build an impressive testing portfolio that will make you stand out among your peers.

Blogging

1. Small Threads / Micro Blogs
   1. This is a good starting point for folks who want to make a start with writing.
   2. You can share small bite-sized testing tips, interesting observations, or even fun testing-related anecdotes from your day-to-day learnings in a small tweet or thread of tweets to keep your followers engaged.
   3. Popular Platforms: Twitter, Threads, Mastodon
   4. Example: Ben Simo 🐋 X (twitter.com)

2. Text Blogs
   1. Easiest way to start if you have some experience with writing.
   2. Share your testing experiences, lessons learned, and insights through posts, or long-form articles on LinkedIn or Medium. It’s a great way to reach a professional audience and make a lasting impact.
   3. Popular Platforms: LinkedIn – Articles / Posts, Medium, WordPress, Blogspot, etc.
   4. Example: Articles | Rahul Parwal | LinkedIn

3. Image Blog / Visuals
   1. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so why not use images / visuals to feature  visually appealing posts? Share before-and-after bug images of public apps, testing process snapshots, or infographics explaining complex testing concepts.
   2. Popular Platforms: Instagram, Twitter
   3. Example: Agile Software Testing Tips (@eviltester)

4. Video Blogs: 
   1. If you love to face the camera or create engaging youtube intro maker video content on platforms like YouTube or Instagram. Walkthrough testing scenarios, demonstrate bug-finding techniques, or anything that you would like to share and connect with a wider audience through your visual storytelling.
   2. Popular Platforms: YouTube, Instagram, etc.
   3. Example: Nicola Lindgren – YouTube

Automation Work

1. GitHub Repos
   1. If you are actively into coding, set up a GitHub repository to showcase your automation prowess. Share your personal automation scripts, projects, pull requests, and any custom frameworks you’ve developed to make your testing more efficient.
   2. Take inspiration from creative profiles like “Gaurav Khurana” and put your own spin on it. You can make your GitHub profile a visually stunning representation of your testing & automation journey. Here is a short video to help you get started: How to make your GitHub Profile look better – YouTube
   3. Example: amuthansakthivel · GitHub

2. Framework Design
   1. If you’ve built testing frameworks for learnings or modified existing ones available in public, share your thought process, challenges faced, and the final results. Be sure to explain how your frameworks adds value to the testing process.
   2. Example: GitHub – automationhacks/appium-fast-boilerplate

Public Study Notes

• In this age of continuous learning, how about not stopping at learning alone. An interesting way to convert your learnings into an online record of your learnings is to document your learnings by taking comprehensive study notes while learning new testing concepts or tools. 
• It will not only help you retain information better but also serve as valuable resources for others. The key is to organize your study notes and make them easily accessible. 
• Popular Platforms: Notion, OneNote, Github, etc. 
• Example: Rahul’s Study Notes

Start Your Own Blog / Website

• Creating your own blog or website gives you complete control over your content and presentation. It’s like having your own piece of real estate on the internet. It will act as your home on the internet.
• Having a blog / website will also create luck for like-minded people to find you.
• By regularly updating your blog or website with fresh and insightful content, you increase the chances of connecting with like-minded testers, potential employers, or collaborators.
• Blogging Tip: Whenever you stumble upon useful testing resources or insightful articles, blog about them! It serves as a local cache for yourself and helps others discover valuable content.
• Example: Blog – Rahul’s Testing Titbits

Talk at Conferences & Meetups

• Step 1 – Know about them: Stay updated about testing conferences and meetups happening around you or even online. Keep an eye on social media and tech event websites for announcements. Follow hashtags such as: #testingconference, #testingmeetup, etc.
• Step 2 – Attend Them: Attend conferences and meetups to learn from fellow testers, network with industry experts, and gain insights into the latest trends and practices.
• Step 3 – Apply as a Speaker: Once you gain enough confidence and experience, apply to speak at these events. Talk to the organizers about it. Sharing your knowledge with others is incredibly rewarding and helps you grow as a tester.
• Step 4 – Start with Sharing Micro Learnings:  Short on time? Or not sure what to speak for a big talk. No worries! Start with sharing 15-minute micro-learnings on specific testing topics. It could be a small tool demo, a code snippet, or a bug-hunting technique.

Share Your Presentations

• You can turn your testing talks or ideas into multimedia presentations and share them on social platforms.
• It is a fantastic way to reach a wider audience and establish yourself as a knowledgeable tester.
• This gives you the opportunity to expose your work in public and create an opportunity to attract review comments and collaborators.
• Popular platform: LinkedIn, Slideshare, Slides, Github, etc.
• Example: Rahul Verma presentations | SlideShare

GitHub Repos

1. Showcase Code | Utilities
   1. GitHub is a treasure for engineers.
   2. Create utilities that help testers, or showcase your testing-related code snippets.
   3. Example: GitHub – dacoaster/yattie: A tool to help testers test.

2. Curate Resources:
   1. Gather and curate testing-related resources from various repositories and create your own well-organized collection. 
   2. It’s an excellent way to show your expertise in the testing domain.
   3. Example: GitHub – abhivaikar/howtheytest: A collection of public resources about how software companies test their software

Test Open Source Software

• Testing open-source software not only helps the community but also helps you demonstrate your testing skills to the global world.
• Most of the contributions that you do with Open Source Software remains public and can be used as a proof of work. You can contribute using any of the following: 
  • Bug Reports
  • Pull Requests
  • Change Requests
  • Documentation Contribution
  • “How To” articles / guides / tutorials on such software
• Writing “How-To” articles on testing open-source software will serve as evidence of your hands-on experience with these projects.
• Popular open source project: GitHub – testsigmahq/testsigma: A powerful open source test automation platform for Web Apps, Mobile Apps, and APIs.
• Contribution guide: A Detailed Step-by-Step Guide for anyone who wants to start contributing to Open Source. (testsigma.com)

Try Testsigma Open source

Remember, your portfolio is a reflection of your testing passion and skills. Mix and match these ideas to create a unique and personal showcase of your journey. 

Happy testing, and may your portfolio shine like a bug-free application! Cheers!