What I've Learned as a QA Tester

For the last 6 or so months, I have been employed with Activision Blizzard working as a QA Tester on Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare; My first real step into the front door of Game Design. I get to be behind the scenes and be a part of making a game in one of my favorite franchises. Seeing my name in the credits was both rewarding and inspiring. It's rewarding to see my name directly on the work I've done and it's inspired me to continue working and to get my name on more and more as my career progresses. Enough about my epiphany, onto the learning!

Over the course of the last few months, I've gotten to see how the things I've learned in school play out into the real world. When I started, I believed all the balancing, formatting, and designing I've done would finally be put to good use. I'm able to understand the bugs that come up which makes it easier for me to communicate the issues. My communications skilled have grown tremendously with writing bugs. Fellow testers approach me to help them find the cause of an issue or to help edit their bugs. It's very endearing to know that people that have worked on projects far longer than I, will approach me for help.

In addition to putting my skills to the test, being in a new working environment was a difficult transition at first. In the past, I have had mostly jobs working with customers being at a bank and working retail. I've been in management roles with a focus on operations which kept me in the office quite a bit, but nothing quite like this. I adjusted pretty quickly with all the long hours we spent here, but it definitely was strange at first.

The biggest thing I've taken away from being a QA Tester stems from root of the job itself. I've always found myself to be good at noticing and recognizing issues. I enjoy reporting bugs, but I find myself trying to find the cause of the problem and how it could be fixed in addition to just observing that there is a bug. I've learned how strong my design-oriented mind really is. Even while playing games at home, I notice bugs more often, and think about what design choices were made with issues and how they could change. Playing games has involved a lot more thinking than it ever has for me. I wouldn't change a thing and can't wait to begin designing games.