I was recently talking with a recruiter who wants to put me at a company for a p

Question

I was recently talking with a recruiter who wants to put me at a company for a position of Developer in Test. He essentially made it sound like a position where you get to fiddle with new programming techniques and test bugs and improvements in software but where you don't need to worry about standard deadlines. You get to be very creative in your work.

But that description was still kinda vague to me. I have been a Web Developer for a number of years now, mostly working in PHP. So I wanted to know if others in the community know more about what these positions typically entail.

I know that this might not be a subject appropriate for this forum, but it was the best fit I could find among Stack Exchange and I would really appreciate it if this wasn't closed since there is really no where else here to ask about it.

I have tried Googling it, but there isn't a lot of information out there. So what exactly is a Developer in Test?

Explanation / Answer

I am a Software Development Engineer in Test, and have been at 2 separate companies. Currently I work for Microsoft.

Broadly speaking, Bryan Oakley is correct: you write software that tests software.

Beyond that, it depends on your level of experience, the scope of your responsibilities, and the type of software that the employer would be producing. An SDET position can include writing anything from the basics of feature level verification tests, to writing and maintaining test infrastructure to run those tests. It's also not uncommon to have SDETS that specialize in focused testing for certain types of requirements (testing security, performance/scale, usability, etc. are examples that immediately spring to mind).

The description that you received from the recruiter sounds like a poor selling technique.

I hope that gives you a bit of an example of what being an SDET is like.

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