Software Test Engineer Nathan Zilka is a software test engineer at Microsoft Corp. Zilka went to Oregon Polytechnic Institute for an associate's degree in electronic engineering, then got a job doing phone support for UNIX systems. His love of computing led him to experiment at home on his 486 Linux PC, which eventually led to employment with Intel Corp. as a contract software tester. When that project ended, he landed a full-time software testing position at Symantec. In August 1997, he was offered his current job with Microsoft. They wait until just the right person comes along.
Standards vary from company to company.
For some companies, the specific technical aspects of a product might require domain knowledge in telecommunications or perhaps UNIX systems. And other companies want a tester they know will be committed to the organization for a long time. Many projects require testers to come in the middle of a product development cycle and pick up the testing process with little or no supervision. In general, Zilka works from 50 hours to 80 hours per week. He says this is because there is usually much more to do than there is time.