Pretty much every person in North America knows who a pitcher is, but much fewer know what a roughneck is. A roughneck, at least in oil terms is someone who works on the drill rig floor doing the hardest and dirtiest work. So what do these two very opposite job types have in common and how do they relate to testing? Well, nothing really other than I have a quote about both.

Here is where he becomes a pitcher rather than just a thrower

I heard this one last week late in a game where I think the game was tied and the pitcher had managed to load the bases. For a pitcher, this is just about the most stressful situation they can get themselves into. Especially when you factor in no outs.

In testing we have all sorts of stressful situations, but as your career progresses, the number of them where you have to be a tester rather than just someone who bangs on the keyboard. The question is, are you ready?

The problem is that we are seeing more city kids and less farmboys

I was watching The Rig on the weekend and in this particular episode the crew was staying in town and one of them got too drunk to go into work the next day. In reaction to his firing, one of the more senior members of the crew pointed out that with the oil boom they are seeing more people who grew up in the city and not from a farming community. They implication being that people who grew up on a farm understand hard work and have a better work ethic in general.

Testing is (usually) not a physically grueling job. It can be very mentally tough though. Could your approach and attitude towards testing more that of the kid who got up at dawn to throw hay for hours or that of someone who grew up coddled in a suburban enclave and drove to the corner store.