15-Year QA Veteran Lands Job Lead Through Ex-Colleague After Weeks of Silence

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A QA professional with 15 years of experience left his company and began a low-key job search after a short retreat to Wudang Mountain. He sent one or two applications daily but received little response, mostly being left on read with no rejection or follow-up. While job hunting, he continued developing a personal creative project blending AI, storytelling, and strategic concepts. The breakthrough came unexpectedly on a Friday night when a former colleague called to ask for tester recommendations for an AI Agent startup — prompting the author to put himself forward. He visited the startup the following day to meet the CTO, turning a casual referral call into a potential opportunity.

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