All the learning starts from step1. You have learned based on your own interest. I had a lot of support from this community and StackOverflow when I started writing automated tools. I can share my experience. 5 Rules for beginners getting into test automation:
Rule#1 - Do not worry about design, error handling when you start writing your automation suite. Write pieces of functionality and integrate it slowly. Refactoring, Applying OOPS principles, logging can be learnt once you get your code working.
Rule #2 - If you want to write selenium automation follow seleniumtests.com, select recommended tutorials / articles in this forum. There are a lot of resources you need to select and read good info articles. A mentor, in this case, would be of great help.
Rule #3 - Explore Tools - Focus on learning TestNG Basics, JUNIT basics, SOAP UI and other tools. Divide automation into multiple layers - Framework Design, Execution Layer, Logging, Reporting Layer. Allocate time and try out freeware tools, GTAC talks, Tools demo sessions.
Rule #4 - Ask for help if you are stuck. Ask for help on best practices, approach design in forums. Accept your mistakes and learn from them, keep improving your knowledge continuously.
Rule #5 - Review your own framework based on below guidelines:
- Re-runnable - All tests are re-runnable without any hard-coded / static data not used.
- Do not repeat your code/duplicate code, re-use same methods whenever needed (you are applying OOPS here).
- Results Reporting - Results are readable, able to drill down the steps of each test case.
- Error logging and reporting - You have the option to enable/disable logging to different levels to debug issues.
- Configurable - Able to run the system against any environment with minimum configuration changes.
- Apply Design Patterns / OOPS Principles / Best Practices and Keep Improving your Automation Suite.
Hope it helps!!!
Using an existing automation tool QTP, Winrunner most of the items reported will be taken care of by the product itself. Primary work would be recording, writing cases.
Developed a mature in-house automation framework takes several iterations but working code is always best to ship it, to begin with.