Dear Career Adviser:

Dear WinRunner:

You can definitely move from quality assurance to development. But that transition works best once you understand the application you're testing at the code level, not just at the end user or graphical user interface level, says Jerome Fong, senior quality assurance manager at Epylon Corp., an electronic-procurement software company in San Francisco. Then, if you can develop white-box tests in the same language as the application, this shows your ability to understand the development language and to develop good code.

But quality assurance also provides development opportunities, Fong says. As testing tools get more complex, quality assurance engineers will use in-depth development skills to code tests and will need to be as technical as development engineers. Several test-regression tools, including Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Mercury Interactive Corp.'s WinRunner and Lexington, Mass.-based Segue Software Inc.'s Silk Test, have their own development languages. You'll be able to exploit the full capabilities of these tools only when you can develop in their languages.

"Dear Career Adviser:

I'm an Oracle database administrator with about six years of experience, including programming with shell scripts, SQL and Perl and enterprise resource planning (ERP) experience on a variety of platforms. I have exposure to networking and Internet applications. My background is in high demand, but I'm wondering whether to work at a software vendor or join an application service provider (ASP). - Vendor or ASP?

Dear Vendor or ASP:

The ASP market has been slower to take off than originally projected. This is due to weaker demand from customers and a lack of infrastructure, such as billing and security, built into ASP platforms, says Kevin McClelland, principal at Broadview International LLC, a technology merger and acquisition adviser in Foster City, Calif. As a result, public market valuations in the ASP sector are down, and venture capital funding of ASPs is much more selective and disciplined than in the past.

Unless you find an ASP with a top-notch management team and strong venture capital backers, McClelland says you may be better served by joining a software vendor with a proven delivery model.

"Dear Career Adviser:

I'm a business development and software sales executive with more than 15 years of experience working for product and consulting companies. I recently handled partnerships for a major hardware manufacturer and then headed up sales for a consulting firm focusing on database and ERP applications. I have a good track record but was laid off along with 100 other people. I have what looks like a good offer at an applications software company, but it's considered a turnaround or restart. - Nerves of Steel

Dear Nerves:

Before you accept the job, decide whether your prospective employer is a turnaround or a restart, says Mike Vanneman, a sales executive in Los Altos, Calif. This differentiation will determine what you need to do the moment you're in the door.

Typically, turnaround companies have been spiralinng downward for three or four quarters. They're hemorrhaging cash and losing customers and personnel. Often, an executive board replaces the CEO with a turnaround specialist, stripping away product lines and reinvigorating engineering with new initiatives.

Restarts typically have all the restructuring behind them and concentrate aggressively to conquer specific milestones, including new product releases and revenue goals.

Nerves of steel notwithstanding, your better bet may be with a restart that offers compelling technology to solve customers' problems -- and has all of the hemorrhaging, cutting and pruning behind it. In this case, the CEO is probably focused on external issues, calling on customers, strategic partners, analysts and the press; the rest of the staff deals with with meeting day-to-day operations and revenue goals.

In either circumstance, be sure you understand your prospective employer's cash position, burn rate and expenses. Unless there's at least six months' worth of cash left in the bank and the above elements are under control, the company could become a fire sale.