Software user acceptance tester

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Has anyone here ever worked as a Software user acceptance tester? I am applying for a job like this, and I'd be interested to know more about what's involved in the role, on a day-to-day basis.

I'm not an UA tester myself, but as a programmer I deal with them all the time. Basicly, you are given some newly completed software and you run through it as if you are a regular user to make sure it is working as designed. The theory is that you are supposed to find any bugs or problems before the users do. In other words, you try to break software all day. Could be fun!

I did this job for a while. As a programmer I found testing fairly boring but someone's got to do it and I have a gift for breaking software that is only beaten by my users - actually I'm also quite good at anticipating ways that they might break stuff too - what does this button do? What happens if I click here, or put numbers there or text here etc.

In a software development environment where they actually have specialist testers instead of making the programmers do it - they will probably have written step by step instructions of what you are supposed to enter and what results you need to get to see if the systems are working correctly. In the more advanced environments - this process is actually automated - so the tester actually gets to set up the testing systems.

Also you want to be checking that the programs are actually built to meet the user needs. If they specifed a date field with today's date as default - is it there? Or did the programmer leave it out? If there is a complicated calculation, does the computer get the same answers as you would if you worked it out by hand - amazing how often this is not tested.

I find all the repetition in the job plus the fact that sometimes your bosses don't like it if you think up extra tests - really irritating and boring. So the job is not for me - but you might like it.