Software Testing as a Career | technical skills for software tester

In this article we are going to focus on below topics:

• software testing as a career is it good?
• what is software testing?
• FAQs related to Software Testing as a Career

• Technical skills for software tester

• Non-technical skills for software tester

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Software Testing as a Career Is It Good?

 

With more and more software companies coming into the market, the requirement for software testers or QA professionals has increased. So, if you are one of those who want to kick start their career in the field of software testing then keeping reading this article. You will get answer to why you choose software testing as a career? or why did you choose software testing as a career? 

 

Stay tuned, everything will be explained in detail as we proceed.

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What is software testing?

Software testing is the process of making a product or a software bug-free. This ensures that the product meets the requirements of the customer.

Software testing is done at every phase of SDLC (software development life cycle). This ensures two things:

1. Quality Assurance, and
2. Quality Control.

Let’s first understand these two terms.

 

Quality assurance – Quality Assurance is a process-driven approach in which the aim to check the aim to prevent the issues in the developed software. This is normally done in the form of audit and regulations imposed by various regulatory bodies like - ISO 9000, CMM etc.

Quality control – Quality control is a process using which the developed software is tested for compliance to its business requirements. It aims at ensuring that both functional as well as non-functional requirements are full-filled by the application under test.

Now in order to perform these quality operations, effective software testing is required. And therefore, all the companies require skillful software testers to ensure that the quality product reaches the market.

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FAQs related to Software Testing as a Career

A lot of people have various questions, assumptions, and misconceptions about the role of a tester. I will try to clear them one by one.

1. What are the different posts designed for a tester in a company?
   Ans. Typically, there are 5 main posts that a tester will be promoted to. Starting from a QA analyst. Then Sr. QA Analyst after gaining experience of 2-5 years. Then QA Team coordinator ( 5 to 6 years), moving to Test Manager(8-11 years), and then finally Sr. Test Manager with 14+ yrs. Of experience.
    

2. What are the basic qualifications required to apply for the role of a tester?

Ans. A degree in any of these- B.tech/ B.E, MCA, BCA, B.Sc-computers will make you eligible for the role.

In case, you do not hold a degree in any of these, you can apply for software testing certification- ISTQB and CSTE. This will help you immensely to kick start your career as a Software tester.

 

3. Is software testing less respectful than a developer and are paid much less than a software developer?

Ans. It is a very wrong commotion made in the minds of the students/ professionals just starting their career. Both the job roles are quite demanding, and both are treated in the same way in all the major companies. The testers are paid equally as their other colleagues from the different fields like – Software Developer, DBAs, Devops guys, Business analysts etc.
 

4. Software testing is boring.

Ans. As a software tester one gets to know and work in different domains like – ecommerce, education, healthcare, etc. In addition, they work with both the business as well as technical side of the project.

Quite often the tester has to make quick and important decisions as to the quality of the software is in the hands of a tester. One has to be very creative and thorough with business requirements while writing the test cases.
 

5. What is the role of a software tester?

Ans.  The ultimate goal of a tester is to make the software bug free. For this, it has to prepare efficient test cases, conduct tests and re-tests to remove bugs, attend review meetings, and assure almost exhaustive testing.
 

6. What is an average salary of a software tester?

Ans.  Average salary of a tester in India ranges from 2,36,000 p.a to 12,00,000 p.a. This is one good reason for why software testing as a career.

 

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Skills required to become a software tester

It is important that ace the basic skills to grab a job as a software developer in your dream company. We will discuss seperately:

• technical and
• non-technical skills.

Technical skills for software tester

1. Basic knowledge of SQL/Database: This is required because there is always a need to store and access various data in the backend. There are a lot of records to be stored and maintained. All of this is done using softwares like Oracle, MySql, etc. for which knowledge of SQL is a must.

2. Manual testing: You must know the fundamentals of manual testing, processes involved in SDLC and, bug life cycle. It will give you a better chance at securing the job.

3. Knowledge and hands-on experience in automation: You must know what automation testing is and should have hands-on experience on any of the automation tool like Selenium, UFT, Katalon Studio, etc.

4. Knowledge of basics of OOP language: While there are many automation tools out there that do not require the need to know any programming language. However, it is still preferred that you are proficient in any of the coding languages like Java, C++, C#, etc.

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Non-technical Skills for software tester

1. Verbal/written communication skills: A tester is required to prepare long test cases. It is also expected to attend review meetings and meetings with the client. For all this work it is expected that the tester has good verbal as well as written communication skills.

2. Analytical Skills: At every point in the project, a tester has to break the problem into simpler forms and analyze the situation. For this, the analytical power of a tester should be excellent.

3. Leadership Skills: A tester has to sometimes lead the whole group working on a single project. In such situations, your leadership skills are tested.

4. Time management: All the projects assigned have to be completed within time. As the product has to be further deployed in the market. This means you must be punctual.

5. Organization skills: Hundreds of test cases are written and re-written for hundreds of projects. This tests your organizational skills. You should be able to maintain all the data in an organized and neat manner.

I hope the article was informative enough and was successful in clearing all your doubts and assumption about choosing software testing as a career. And now you can make out if software testing as a career is it good or not.