Sunday, October 7, 2018

Software testing: Is it a good career choice?


You might be at a point in your career where you are deciding about a career path. Whether you are a graduate or a working professional and are considering to make Software Testing as a career choice then this blog is for you. Let me share my thoughts on the scope of software testing and is it a good option to choose as a career.

Let's understand what software testing is!! 

Software testing is a job role in Software Industry which deals with verifying the quality of a software product. Building a right product is an important factor which dictates that a product should adhere to the customer's guidelines and needs. Its the primary function of a software tester to verify its functionality and confirm that it's working as expected.

Before deciding about software testing as a career choice lets gather some points to make this argument more clear.

Career Scope: Let's take a look at the career scope for a Software Test Engineer or a Quality Assurance Engineer.

Once you join the software industry as a test engineer, your learning will start. You will try to understand the industry you are in, gain more domain knowledge. You will focus on improving your technical skills and so on.

Hence once you become an expert in what you do, you have the option to get promoted as a Senior Software Engineer or Senior QA Analyst. In this new position, you make strategies and create an execution plan for how the product will be verified.

Later on, you can become a Lead Test Engineer and then a Manager, Sr. Manager, and a Director. This progression requires a certain level of expertise at each stage hence it might not happen that quickly. You need to possess these skills and work at each level at least for a couple of years before you scale up the ladder.

On the other hand, you can choose another route of becoming a Business Analyst. If you are more inclined towards interacting with people and documenting their needs for a required product, you can choose this job role. While working as a software tester, you get an opportunity to understand product from the customer's point of view hence its the best option to be the one who can list them on behalf of the customer. There is a scope to become an Architect and Sr. Architect.

Interestingly there is one more path which is guiding the team and working with them to follow a process, that is to be a liaison between a customer and a development team.

End of testing: 
As long as there is a need for a quality product, there is a need for a tester. No one wants to end up using a complex and convoluted product. Everyone needs an easy and simple product with highly usable features that meet the customer's requirements. Hence software testing is a never-ending job role.

Industries:
A software tester is needed in every domain that uses a software product or tool. Be it in healthcare, banking, finance, advertising, education, retail, defense, research and so on. This list is unending.

Considering all these factors, I would definitely say that there is a huge scope for any software test professional to grow in their career and get a stable job in the software industry and earn well.

Now after reading this, are you still thinking whether its a good choice? If yes feel free to post your questions and comments for me.

You can also watch my video below where I tried to cover this topic in detail.





Software testing: Is it a good career choice?

You might be at a point in your career where you are deciding about a career path. Whether you are a graduate or a working professional and...