As we notice how our students are getting placed into working world, we notice some new trends. For some time development was the dominant career option and most preferred it. However in the last few years not everyone is getting openings in development teams and more interestingly some opening looking out for other alternative career plans. Some of the alternatives which students are discovering include start up companies and testing domains. In this blog, I wish to initiate a debate on the pros and cos of choosing testing as a career. Although there is no development without accompanying testing work, historically testing was considered as a different and relatively less attracting option. However testing has become at least important if not more than other career paths. In this regard, I request experienced people to assess the true potential of testing domain as a career choice. Specifically you may answer the following questions that would help junior make informed decisions.
- How do see Testing as a career options?
- Can testing offer a life long progressive career options?
- Which are the best companies to start Testing career ?
- Are there any certification programs that help people build robust career paths?
You may add any information that u feel required for people who are considering Testing as a career.
Testing or development, no job is too easy or too tough (except game Development :P ).
ReplyDeleteIt all depends on how you see things and wot your area of interest is.
Development is done by engineering graduates and requires a thorough knowledge of the programming language and logical thinking. Pay scale usually starts from 15-20k for entry level graduates. Within 2yrs, this can double or even scale 4 times (There's a saying in IT industry, If u want to grow, jump from one company to another every 1 or 1 n half yr.Or if u have opportunities in your company, stay n grow with it.)
Testing is a job where in any graduate, be it BSc, BCA, sometimes even BA, BCOM people do it.
It has same scope as development. In some companies, testers go freq for onsite work and enjoy more pay. But being a tester, you tend to lose your grip on programmin languages, this is d only disadvantage with being a tester.
There are few testing areas which have more scope for example Telecom, Networking. Printer testing is not for engrs, please note it.
Manual Testers are usually asked, Automation testing involves VB script, so ppl opt for it too, its QTP testing.
Currently Torry Harris, Synchronoss have openings for testers. Wipro, samsung, honeywell hires more testers.
QSpiders is famous in blore for testing course. When you pay for a course, make sure its placement oriented course.
P.S: Subject to market risks. :)
Thank you
Though a less preferred career by most freshers, testing field certainly offers lot of interesting challenges and opportunities. With many testing tools available in the market, they offer lot of programming / scripting facilities in the area of testing. Whilst a software programmer may have a narrower perspective of the application s/he is developing, usually a tester will have larger perspective of the whole application. (A customer was so impressed with a tester, who was my ex-colleague in my previous company, that they had setup an award by the name of the tester himself!! Every year they used to give away that award for great achievements in testing area)
ReplyDeleteMany big IT companies have a separate unit for testing. These units take high-end testing related projects from customers like Performance Testing (and its various flavors), System Testing, Cross-platform testing, Configuration testing, etc. Hence, there is no doubt that testing offers a great career opportunity.
Some of these companies also have internal certifications on various nuances of testing at different levels. IBM Rational offers many certifications on its various testing tools (Rational Robot, Functional tester, etc.). I bet there are other certification programs also available on testing.
Career on testing has no doubt a lot of opportunities. Only things is that people have to change their perspectives about it!
Testing is good profession and i being an academia in Technical Education, I feel that at the academic level i.e., colleges and universities has to change the perspective of Teaching and training students in Software Engineering course. I think it needs to be modified like C Programming at I/II Semester and Software Testing concepts also made it mandatory even for testing C Programs.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with @Girish . However, there's a slight practical problem with most of the QAs who have been hired as QA from fresher days. They know literally nothing about programming, it's more like they shoo themselves away from programming. Unless that QA completely understands the product/domain and is able to develop his own TCs(and not depend on Dev at each n every step), he is a parasite.
ReplyDeleteIMHO, a QA can be a good QA after a few years of Dev.
From operational POV, it's a well known fact that all QAs get paid as much as Devs.
In most cases Dev can very well replace QA and do their work more efficiently than them, unless that QA adds value to himself by being independent and by completely understanding the product/domain.
However, the reverse is not true. A QA cannot change his hat and become Dev overnight.
This being the case, I think everybody should be hired as developers in the initial days of their career and then(after couple of years of exp) depending on their liking/inclination they can fork off into being a specialist QA or Dev.
Testing!! Though this word used to irritate me a lot earlier, but now i realize the importance of testing.
ReplyDeleteAlthough we developers do a lot of testing on the code but finding out unreached bugs is testers skill. Testing is a field where u will surely learn a lot. U will be:
--> Exposed to different types of coding standards
--> Different ideas in coding (Each developer codes in his own way although he follows the standards)
--> Learn about different tools in testing..& the list goes on n on...
I have seen so many testing opportunities in diff IT services and R&D Services company. To be frank testers have a lot of offshore opportunities!!!
To be a tester for some days and then if have a start as a developer m sure u'll a very good developer as till then u would surely have a lot of knowledge in coding :)
Who knows u may even develop a testing tool on your own :)
So guys never Underestimate Testing :)
--Chetan Achar
"Testing is a job where in any graduate, be it BSc, BCA, sometimes even BA, BCOM people do it."
ReplyDeleteI completely disagree with this statement!!.Being the developer in good company i can say testing is the most challenging one compared to development. Finding some others fault is not an easy job.It requires lot of domain knowledge and skill. that too for high end testing like performance testing etc.
they can even stop the releasing of the product in to the market.
Now the salary also very good for testers and they can easily mentain their work life balance. It does not matter where you are!! only matters is how we are..
Rohit Ghatol
ReplyDeleteYes, it is quite true that at beginning Testing was not considered as
lucrative or attractive job option as development. This has changed
drastically over last few decades. I will choose to talk for a new
kind of companies which are mushrooming every where, small, medium or
large size but agile companies.
Now, no need to look for definition of agile across internet, here are
the basic set of common sense agile follows
1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4. Responding to change over following a plan
Every professional with some experience knows the difference between a
code complete product and a shippable product (well tested). Agile
process has major emphasis on always having a shippable projects. Even
if a company does not claim to be agile, and it is successful it is
some where following one of its common sense.
Enough of Agile now, in todays world a QA person is equally important
in a project as a developer. Infact, it would be right to say, they
are becoming more and more important than developers.
Gone are the days when QAs where involved at the end of development
and they had to beg for release builds to test them. In today's world,
QA are the first people to get involved, they are the ones who
understand and make sure requirements are complete and non
contradictory. And through out the life cycle of a product, they will
have a say on the health of the product.
With new techniques in automation testing, QAs are one of the main
ingredients to the success of a product. With thousands of lines of
code adding every month, who can guarantee they do what they are
supposed to do (even after some changes/bug fixes). Here is where QAs
in last decade have come up with most innovative techniques to measure
and meet quality of product using automated regression testing.
I believe engineering students should seriously consider QA as an
option. (It now a days involves a lot of coding too, software written
to test software). Its satisfying and lucrative option for them.
My 50 cents on the topic.
Cheers,
Rohit
// This was posted by Rohit Ghatol, Pune //
ReplyDeleteYes, it is quite true that at beginning Testing was not considered as
lucrative or attractive job option as development. This has changed
drastically over last few decades. I will choose to talk for a new
kind of companies which are mushrooming every where, small, medium or
large size but agile companies.
Now, no need to look for definition of agile across internet, here are
the basic set of common sense agile follows
1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4. Responding to change over following a plan
Every professional with some experience knows the difference between a
code complete product and a shippable product (well tested). Agile
process has major emphasis on always having a shippable projects. Even
if a company does not claim to be agile, and it is successful it is
some where following one of its common sense.
Enough of Agile now, in todays world a QA person is equally important
in a project as a developer. Infact, it would be right to say, they
are becoming more and more important than developers.
Gone are the days when QAs where involved at the end of development
and they had to beg for release builds to test them. In today's world,
QA are the first people to get involved, they are the ones who
understand and make sure requirements are complete and non
contradictory. And through out the life cycle of a product, they will
have a say on the health of the product.
With new techniques in automation testing, QAs are one of the main
ingredients to the success of a product. With thousands of lines of
code adding every month, who can guarantee they do what they are
supposed to do (even after some changes/bug fixes). Here is where QAs
in last decade have come up with most innovative techniques to measure
and meet quality of product using automated regression testing.
I believe engineering students should seriously consider QA as an
option. (It now a days involves a lot of coding too, software written
to test software). Its satisfying and lucrative option for them.
My 50 cents on the topic.
Cheers,
Rohit
// Posted by Rohit Ghatol in Pune GTUG //
ReplyDeleteYes, it is quite true that at beginning Testing was not considered as
lucrative or attractive job option as development. This has changed
drastically over last few decades. I will choose to talk for a new
kind of companies which are mushrooming every where, small, medium or
large size but agile companies.
Now, no need to look for definition of agile across internet, here are
the basic set of common sense agile follows
1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4. Responding to change over following a plan
Every professional with some experience knows the difference between a
code complete product and a shippable product (well tested). Agile
process has major emphasis on always having a shippable projects. Even
if a company does not claim to be agile, and it is successful it is
some where following one of its common sense.
Enough of Agile now, in todays world a QA person is equally important
in a project as a developer. Infact, it would be right to say, they
are becoming more and more important than developers.
Gone are the days when QAs where involved at the end of development
and they had to beg for release builds to test them. In today's world,
QA are the first people to get involved, they are the ones who
understand and make sure requirements are complete and non
contradictory. And through out the life cycle of a product, they will
have a say on the health of the product.
With new techniques in automation testing, QAs are one of the main
ingredients to the success of a product. With thousands of lines of
code adding every month, who can guarantee they do what they are
supposed to do (even after some changes/bug fixes). Here is where QAs
in last decade have come up with most innovative techniques to measure
and meet quality of product using automated regression testing.
I believe engineering students should seriously consider QA as an
option. (It now a days involves a lot of coding too, software written
to test software). Its satisfying and lucrative option for them.
My 50 cents on the topic.
Cheers,
Rohit