Firstly, if you are thinking of starting a career in IT or switching careers – Software Testing is certainly in high demand. So we recommend you the following steps as an ideal ‘Software Testing Career Path’. Secondly, the steps illustrated should guide you towards becoming a successful Tester. In addition, our hands on workshops would help you achieve your dream career in Testing so you can become a software tester.
Most importantly, our practical testing courses would help you land a Testing Job and become a Tester. If you are a Manual Test Engineer who is interested in achieving Test Automation Skills, pursue Test Automation Training. Become an effective Software Tester by following our Software Testing Career Path and pursuing our realistic hands-on Software Testing Courses Online.
How to become a Software Tester with no experience?
- To begin with, you could pursue hands-on, practical and projects-based Software Testing Training Course that has helped many become software testers and for FREE – Software Tester Course. So you will get exposed to hands-on software testing projects.
- As part of our Software Testing Course, you will gain in-depth Software Testing exposure in terms of various Manual Testing projects. You will learn how to effectively carry out Software Testing tasks for Manual Testing Projects.
- You would get professional and realistic view into Testing industry and projects, as a result, you would be ready for the Testing jobs market! Moreover, you will gain extensive Manual Testing Training experience and develop various Skills by learning how to productively work on Testing projects and deliver!
- At-the-same-time, start learning and practicing Automation Testing – both API Automation Testing using REST-assured and UI Automation Testing using Selenium. Again, learn these automation testing tools for FREE !
How to be a Tester at entry level?
Since you now have manual testing and automation testing exposure, you can now focus on entry level Testing Jobs. But before that let’s get the fundamentals sorted in preparation for entry level Software Testing jobs.
- Soon you have reached the most important step in the Testing career path and thus getting closer to be a Tester – ‘CV preparation’, indeed! We shall provide a professional CV template aligning to UK job market, therefore you could prepare your Testing CV.
- And surely, create an equally essential LinkedIn profile. Connect with us on LinkedIn ! Also, look up and connect with recruiters in your city and the testing community – software testers and test managers. So you will be active on LinkedIn. Keep updating your LinkedIn profile as you update your CV.
- Besides, keep updating your Testing CV every time you learn an essential Software Testing Skill, so it could be related to Test Automation Tools like Selenium, Cucumber BDD or skills related to Testing Processes like Agile Scrum, etc
- Although sometimes considered optional, but it is a big plus on you CV – Testing Certification! So for this reason, become a ‘certified’ Tester. For instance become an ISTQB certified tester. You could achieve this relatively easily, since our Software Tester Course (Manual Testing Training course) is completely aligned to ISTQB Foundations and beyond!
- So you have lots of Testing exposure, in addition to above all, work on various Software Testing Exercises in relation to Manual Testing Training and the Test Automation Training Courses
- Including the above vital steps, practicing and rehearsing for Testing Interviews is absolutely necessary – based on our extensive Testing Interview sessions and training material provided in relation to Manual Testing and Test Automation Courses.
How to become a Successful Software Tester?
- Last but not the least, continuous learning and practicing around Software Testing is absolutely needed – Read on for more details… Repeat the previous steps until you land a Software Testing Job.
So, to summarise (and statistically speaking), if you follow the above testing career path in particular and your trainer’s guidelines, you have a better chance of getting a Junior Test Engineer Job. Moreover, based on your confidence, you could get a Test Engineer’s job too!
Likewise, for Test Automation Engineer or SDET (Software Developer Engineer in Test). By the way, your potential earnings would be at par with a software developer. And to begin with, as per IT job market for entry level to early career level – that accounts to over 60% of Testing jobs. For instance, as a Test Analyst you could earn between £27k – £38k in the UK !
Why Software Testing is a great career option and one of the highly paid IT jobs?
Software Testing is critical and highest priority for any IT organisation. Given that the software applications are primarily in use everywhere, Testers should spot software bugs. And testers should do so before the users find the bugs, hence gaining customers confidence. For this purpose, software testing is constantly performed to increase product quality. In conclusion Software Testing is highly in demand and shall always be in demand.
Thus testers play an integral role between business and development teams. Quality product delivered to customers help in gaining their confidence, thus Software Testing is more important than ever. Without software testing an organisation’s reputation is at risk. Hence, Software Test Analysts are highly paid and treated at par with Software Developers. Nevertheless, it is easy to enter into IT through Software Testing and furthermore Test Automation is easy to learn as well.
According to Totaljobs, the average salary for Tester jobs is £42,500. Check out Indeed’s Junior Tester Jobs and Salary.
So where do you start to be a Tester?
As always it is absolutely necessary to consider building a strong foundation and master the software testing fundamentals. As you could potentially build anything on top of your strong foundations! And this is where our practical and project based Software Tester Course and Automation Tester Courses will come into picture.
Why is Software Testing a highly desirable position in the IT industry
Hope you have enjoyed watching the manual testing training sessions and the automation testing sessions too! Test Engineer’s primary job is to continually test the software to find bugs. And of course ensure that the product works as designed before it is released to the customers.
If you have ever wondered how to be a test analyst – to clarify you just have to be a quick learner who is detail oriented. While you don’t have to know the code behind the software, you do need to be able to analyse the requirements.
You will gain hands on experience by practicing in real time on various Software Testing Exercises. This is highly important to land a Testing job and be productive from day one. And perform day-to-day testing tasks while performing Tester’s responsibilities once you have secured a Testing Job.
What is Software Testing / Test Engineering?
Let’s rephrase the question “How to become a Software Tester” – like so – How to become an ‘effective’ Software Test ‘Engineer’?
So what’s the difference? We have to bring in engineering perspective into everything we would want to achieve. That is perform any activity methodically therefore the result is always effective. Software Testing is no exception. In fact without a logical approach to testing is meaningless!
With over a decade of training and coaching experience, my definition of Software Test Engineering is as follows: “it is a systematic approach for conducting investigation and exploration in relation to the quality of software.” And Quality is accomplished by meeting customer’s requirements. Test Engineers’ play a critical role in software application development. Read the Ministry of testing’s definition for Software Testing.
Our proven software-tester-training-experience would be a great way to kick start your career in Testing. Regardless of how you prepare for a testing career path, here are the essential test automation skills you should have or plan to develop. Once you have wrapped up manual tester course, learn the latest testing skills in demand, technologies and processes through Automation Testing training.
Why Test Automation is an essential skill for Testers?
You could possibly become a Tester based on Manual Testing Course. Without a doubt, to increase the chance of landing interview calls you will have to undergo Test Automation Training Course. Many IT employers look for potential Tester candidates with a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, however it’s not always required. It should be noted that you can come from any academic background and definitely make Software Testing as a career!
Clearly, anyone can pursue Testing as a career. Whereas with the right exposure in terms of Software Testing Courses and with an experienced mentor, you will gain more confidence. It is absolutely necessary to quickly and productively add Test Automation Tools and skills in demand to your CV.
Along with exposure to Test Automation, it’s possible to land a Testing Job without a college degree. With software & IT being an area that will always grow, Testers have one of the most secure jobs in the IT industry. You don’t necessarily need extensive programming experience to complete the Test Automation Training Courses.
Become a Software Tester: Testing Skills for your CV
| Operating Systems | Windows, UNIX |
| Programming Languages | Java, SQL |
| Database | MySQL, Toad |
| Testing Methodologies | Agile Scrum & BDD, V Model |
| Test Management Tools | JIRA, Confluence |
| Test Automation Tools | Selenium, REST-assured, Cucumber, Maven, Eclipse |
| Test Automation Frameworks | BDD Framework, Page Object Model, JUnit, TestNG |
| SCM & Continuous Integration | Git & GitHub, Jenkins |
Update your Testing CV every time you learn an essential Testing Skill. It could be pertaining to Test Automation tools like Selenium, Cucumber, REST-assured. Or any skills related to Testing Processes like Agile Scrum and BDD.
Become a Software Tester: Testing Certifications
Testing Certifications are vital for testers, thus you should consider getting one or more certifications. This is in order to prove your mettle and getting attention of recruiters and potential employers.
Most important certification is called ISTQB. It consists of several levels. But you will start with ISTQB Foundation and it would take several years of experience before you can take the next level.
The following two most popular certifications should give you an edge on your CV to begin with, in your testing career path.
• ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation: British Computer Society software testing certification pathway supports your learning and progression in the software testing industry. In their Software testing certification portfolio, ISTQB® Certified Tester Foundation Level is the first step for understanding, applying and analysing the concepts of software testing.
• ISTQB Certified Agile Tester: British Computer Society’s ISTQB® Certified Tester Foundation Level – Agile Tester Extension will help you understand the principles behind Agile Testing and the competencies you need to be an effective part of the agile team.
Become a Software Tester: Interviews
Based on our practical, job-centric and hands-on Testing Training Courses you would gain real time software testing experience. To further your exposure in terms of both the courses that is Manual Testing and Test Automation, attempt all the Software Testing Exercises.
Undoubtedly, this is one of the crucial steps in testing career path.
- Practice and rehearse Manual Testing interviews
- Prepare for Test Automation interviews
Become a Software Tester: Find Tester Opportunities
- Furthermore, find potential opportunities in Software Testing in order to secure Testing experience – search for Freelance Testing jobs, also apply for Junior Tester roles that are available or Automation tester roles based on your exposure.
Freelance Software Testing Jobs
Firstly, apply for Freelance Software Testing Jobs and gain experience by Testing real-time applications. You could get paid whilst testing software applications. Most importantly you would gain Tester skills and vast real Testing experience that can be transferred to your CV !
Job Portals
Simultaneously, subscribe for Software Testing vacancies on the following job portals.
And the following actions need to be taken:
- Reach out to selected people in your network about potential opportunities at their companies
- Connect with job consultants on LinkedIn and keep an eye out for any jobs they share.
- Look up directly on company websites for their testing careers pages.
Become a Software Tester: Continuous learning
One of the things I enjoy the most about being a Trainer and a Test Manager is how much I get to learn and discover on a daily basis. So if you want to focus on Testing career path, learn from each and every Software Testing adventure on your journey. As a result, your Software Testing career will be progressing in the right direction.
We suggest you to follow these to be on the learning curve:
- StickyMinds Software Testing community shares weekly articles to interviews in software testing as well as everything you might need to excel in software testing career.
- Testerstories.com
- Ministryoftesting.com
Also repeat the activities until you land a Software Testing Job!
What next?
You could become a Tester by pursuing this Testing Career Path guide.
Also join our LIVE SDET Automation Tester Course and work on 2 Automation Testing Projects.
Keep learning and happy Testing!! Become a Software Tester and aim to become an Automation Tester!