Does anyone do software testing for a living?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are american, and want the field, look at DoD contractors for classified work. In cleared jobs, you need citizenship. No H1B's/

+1, there are far more developers than testers. My husband has never had an issue getting a job when he needed or wanted a new one and it pays decently. If you know basic code and software development, there is very little competition.

Define decent please!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If so, would you please share about how you got into the field and advice for others, the education required & that will make you stand out, and what companies are best to work for?

Manual testing, or traditional functional testing, is either outsourced or obsolete, except government contract jobs.

Test automation is really hot right now. The testers write test scripts using frameworks such as selenium. They are a lot easier than Java.

The best paid are performance testers knowing LoadRunner (or HP performance center). Strangely the skill requirement is lower than programming and test automation. I guess you need to learn To use an expensive performance testing tool - Loadrunner, SilkPerformer.... There is an open source tool as well: Jmeter, and a cloud tool that can be used for less than $1000/week: BlazeMeter. You can find plenty of tutorials for the last 2 on their websites or YouTube.

[Anonymous]

PP again, you do not need much of an education, just know how to use the above tools to record, script, playback, test....

Most large software development projects need performance testers. Your best bet in this area is government contractors. Put your resume on dice or indeed with LoadRunner as key word, and you will get calls. Ignored the Indian recruiters, they are free lancing, knows as much about the hiring company as you do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If so, would you please share about how you got into the field and advice for others, the education required & that will make you stand out, and what companies are best to work for?

Manual testing, or traditional functional testing, is either outsourced or obsolete, except government contract jobs.

Test automation is really hot right now. The testers write test scripts using frameworks such as selenium. They are a lot easier than Java.

The best paid are performance testers knowing LoadRunner (or HP performance center). Strangely the skill requirement is lower than programming and test automation. I guess you need to learn To use an expensive performance testing tool - Loadrunner, SilkPerformer.... There is an open source tool as well: Jmeter, and a cloud tool that can be used for less than $1000/week: BlazeMeter. You can find plenty of tutorials for the last 2 on their websites or YouTube.

Software person here and this is correct -- most of it is writing scripts to automate testing.

It's not all sent offshore -- only the mundane and easier stuff, which you are more likely to find in a large company (think billing and HR systems especially). Smaller companies, especially IT companies that develop software for a living, are likely to have this in-house as they need people to work closely together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are american, and want the field, look at DoD contractors for classified work. In cleared jobs, you need citizenship. No H1B's/

+1, there are far more developers than testers. My husband has never had an issue getting a job when he needed or wanted a new one and it pays decently. If you know basic code and software development, there is very little competition.

Define decent please!

Sorry, I don't discuss his salary but he's making a nice income. It took him about 10 years to get to where he is. He can do automation testing but found most places do not want it as well as many other things. You need a CS college degree and they like certifications even though they are pretty useless.

[Anonymous]

If you have skills you can get a job. My husband interviews lots of "testers" and most do not have a good CS background and are very basic testers. You need to be able to be self directed so you look for bugs in both what is asked but also in areas not asked to send out a quality product. Most testers are button pushers who can follow a guide but cannot do it without being told exactly what to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP again, you do not need much of an education, just know how to use the above tools to record, script, playback, test....

Most large software development projects need performance testers. Your best bet in this area is government contractors. Put your resume on dice or indeed with LoadRunner as key word, and you will get calls. Ignored the Indian recruiters, they are free lancing, knows as much about the hiring company as you do.

Yes, most jobs require a college degree or significant experience. Without a degree its very hard to get jobs. A friend does not have a degree and had a tuff time when he was laid off but my husband easily gets jobs and frequently gets contacted by recruiters.

[Anonymous]

I am the PP who suggested the hacker schools and I find it hilarious that you all think that QA jobs are all being outsourced. Maybe you aren't very good at your job?

OP, as long as you're smart and apply for jobs at technology companies where software development is part of the core value proposition, you'll have a great career ahead of you! By this I mean you need to look at Google / Facebook / Amazon / Apple / startups, not the shit Fortune 500 IT sweatshops that think coders are socially awkward button pushers or some consulting sweatshop like Accenture that will bring you in to fix buggy code written 20 years ago.

Starting salary for QA engineers is $80K+ at these places I mentioned. They frequently hire out of hacker schools. If you're a fast learner, now is a better time than ever to make a career change to software. Don't listen to these downers, look up the numbers in the link I listed!

[Anonymous]

Hacker school PP here.

You'll notice that some posters will refer to having degrees in "IT" or having the "IT" department outsourced. No respectable tech firm puts testing in the IT department - that's for buying monitors and replacing keyboards when they break.

You want a job in "computer science" or "software engineering," these are the jobs that are on the rise and will never be outsourced. Be careful of the advice you're getting and be wary of ops people bemoaning the end of software when in reality it's because they don't have the skills to compete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to know or be related someone at an Indian bodyshop. No background or education is necessary. They will write your resume, place you on a project and pay you very little.

+100 unfortunately this is 100 percent the truth

I work in Software. Yes x1000
sad but true

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hacker school PP here.

You'll notice that some posters will refer to having degrees in "IT" or having the "IT" department outsourced. No respectable tech firm puts testing in the IT department - that's for buying monitors and replacing keyboards when they break.

You want a job in "computer science" or "software engineering," these are the jobs that are on the rise and will never be outsourced. Be careful of the advice you're getting and be wary of ops people bemoaning the end of software when in reality it's because they don't have the skills to compete.

Bullcrap! How many years of experience do you have?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to know or be related someone at an Indian bodyshop. No background or education is necessary. They will write your resume, place you on a project and pay you very little.

+100 unfortunately this is 100 percent the truth

I work in Software. Yes x1000
sad but true

Thank you! A lot of these previous posters on here have their HEAD in the sand and don't have a clue!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am the PP who suggested the hacker schools and I find it hilarious that you all think that QA jobs are all being outsourced. Maybe you aren't very good at your job?

OP, as long as you're smart and apply for jobs at technology companies where software development is part of the core value proposition, you'll have a great career ahead of you! By this I mean you need to look at Google / Facebook / Amazon / Apple / startups, not the shit Fortune 500 IT sweatshops that think coders are socially awkward button pushers or some consulting sweatshop like Accenture that will bring you in to fix buggy code written 20 years ago.

Starting salary for QA engineers is $80K+ at these places I mentioned. They frequently hire out of hacker schools. If you're a fast learner, now is a better time than ever to make a career change to software. Don't listen to these downers, look up the numbers in the link I listed!

Starting, but if you job jump every few years after about 10, you can make at least twice that. You need a CS degree and skills. Or, you stay lower paying with just being a basic tester.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hacker school PP here.

You'll notice that some posters will refer to having degrees in "IT" or having the "IT" department outsourced. No respectable tech firm puts testing in the IT department - that's for buying monitors and replacing keyboards when they break.

You want a job in "computer science" or "software engineering," these are the jobs that are on the rise and will never be outsourced. Be careful of the advice you're getting and be wary of ops people bemoaning the end of software when in reality it's because they don't have the skills to compete.

Bullcrap! How many years of experience do you have?

I'm not the PP but I own a software company and know many people in the business. That PP is correct -- the IT department isn't product development or testing. It would be a separate department IF you're at a software company. That's not Fortune 500 companies -- it's companies that produce software to sell it to others.. not those that produce software for internal use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hacker school PP here.

You'll notice that some posters will refer to having degrees in "IT" or having the "IT" department outsourced. No respectable tech firm puts testing in the IT department - that's for buying monitors and replacing keyboards when they break.

You want a job in "computer science" or "software engineering," these are the jobs that are on the rise and will never be outsourced. Be careful of the advice you're getting and be wary of ops people bemoaning the end of software when in reality it's because they don't have the skills to compete.

Bullcrap! How many years of experience do you have?

Not sure why years of experience matter. You can have 20 years of experience in software, but really only the last 3-5 matter since frameworks and best practices change so frequently. In addition, this is a vanity metric because in software, 3 years of doing things the better way is worth far more than 20 years of doing things the inefficient way.

But sure, I'll bite. I'm in my mid-20s and make a 6-figure salary in software, which is exactly the point - this is a lucrative field that does not take much experience, just pure brainpower. I am not being outsourced because my job takes real technical/coding skills, and I'm efficient and use the latest tools (ie: Selenium) instead of clicking around manually.

Now tell me, what is your experience? What type of company? What type of testing do you do?