In-demand, excellent growth potential, commanding high salaries and an opportunity to navigate a fascinating career roadmap that plays to your strengths – a career in software testing is bright!
As the technology progresses, so do the different software testing roles and career avenues to explore. However, with so many options out there, how do you know where to start? To help you decide, here’s our take on the many avenues of the software testing career roadmap. We’ll cover the skills needed, the training required and the salaries and benefits you can expect across the different areas.
Getting started in software testing
If you’re new to software testing, it can be a great option if you’re looking for a career change. Even at entry-level, a software testing role usually commands a salary between £35,000 and £42,500. To start with software testing, it is important to consider the required skills and see if they align with your strengths and interests.
Software testing skills
The main skills used in software testing include:.
- Analysis – you’ll be examining software, considering options, and overcoming challenges in an analytical approach to reach the best outcome.
- Organisation – software testers often review different applications or work on several projects at a time, which needs prioritisation, organisation and effective time management.
- Communication – When finding issues or facing challenges, communicating these effectively to team members and stakeholders is essential. They may not have the same technical knowledge, so clear, simplified communication is essential. Furthermore, software testers may also be responsible for creating written reports of their findings.
- Coding and programming – One of the first areas of software testing training is to gain coding and programming knowledge so they can best perform testing responsibilities and adapt test management tools to their specific requirements.
Training
For those new to the industry, foundation-level certification can be crucial. This provides a base-level understanding of software testing, which can then be built upon as you navigate your own software testing career path. Training such as the ISTQB Software Testing Foundation Course can be a great course to learn more and practice fundamental concepts of software testing.
Alternatively, a two-day course on Practical Functional Testing is an excellent opportunity to take on a software testing project in action. This can be a great way to sample a day in the life of a software tester and see if it’s right for you.
Growing your software testing career
There are a lot of different areas to advance your software testing career, depending on your interests and passions.
Lead software tester
If you love the practical work of software testing, then one career path may be the advance from software testing to a senior software tester, where you’ll be planning, developing and communicating the test strategy. Then, advancing to lead software tester, where you’ll be responsible for all testing activities, defining the strategies and approaches to take, being able to support software testers with their actions and ensuring complex strategies are well covered.
A lead software tester role typically has a salary range between £42,000 and £62,000. While experience in software testing is vital to progress to a lead tester role, other training such as Test Techniques – Advanced Level can really help to develop strategies for complex cases.
Leading a testing team
If you prefer the people side of software testing, then progressing into testing management may be the career roadmap for you. A testing manager will be responsible for building and maintaining a high-performing, effective and happy software testing team. You’ll be the go-to for software testers, establish the goals of the software testing team, and drive them forward.
The average salary for a test manager ranges from £78,000 to £103,000. The training that can help support those looking for a career of becoming a test manager could be our ISTQB Advanced Test Manager course. This is a 5-day course that supports experienced test practitioners in having a deeper understanding of testing, taking an active role in test management, and developing critical management knowledge and skills.
Being a software testing SME
There may be specific areas of software testing you love or have a passion for a particular area of the business. This can be a great opportunity to develop specialist knowledge further and become the SME in your organisation.
There are so many software testing avenues to expand into specialist knowledge, which include;
- Mobile Apps – the ISTQB Foundation – Certified Mobile App Tester is ideal for those specialising in mobile projects and technologies.
- Assessor – assess software testing processes in line with the TMMi model with a TMMi Assessor course.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) – automate testing by adopting AI strategies in software testing; learn more in the ISTQB Foundation AI Tester extension course.
- Risk management – If you’re skilled at spotting potential risks and hurdles in projects before your team members, specialising in risk-based testing may be the ideal next step for your career.
- Front-end testing – The iSQI Certified Selenium WebDriver Foundation Tester course is ideal for those who like to focus on front-end testing and creating specific web application tests.
Creating Agile leaders and teams
Another popular specialism in a software testing career roadmap is to develop into an Agile Software Tester or be the lead in Agile software testing projects. Adopting an Agile approach can help to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of software testing projects. Develop your Agile approach with an ISTQB Agile Foundation Extension, which can help testers integrate software testing in a development approach.
If you want to lead Agile software testing projects, the ISTQB Advanced Agile Technical Tester further develops these skills. Training in this can help to master Agile testing concepts and support continuous integration in an Agile team.
If you want support in mapping out your software testing career or are unsure what area to explore next, our team can help. Book a free consultation with our team, who would be happy to support you in planning your software testing career roadmap.
