Software testing careers: Many paths to success

"It is all up to you. Listen to yourself to find your passion and a job that satisfies you the most." 

Not very long ago, I gave a talk on software testing at one of the universities in Ukraine. I wanted to explain software testing and where it can lead us as a career. 

It is lovely if your goal is to become a test engineer or to grow in the testing field. But if you are aware of related fields and other ways to grow, you can find even more places where you might prosper and be happy in your career. 

You may want to lead others and help them grow, or you may wish to become a deeply technical tester.  Or maybe you want to create new things and define the “what” part by working as a product manager. 

Let me show you a few different possibilities where you, as a tester, can move in your career. 

My own career path

Before I discuss career paths, let me share my own, because it is not as straightforward as it might seem. 

I started as a QA engineer in a bank, manually testing web applications. Then, after I graduated from university, I began a long run of test automation jobs of all kinds. 

No matter what I did, my dream was to become a software engineer in test. Maybe this was because I thought it was the most technical position in testing, or maybe because I’ve always wanted to be a developer. Eventually I got an offer to become a lead software engineer in test, and I thought that my dream had come true. 

However, part of me still wanted to work directly with product code. So I switched positions and became a backend developer, writing code in Java and Spring Boot. 

So I achieved an important goal. What lay next?

It turns out that it all depends on the person, on the company, and on the work you do daily. After some time working as a developer, I could not imagine that, in the end, a testing job could be more fascinating and challenging for me than product development work. How could it possibly be? 

Surprise! I'm pleased to report that I have returned to testing and am thrilled with my daily challenges. 

Software testing careers: A roadmap

Disclaimer. This diagram is not intended to be a complete picture, nor is it “set in stone.” Each and every company has its own career ladder. So your path and opportunities may differ from those I depicted here. But let it be a model for your interest and curiosity. 

Growing as a software tester

It all begins with your current position. Is it a full-time automation job (software engineer in test) or a QA engineer job? As the IT industry evolves, what used to be a clear distinction between these positions becomes more and more blurred. For example, in Agile environments, a QA engineer is expected to run, analyze, and even write end-to-end tests (both UI and API). 

At the moment (late 2024), the difference between software engineers in test (SET) and QA engineers is the amount of coding and testing work they do. The latter does more testing and less coding. 

For both positions, the career path looks pretty similar—gradually going from junior to senior level. Along the way, you will feel sometimes that you are just marking test cases "passed" or writing yet another automated script. But you are in fact providing important information about the quality and risks of the product. 

But as the test engineer moves up through increasingly senior roles, new possibilities emerge on the horizon. Getting to the next level will bring new challenges and perspectives on quality, products, and processes. 

Switching to a related role

Before we begin, let me clarify a few things. I don’t say that a QA engineer can’t switch to a software engineering role or that becoming a product manager is impossible if you are a SET. In my diagram, I noted that it’s more typical that a QA engineer chooses a product or project-oriented path rather than a coding-intensive one. But as always, it’s up to the person. 

Product management

If you have testing skills and are eager to improve the product, you can become a product manager. It is a wonderful opportunity to be close to customers and industry. Here, you are able to define the “what” part, while the rest (how and when) is up to the team to determine. 

Business analysis

You can look into the business analysis field if you are interested or involved in the business domain. In some highly complex industries, business analytics help translate business needs into a language engineers can understand. 

Project management

If you want to organize processes and make them more predictable and transparent, a project manager role might interest you. Project managers help track the “when” aspect of project delivery. They also have a unique ability to resolve any blockers with other teams with their not-so-secret weapon:  communication. 

Specialized engineering roles

If you want more technical challenges, you have even more options:

Software engineering can take various forms, but ultimately, it all comes down to delivering valuable software that solves customers' problems. 

Performance engineering is a niche profession that requires deep knowledge of system design and statistics to interpret the results. It is a highly-sought-after specialty especially for established products. 

Security engineering is a diverse field with a massive amount of possible jobs. You can become a penetration tester and do security assessments. You can switch sides and be a part of a security operations team that fights against hacking attacks. For example, take a look at the number of cybersecurity certificates on the market.

Each of these positions are, in fact, on a different branch in the career ladder. In most cases, you need to learn a lot of theory at the start and continuously improve your skills along the way. 

Hybrid roles

Combining software testing with leadership

Whether you are a QA engineer or a software engineer in test, the first step into leadership is to become a lead engineer. The titles and duties of these positions depend on the team and company, but you will likely be involved hands-on in development just as in a more junior testing or coding position. If you become a lead engineer, you will need to evaluate in detail your team's capacity, strengths, and weaknesses. You need to think about others on your team: how you can help and empower them. Also you need to communicate frequently and clearly with people on your team and beyond, and with people on varied levels in your organization. 

Blending leadership and coding

Some big tech companies have a separate branch in the career ladder for those who don’t want to go entirely into leadership and want to preserve and hone their technical skills. 

In his book Staff Engineer, Will Larson refers to these roles as Staff+ engineers. Associated job titles are: staff engineer, principal engineer, and distinguished engineer. Each role has a different level of impact and scale. In the beginning, you influence and drive the activities of a couple of different teams, and then, perhaps, the whole engineering department or even the entire company. 

Staff+ engineers research trends, implement the best of what they learn, and establish standards, constantly driving improvement in tools, practices, and processes. The role involves not only deep technical skills but also effective communication.

Going into leadership full-time

If you choose to go into leadership, you have a lot of room for growth. 

In the testing field, you can go from QA manager to head (or director) of QA. But be aware that management is a totally different field, and you need to start learning things from scratch as you move there. 

At some point in time, you can even switch from quality management to general engineering management if you want. It all depends on your needs and goals. 

Even more possibilities

At any point in your career, you always have a few other options other than moving up the ladder. 

You can become an independent consultant and provide services to other companies. You can also become a mentor or coach and help people grow within their companies. 

To scale this even further, you can become a founder of your own company. Such companies provide varied services like testing, automation, performance, security audits, and more. You can help others build tools and processes for effective testing. 

To wrap up

It is all up to you. Listen to yourself to find your passion and a job that satisfies you the most. Check out the market and trends to keep your knowledge and skills up to date. Do not fear changing your position if you feel it will be better for you. Continuous improvement in testing skills, critical thinking, and communication will benefit you no matter where you are on your journey. 

For more information

• Leading your development team as an individual contributor, Barry Ehigiator
• Quality coaching; a road less traveled, Mirza Sisic
• Navigating a career path In software testing, Melissa Eaden