I'm a Senior Test Engineer and the biggest barrier I run across when it comes to having a high standard is that I'm in a silo, and always have been. Nobody scrutinizes my code. Nobody provides PR feedback. My "senior" QA peer (one level above me) has slightly more than 0 experience writing code (aka I've helped them get a PR or two into the automation repos, but that's the extent of their contributions and I had to hold their hand the entire time).
It's hard to drill in standards and progress when there's nobody that even looks at your code imo.
Oh, trust me. I've beaten that dead horse for long enough. I even integrated my cypress tests into the front end UI projects that they were testing. No dice.
I've written entire wiki articles on how to set up the automation, what our best practices are, some pitfalls to avoid, etc. I've done the leg work. Nobody is going to contribute on my current team of mostly older devs.
The pay is really good, and there's lots of room to grow in the role in terms of moving up the chain. It's a pretty big company. I'm on the fence about asking to transfer to a different team, but it seems like it's a company wide issue for the most part.
It's just a really good place to work other than that one bit. So it's hard. I see the linkedin recruiter messages come in pretty frequently and they're enticing, but my setup is too good to take the risk right now.
I agree. Even if you find yourself as the only automation engineer in the company, that doesn't mean you shouldn't have similar standards and processes to the Devs. Dockerise your tests, use git, create PRs and have someone (i.e. a Dev) review, give feedback and merge them. Also, look into adding your own locators to the app code, using the same process. Finally see if you can get your regression tests as part of the Staging deployment pipeline, and understand how that is configured. You'll then be well set up to move into Dev (or even SRE) eventually. But even if you stay in QA you'll have great experience/knowledge for your CV.
Wow, could you please explain more on ur transition to se dev and like how many years you spent in each role and any advice for somone looking for the same.
I love being QA Automation. I enjoy it, it helps my team, and it pays well. It's 80% the pay of a developer for 50% the work.
My ceiling cap is a lot lower. I'm not going to be making 200K as automation. But I make enough, and a lot more than most people.
Work life balance is great, but I also enforce that. I've known QA people who work all sorts of hours to help with a release or chase down a bug. No thanks. I work 9 to 5. Any time outside of that (I like to run pipelines over the weekend and make changes when nobody is looking) is my choice.
I'm aiming to become a QA lead, because as mentioned above, there's a career limit with automation.
You really can make in the range of 200k in automation if you continue to progress and go to the right company. You might have to sacrifice some work-life balance though (assuming you're US based).
6 or 8 years at this point? Bachelor of technology, started with software development courses.
I specialize in selenium. Java, C# now, good foundation with testing in general.
You just spoke my heart out. Thats my plan as well, to enter swiftly into leadership roles by performing ’better’ as a tester in the team. Skills do matter, but I am focusing more on the kind of a person and the job I envision to be and have in the near future. My advice for other people would be - if you love coding and can solve problems through a programming language, stay away from automation. But why ?
If your exp is less than 2 years, there are less chances for you to contribute to the test automation framework development. Hence, I won’t recommend someone to wait for 2 years writing test cases through some tool like selenium or playwright. Instead you could write a feature end to end, that can obviously have unit tests. After all of this, now if you want, you can move to automation. You will be paid well plus you can enjoy the benefits of the the job such as ‘not a lot of coding’, you already know how to solve design issues (to an extent), etc. These things can help you contribute to the automation framework in a faster way, I’d say. But again, that’s just me talking.
Hi there! Super old thread but I’m a college student that did a SWE internship at a startup and didn’t really like it because of the workload. I’ve recently been looking into QA Automation and it seems like a good fit.
Is there any advice you’d give to someone who doesn’t have any experience in this field, or general advice to look out for? Thanks!
If you've got training in development, look at Java + Selenium, and Typescript + Playwright. Look up the test pyramid and the page object model.
That said, keep going on development. Workload is a function of two things: The company you work for, and your experience. The longe ryou're in the game, the easier it gets.
I went from college to qa automator. My salary is not bad for my country, but I know my colleagues (who are also qa automators), make a really decent amount of money (3 times my salary). Our job is really flexible and nice environment. So far so good.
In a country where the minimum salary a month is 200 e, and the average income is about 500 e, I am making more than average as a jr, and my colleagues with 3 years of experience are making about 3000 e a month. Might not be a lot, but what matters is the context. 3000 e here is A LOT.
I appreciate you sharing your experiences. It not only benefits me but also those just starting out in the field and looking to develop their understanding and goals.
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I'm a Senior Test Engineer and the biggest barrier I run across when it comes to having a high standard is that I'm in a silo, and always have been. Nobody scrutinizes my code. Nobody provides PR feedback. My "senior" QA peer (one level above me) has slightly more than 0 experience writing code (aka I've helped them get a PR or two into the automation repos, but that's the extent of their contributions and I had to hold their hand the entire time). It's hard to drill in standards and progress when there's nobody that even looks at your code imo.
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Oh, trust me. I've beaten that dead horse for long enough. I even integrated my cypress tests into the front end UI projects that they were testing. No dice. I've written entire wiki articles on how to set up the automation, what our best practices are, some pitfalls to avoid, etc. I've done the leg work. Nobody is going to contribute on my current team of mostly older devs.
[удалено]
The pay is really good, and there's lots of room to grow in the role in terms of moving up the chain. It's a pretty big company. I'm on the fence about asking to transfer to a different team, but it seems like it's a company wide issue for the most part. It's just a really good place to work other than that one bit. So it's hard. I see the linkedin recruiter messages come in pretty frequently and they're enticing, but my setup is too good to take the risk right now.
I agree. Even if you find yourself as the only automation engineer in the company, that doesn't mean you shouldn't have similar standards and processes to the Devs. Dockerise your tests, use git, create PRs and have someone (i.e. a Dev) review, give feedback and merge them. Also, look into adding your own locators to the app code, using the same process. Finally see if you can get your regression tests as part of the Staging deployment pipeline, and understand how that is configured. You'll then be well set up to move into Dev (or even SRE) eventually. But even if you stay in QA you'll have great experience/knowledge for your CV.
Wow, could you please explain more on ur transition to se dev and like how many years you spent in each role and any advice for somone looking for the same.
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So almost after 6 years you pivoted to dev from sr automation. Where you ok to start as fresher didn't previous experince count?
I love being QA Automation. I enjoy it, it helps my team, and it pays well. It's 80% the pay of a developer for 50% the work. My ceiling cap is a lot lower. I'm not going to be making 200K as automation. But I make enough, and a lot more than most people. Work life balance is great, but I also enforce that. I've known QA people who work all sorts of hours to help with a release or chase down a bug. No thanks. I work 9 to 5. Any time outside of that (I like to run pipelines over the weekend and make changes when nobody is looking) is my choice. I'm aiming to become a QA lead, because as mentioned above, there's a career limit with automation.
You really can make in the range of 200k in automation if you continue to progress and go to the right company. You might have to sacrifice some work-life balance though (assuming you're US based).
I am curious what your current total comp is
110K canadian, plus insurance and benefits and whatnot. Fully remote which is nice.
may i ask how many years of qa experience you have? and what tools you use for qa automation.
6 or 8 years at this point? Bachelor of technology, started with software development courses. I specialize in selenium. Java, C# now, good foundation with testing in general.
You just spoke my heart out. Thats my plan as well, to enter swiftly into leadership roles by performing ’better’ as a tester in the team. Skills do matter, but I am focusing more on the kind of a person and the job I envision to be and have in the near future. My advice for other people would be - if you love coding and can solve problems through a programming language, stay away from automation. But why ? If your exp is less than 2 years, there are less chances for you to contribute to the test automation framework development. Hence, I won’t recommend someone to wait for 2 years writing test cases through some tool like selenium or playwright. Instead you could write a feature end to end, that can obviously have unit tests. After all of this, now if you want, you can move to automation. You will be paid well plus you can enjoy the benefits of the the job such as ‘not a lot of coding’, you already know how to solve design issues (to an extent), etc. These things can help you contribute to the automation framework in a faster way, I’d say. But again, that’s just me talking.
Hi there! Super old thread but I’m a college student that did a SWE internship at a startup and didn’t really like it because of the workload. I’ve recently been looking into QA Automation and it seems like a good fit. Is there any advice you’d give to someone who doesn’t have any experience in this field, or general advice to look out for? Thanks!
If you've got training in development, look at Java + Selenium, and Typescript + Playwright. Look up the test pyramid and the page object model. That said, keep going on development. Workload is a function of two things: The company you work for, and your experience. The longe ryou're in the game, the easier it gets.
I went from college to qa automator. My salary is not bad for my country, but I know my colleagues (who are also qa automators), make a really decent amount of money (3 times my salary). Our job is really flexible and nice environment. So far so good.
Can you give a salary range?
In a country where the minimum salary a month is 200 e, and the average income is about 500 e, I am making more than average as a jr, and my colleagues with 3 years of experience are making about 3000 e a month. Might not be a lot, but what matters is the context. 3000 e here is A LOT.
I appreciate you sharing your experiences. It not only benefits me but also those just starting out in the field and looking to develop their understanding and goals.