Quality Assurance is a concept and a set of skills. It is about practicing those skills. Candidates in software testing have to possess the ability to learn, research, and self-study. That means some kind of technical background in the software field should be there.
The personality to become a good tester would be someone who is curious, vigilant, someone who can drive ideas to improve testing, have a good mix of business acumen and technical knowledge. I feel as a tester another thing that is important is to be open to opportunities that might come their way such as not just perform testing but also help in other areas such as UX design, pairing with developers or doing code reviews and even helping delivery managers. In other words, be an all rounder.
I recently went through three QA Engineer/Software Tester interviews and I have received an offer from all of them. All three of them were super interesting jobs which I think I would enjoy. Some of them offered more money. That was mainly due to the complexity of the job and also because I was not scared to express how much I think my time was worth.
People with a technical background might pick up technical skills right away, but every person is different. Not having any technical background doesn’t mean you’re automatically a slow learner. On the other hand, having a technical background doesn’t automatically mean you’re a quick learner. So, think of technical background and experience as a headstart in a race. The initial difference might be big, but there’s no assurance it will stay that way for long.
And if there are some personality traits that make a good QA Engineer? I’d say no, comparing to other engineering roles. But there is one difference though and it is that testers usually need to have a broader skillset. Not to focus solely on software development but to combine software development via test automation, testing skills, and other, often interpersonal/communication skills. These are important for software engineers as well but crucial for QA Engineers.
Are you thinking about changing your career into a completely different industry? Then it is a good idea to check if you have the skills you will need to succeed at your software testing job. So what are the 10 essential skills of a successful software tester you ask? Well, read on to find out.