9 Most Frequent QA Question from Reddit

Reddit is a social platform allowing users to share content and debate in various communities ("subreddits"). Among others, there are communities focused on development quality management or software testing, one of which is /r/QualityAssurance. From this very community I have chosen the 9 most frequent questions and try to answer them.

QA as an Entry Point Into IT?

In the past, QA or software testing in general was considered the gate to the world of IT. One would however argue that this still holds true nowadays. Today, requirements for junior positions are much higher and similarly competition is growing. Although the possibility still exists it definitely is not an easy way.

Nowadays, companies are rather looking for developers focused on quality management or QA engineers in general. That requires one to possess some knowledge and be experienced with software development because in this position, you will not only do manual testing but program automatic tests as well. With the sunrise of shift-left you are also expected to take part in all the development phases - and in that case a basic knowledge of IT terms simply won't cut through.

What’s Wrong With My CV? Where to Get Experience?

You've sent dozens of CVs but still can't find a job or worse, you have not been invited to a single interview? Looking at a CV of someone in such a situation, most of the time, it is no wonder. Several pages of content which is not relevant at all. Applicants often try to bloat and artificially improve their CVs. However, the major outcome is that important information easily gets lost in the pile of text.

Have your CV simple, clear, only pinpointing important information which is relevant to the job you’re applying for. Sending e-mails and creating excel sheets is commonplace nowadays.

And where to get experience? Best is to go through an internship or join an open-source project. Do not focus yourself on testing but development in general. Your own projects with published sources are a big benefit. They help outline your approach to problem solving. Furthermore, it's not so much the quality of code but rather the overall approach.

What’s the Salary of SQA Positions?

There is no good answer to this question as there are many aspects in the game and no tables exist. Even in the same company and in the same position the differences may be significant.

For a basic idea you can use a comparison tool, e.g., Paylab.com - but count with just a rough estimate.

The salary is affected not only by your expertise but for example by your subsequent involvement in the project and how you approach the work in general.

Is ISQTB Certification Any Good for Me?

Yes and no. If you are beginning with QA, certification can be a good starting point. If you already are experienced, it can help you unify the terminology.

Personally, I wouldn't expect that passing an exam or doing a course itself would help you find a job.

On the other hand, ISQTB certification is sometimes directly required. So, let's say that at some point, every QA engineer should pass it and sometimes such an item in your CV can be really helpful.

I Am Experienced in Manual Testing, Which Way to Go Now?

To be perfectly honest, being experienced in and understanding something, I should know where to go next or what to improve in.

It may be that you are indecisive by nature but still - as a QA engineer you should be able to analyze a problem, find necessary sources and make a decision.

Should I offer a more specific advice, I'd recommend an overview of ISQTB certifications which should at least outline the options:

How to Start with Automation? How to Learn a Specific Tool (Selenium/Cypress/Playwright)?

This is possibly the most frequent question ever. And my answer is always the same: learn programming in the first place.

Test automation is nothing short of programming. Learning a specific tool or procedure won't be of any help if you don't know the basics they were built upon. Often, you will be facing problems and the only way of dealing with them is to understand the basics.

It is not very important which language you are going to learn. It is important to learn the "programmer's" thinking. The rest will come by itself.

Which Testing Tool to Use?

Don't decide the tool to use based on a public forum discussion where everybody recommends the very tool they use. Ask this question in your team and choose the tool together. It is not only writing the tests themselves but their maintenance and inclusion in the whole process as well.

In the discussions, Playwright, Cypress and Selenium often win. But all of them are designed for testing web applications. Therefore, the choice needs to be adapted to the needs of the specific project and sometimes it even happens that test tool is replaced through the course of development.

Is It a Good Idea to Start in QA and Switch to Development Later?

We've already been through the question of career growth in IT. But I would answer this more specific one with another question: Why?

The QA position offers many possibilities and from a specific standpoint it makes no sense to me to switch to a pure development position. Especially when both the positions intersect in many aspects and in future they may not even be distinguished anymore. IT needs skilled people in general and pigeonholing is not a thing anymore.

Personally, I wouldn't like to get back to a purely developer position. I like the wide range of activities I can do and where I can directly influence the outcome.

It seems especially pointless to ask such a question while not having a major experience with either QA or development. Just jump in it and let’s see in a year!

Will AI replace testers and developers?

Probably not entirely. However, in the near future, we can expect AI to replace various junior positions and perform tasks that are simple on one hand but "boring" or time-consuming on the other. In the context of testing, we're mainly talking about manual testers.

In my opinion, we will never be able to do without manual testing, but its role will shift more towards preparing automated tests or training AI algorithms.