QA’s Roles Vs Goals: How to Balance Both to Achieve Your Goals

This article is dedicated to my passionate QA Fraternity!!!

Gone are the days when the QAs used to have ample time waiting for the builds to come and later they would start testing, raise bugs accordingly and then again wait for the developers to fix them.

They would spend a major portion of their time in practicing English, LOL!!. I mean writing Test Cases, reviewing them and finalizing them to be used for testing.

Time has changed a lot and so are the roles too. You may be lucky if you are surviving on just doing manual testing that too with big IT giants like Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Accenture etc.

Being in a mid-sized or a small firm, you need to be aware of some special skills apart from basic manual testing. It could be anything like API testing, postman, SOAP, Database Testing, client-side validations to the more complex ones like automation and performance testing.

In this current trend, you might have noticed that the job openings even for testers with 2-4 years of experience, list down a lot of things.

Given below is a sample of the Job description for the role of a tester with 2-4 years of work experience:

• Good Knowledge of Java.
• Selenium – Mandatory.
• Must be good in Performance Testing – Jmeter/LoadRunner with a thorough understanding of OS and performance tuning concepts

I have listed down only the basic skills but there are much more to add on to the list. Python, Perl, groovy etc find their own place in a majority of the openings.

So, what do we conclude here? Is the industry moving into SDET’s role?

However, I would agree on certain points like – a tester should have basic knowledge of the programming language and should be willing to do automation when required.  You must be wondering why is the term “when required” kept bold? This is due to the practices that are being followed nowadays.

A lot of companies hire for Automation Testing, but you should feel lucky only if you are able to find an automation project in that new organization. Many a time you would just land up in another manual project where you will find no scope for learning after few months.

The main reason for changing your current company might be “I am not getting automation experience”. You may have to put in all the efforts to learn automation and then change the company because you want to switch from manual testing. So here you are !!

You are screwed again !!

Another worst part which I have noticed happening in many organizations is that even a QA Lead or the QA Manager almost do the same work as a junior tester. This may not be the case everywhere, but being promoted as a QA lead doesn’t guarantee that you will get the roles you are looking out for.

Hierarchy in your project may lead you to do the same work which your peer juniors are performing. QA Manager roles are almost going.

So where should a Lead QA see himself in the future?

Finally, but most interestingly each and everyone in this IT fraternity dreams of going onsite. If you compare the onsite chances which the BA’s or developers get with what a QA gets, then you will feel sad to be on the losing side. I have worked with different organizations and there are some common words which ofter my ears used to hear from the HRs or Higher Management.

Those are the words that make me sad – “There are no onsite for QA’s”. But again, this is not the same case everywhere, However, I am just quoting the general trends in the industry.

So, let’s revisit the title of this article “QA Roles v/s Goals”.

The key point that I try to highlight here is “Are our roles focusing on our Goals”. I am sure that most of them would say NO!! As the days pass by, with the increase in your experience year by year, at times we do feel what is something new that we are doing? The answer will be that we are doing the same work that we did 3-4 years back.”.

I have come across profiles of certain testers that even with 10+ years of experience they are still working as “Test Analyst” or “Senior Test Analyst” whereas the developers with the same range of experience are becoming “Project Managers” or “Product Managers”.

If you retrospect the roles that you have been performing all throughout your career, then the below table will sound interesting as well as depressing. You will observe that you are not learning anything even after 7-8 years of work experience.

So, I would say that 5-7 years bracket is very important in a QA career. You need to work on your strength & weakness and follow the path accordingly.

• If you don’t have interest in coding and don’t understand Automation too, but you feel that you have good analytical skills and good communication skills, then better move to the BA role after 5 years.
• If you are code crazy, then make sure you follow the Automation path. There is no point of staying in Manual. Keep changing the companies until you get your perfect role.
• If you are not code-crazy but you understand the logic well, then understand the technologies in the market, and better move to Manager Delivery rather than Manager QA. And you will learn a lot in Delivery vertical.

Generally, people say that we should not switch companies very frequently but what if we are not satisfied with our roles? Should we compromise on what is going on? Keep on doing the same work if you don’t like? At the end of the day, keep on thinking what am I doing?

Guys!! Make sure that your roles make you reach your goals. If not, you are just merely compromising with your life and career. If you are not professionally satisfied, then you will absolutely end up ruining your personal life too.

About the author: This article is written by STH team member Hasneet. He is working as a Software testing lead in an MNC.

Have you experienced the same situation? Please feel free to share your experiences.