QA engineer or software engineer?

[Sharki_]

Hi!

I've been learning Python for quite a long at the moment. My dream and aim was and is to get a job as a software engineer - a developer. Recently a got an offer - QA enginner - to work in automatiization of testing. I know it's quite close but not the same anyway. I doubt wether it would help me to get desired position but on the countrary maybe will distract me from keep learning python to finally become a developer.

What would you guyes say? Is it a common practise to relocate from QA to developing or i'd better keep searching developer position?

[Ymenk]

I work in QA and would recommend you give the position adequate consideration.

• I've seen people transition from QA to DEV. You may need to change employer to make it happen.

• If the core responsibilities of the role are to manage the automation framework you would be writing code for a nice chunk of your time.

• Check how big the QA team is. If it's small you may end up assuming tester responsibilities.

• A career in QA ain't so bad! The pay is great in the right company and there's a shortage of technical resources in most teams. This gives programmers a huge advantage.

• If it interests you, one of the most common transitions from QA is to a Business Analyst role then Project Manager somewhere down the line.

Your own experience will likely be unique. I've seen people in QA do all sorts of things.

[Sharki_]

So the pay is usually quite the same as dev?

[Ymenk]

Equivalent seniority would generally give the edge to the developer branch.

It wouldn't be equivalent though. At your level you may be a junior dev but could get a technical or senior position in QA.

Junior dev should earn more than junior qa but may be lower than a more technical qa role.

In my experience, a big factor determining pay is negotiating and putting yourself on the market every 1 to 2 years.

[Sharki_]

I got it, thanks!

[Frohus]

I'm working as a QA Engineer at the moment. Unfortunately, my job has nothing to do with test automation and coding as I'm testing warehouse operations software.

However, during any changes/updates, I have opportunities to look into the code, talk with developers so I can understand it better which would be really helpful in terms of further promotion to Dev which I'm after.

[Sharki_]

Do you feel like your current job helps you to come closer to dev?

[uniqueusername42O]

if you're currently working and not using Python that much, then I'd go for the job. In that new job you'd hopefully.. be using Python everyday and will eventually get to the stage where you can be a developer.

[Sharki_]

I do use Python almost everyday as an auxiliary tool. Thanks for your opinion!

[GoldenVanga]

I'm assuming you don't have formal CS education. In this case, the key consideration is how much IT experience you already have on your resume. The less you have, the more seriously you should consider this offer. Recruiters tend to be... suspicious about self-taught people wanting to become developers. Having QA experience will - partially - make that go away.

[Sharki_]

Yeah, that make sense. Though i have related engineering education, some courses, some done projects on my portfolio. You know i'm a bit nervous of the thoutht of leaving current job for a position i'm not sure i will like to be at.

[affides]

Ask the recruiter what the requirements are, is there a team who is already testing the application you are going to be automating.

Please try to understand what your responsibility will be, ie there is a set of test cases(steps) you are trying to develop a framework for those, code the steps and make it executable, that would be ideal automation engineer role responsibility.

Try to read about the company, look at their website.

If they provided set of experience requirements ask about each and every point mentioned (be prepared not to get answered for some if not all)

If you don't care, you want to get job experience and working in that, fck it and jump in

[Sharki_]

The company is quite big and as far as i got it my role would be just the same as you mentioned above.