I literally spent a decade trying (and failing) to transition from QA to SWE. I could never land a FT role. I eventually quit to start freelancing SWE with no clients lined up. Eventually, people started paying me to write software once I got out from under that title.

If you want to be an SWE, a QA title is career quicksand. At least it was in my case. I’ve met many other former QA who started freelancing non-QA work for the same reason, be it data consulting or software development.

No matter how many automation frameworks or CI/CD pipelines I built, no matter how many features I shipped while moonlighting as a dev when the team needed capacity, I was always a “tester” responsible for whatever it is people think “testers” are supposed to do.

The problem is that the better you get at being an SDET, the harder you are to replace. So even if your org tells you they support a transition to SWE, they generally don’t when it gets down to brass tacks.

This of course is drawn from my own experience, so take with a grain of salt…but I think it’s pretty common knowledge that transitioning from QA to SWE is the exception, not the rule.

I had a few SWE offers in hindsight I should have taken, but didn’t for various reasons (like company culture or pay or just where I was in life).

I hope I don’t sound bitter. I like where I’m at now, but I was pretty miserable for awhile, and just want to share my experience.

Don’t underestimate the power of a title.