Here are some common misconceptions about Software Testing
Myth #1 Software Jobs are mostly for men and computer geniuses
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear Software Testing? you automatically think “Computer nerd” or “Tech savvy” either one sounds a bit difficult to achieve. Well, it’s neither. I know the word Software is intimidating, especially for women. People think software jobs are hard and there are mostly for men, which is not true, now yes there are mostly men working in I.T related fields but over my 20 year career in this field, I can tell you those demographics are changing quickly.
Back in the day (2000 – 2005 with breaks in between) when I worked at Mattel we were 72 testers, guess how many of us were girls?
3, that’s right… out of 72 game testers, only 3 of us were female. Now fast forward to 2023, my current job is testing corporate websites, I am one of 10 or so testers and I’ll say its about 50/50 male and female. I have certainly met more female testers in the last decade than ever before and I love it! I love having more female co-workers that can relate, especially moms. So don’t be scared, if I can do it, you can do it, I am by no means a computer genius.
Myth #2 I need to know how to code
This for me is one of the best myths to debunk. Programming skills have never been my forte. I have tried JAVA, Python, C# and I hated them all the same. I thought I would be out of a job as I kept seeing more and more “Automation tester” jobs out there, which yes those positions are quickly becoming the majority, but when I took a hard look at all the types of testing there is, I simply decided not to go for Automation.
You can literally type “manual tester” or “Manual QA” on LinkedIn and see tons of job postings. Don’t get me wrong if you learn how to code you can make some big bucks, automation testers can earn anywhere from $60 to $100 per hour but for me the stress that it required, the amount of focus to write scripts, and attention to detail you have to put into the code, just wasn’t worth the extra cash.
I always chased the money but the more I wanted, the less freedom I actually had. I remember trying to write code in JAVA and every time I ran the script I kept getting errors. I missed a dot somewhere, I forgot to add a space between that random character and that other one that for me make no sense, I missed a colon or quote mark somewhere and it ruined the whole thing, I just hated writing in code, I preferred plain English.
I Actually did some automation testing for one of my jobs but I did not enjoy it. There were delays in testing because the code wasn’t ready, it had nothing to do with the software being bad, all the errors found were “code” related. I didn’t have time to find actual defects because I was wasting time getting the scripts right, I found it to be stressful and just not practical.
I thought: isn’t this what developers are for? They code, I never wanted to be a developer and it felt like I was quickly turning into one. So I decided that whenever I’d look for a job I would specify the type of testing I’m more comfortable with. I took a course on Automation testing, I passed, I could do it if I reaaaally wanted to, but the amount of stress it gave me just made me want to go back to manual.
Myth #3 Manual testers are disappearing
Simply not true. I have had no trouble finding work, so now I’m an advocate for it. You don’t “NEED” to learn how to code if you don’t want to. Again, if you do, great! It is never a bad thing to know more or learn extra skills, but do it as long as you enjoy it. Remember if you hate the course you’re taking, how are you going to like working on it full time? If you enjoy the course, you’ll enjoy the job.
One thing that’s for sure is you have to keep up with technology though. Just because you don’t like to code doesn’t mean companies aren’t going for automation but there are tools that you can use that don’t use code and now with the help of AI we can automate a lot of our work flow. More on that in the coming chapters.
Also there are specific jobs for people that code, like SDET’s (Software Development Engineer in Test), which is basically a tester that turned into a developer or a developer that turned tester. And Automation Engineers which are testers that code or Software Engineers that test but basically they write automated scripts which complement Manual testing.
Let me give you some basic reasons why Manual testing isn’t going away:
Human Judgment and Exploratory Testing: When checking software, manual testers use their judgment, intuition, and creativity, which is helpful for spotting complicated and unexpected problems that automated tests could overlook. We call this Exploratory Testing.
User Experience: Manual testers can evaluate software from a user’s point of view by examining things like usability, accessibility and user-friendliness. Delivering a positive user experience depends on having a thorough understanding of how users interact with software. We need to make mistakes, we need to test like a user that does NOT know how to use the software, we need to be random. Only humans can make human mistakes, this is part of Usability Testing.
New and Evolving Software: Agile development involves frequent software modifications. Because manual testing is flexible and responsive to changes , its more appropriate for projects with constant updates and requirement changes (which believe me, happen more often than not)
Complex animations, interactive elements: Many websites nowadays have interactive elements, things that appear on click like pop ups, modals, links that open new tabs, tables, sorting and filtering, dropdown menus with selectable items like checkboxes or bullets. A lot of tests that involve complex functionality are usually missed or failed by Automated tests. Sometimes even a slow response (ex: suggested results when you do a search) can take forever to appear and that would cause an automated test to fail, when in reality its just a slow server and you have to keep adjusting the timing on the scripts until it gets it right.
Myth #4 Manual testers will never earn a 6 figure salary.
Nothing is further from the truth. It all depends on experience and the type of testing you want to do, for example a game tester that mostly just checks functionality will usually earn less than an Accessibility Tester or Performance Tester (neither requires coding, it helps but its not mandatory). Different industries pay differently, I know I was making more as a manual tester for 3 different jobs (testing for a streaming app, testing a corporate website, and and testing for healthcare all 3 paid a 6 figure salary) than my friends doing Automated Testing working for the Government. (Government jobs will always pay lower in my experience).
Now a Manual QA can reach (keep in mind.. I’m saying ‘reach’ not ‘start’) a 6 figure salary easily and quickly, Starting at entry level with zero experience, if you have a college degree especially in a computer or engineering field, you can start with $25 to $35 per hour.
With no degree but some experience (at least 2 years) you’re in the higher $30’s, and once you add at least 5 years experience and a couple of certifications, you can start at $50 per hour and voila! 6 figure salary.
Myth #5 you need a Computer Science degree
How do you get your foot in the door if you have no degree and no experience? You can take online computer courses on a specific type of testing and get certified. There are Accessibility Testing courses (and certifications), there’s Automated Testing courses (and different certifications), I for example learned Performance testing in 2 months and got a certification, I didn’t like it so I never tried getting a job in it but I could have. Companies want you to know how to use the software (tools) used to run whatever type of testing they require. You gotta learn how to use the tools.
What if you want to work as a tester before you get a certification? I will teach you the basics of testing so you can at least have a decent conversation with a recruiter and be familiar with the terms,
I started working as a video game tester while I was going to college, so I didn’t have a degree nor certifications at the time, all they required was a High School diploma.
Once my foot was in the door it was easy to get my next job, I switched from gaming to e-commerce and then websites, software applications, and even streaming apps. It’s not hard to switch, companies don’t want previous experience with their industry or their field, they want previous experience with testing, they don’t care what it is you tested. With 5+ yrs of experience you can earn $35 to $65 per hour as a manual tester and the best part, you can do it all from the comfort of your home.