How many years of experience define a junior tester?

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This question came up in conversation and we thought it would be worthwhile seeing what the community has to say on it.

How many years of experience define a junior tester?

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:star: Bonus points for sharing your definition of a junior tester.

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Nice and very interesting question or poll. I have a related, additional question about. If you work in a company can be considered the same as you work as a freelancer i.e. in Upwork?

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I don’t really like to define it by years since experience gained during a timeframe can vary so much from person to person.

And what if I’m senior level at a very specific thing but junior level at everything else, do I automatically move up to senior level if I have the yoe for it?

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I have to agree with Mardru, years are really bad. I have worked with people who strictly define their entire career by their years served. Something like 1 is junior, 2 is senior, 3 is lead, 4 is manager and so on. Problem is out of the people who use that as a yardstick, very few actually deserve anything more than junior!

I would judge juniors vs seniors on the amount of supervision and leadership they require. Juniors need a decent level of supervision, seniors are more (or completely) independent. Continuing upwards, a lead would be supervising the next round of juniors, and management becomes an entirely new kind of job that rarely pays enough money to warrant the promotion and increase in work.

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For me, junior-senior goes primarily along the amount of autonomy.

  • Junior
    • Needs to be told what to do and how to do it
    • Can’t be trusted to actively inform about blockers and troubles
    • Requires supervision and coaching, up to hours every day
  • Mid
    • Does not need to be told how to do something
    • Needs to be told what to do at strategic level, if left alone is likely to pick up their own work on more tactical level
    • Is likely to actively inform about blockers and troubles, especially if they have encountered similar ones before; is likely to actively seek help
    • Requires less supervision and different kind of coaching; shorter meetings once a week or two will likely be enough
  • Senior
    • Does not need to be told how to do something
    • Does not need to be told what to do at strategic or tactical level (but ensuring they are on the same page is obviously preferable)
    • Will actively seek help to resolve blockers and troubles; might not inform about them, unless they are way above their capability to resolve; can be trusted to only inform about important issues
    • Requires little supervision, might appreciate coaching outside of immediate management structure

Of course this is simplified - company size and culture, management style, personal relationship with manager and personal characteristics will twist and bend that model.

In last 15-20 years many companies also started introducing growth opportunities for individual contributors above Senior level - things like Staff, Principal, Distinguished, Fellow. They are often drawn along the lines of scope and timeframe of impact that a person has, like leading long-term strategic initiatives involving multiple teams. They will also be responsible for coaching and to some extent managing other people.

While it is common for people at Senior / Principal level to move to management, management is fundamentally different path with their own requirements for promotions. As an example, even junior manager is going to decide on salaries, raises, bonuses and letting people go - things that no individual contributor, even at fellow level, should ever be involved in.

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Similar to what some others have said, I don’t think years of experience is the right measurement. I’ve interviewed too many testers for “senior” roles where it become abundantly clear that they have 1 year of experience 10 or 15 times over, and are still stuck with a shallow understanding of testing that, frankly, I’ve had plenty of intern candidates or fresh graduates who demonstrated better creativity and critical thinking skills.

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