Hello, still-a-tester-wannabe here! I have been both aggressively and passively looking for QA jobs in the past few months now, and while I see a concerningly
low amount of new jobs for especially new testers abound, I also see that there is a slight increase in the “looking for job” tags of fellow testers almost every week now.
Do you think that there is a change in the market for testers? And if so, what do you think about its longevity - is this just a bad time for everyone to be in or the footsteps of a change in the sector?
I would also welcome any suggestions and tips regarding job-hunting for testing business. I’m trying to switch from a business analyst background (which mostly focused on hardware aspect of projects, which I came to loath at this point) and while I’ve gotten a few certificates under my belt (including ISTQB CTFL), I know that these mean very little in the long run. What does truly matter in the evaluations for this role? And while my go-to address has usually been LinkedIn, are there different platforms good for testing jobs - freelance or otherwise?
I thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts. I’ve been brooding a long time about this situation so it feels good to open up to a fellow community!
My view is that the market is not very buoyant for testing roles at the moment. There’s a lot of seasoned testers on the market looking for work and competition is very high for each role. That means it’s a buyer’s market, with companies able to ask for a lot of skills for less remuneration and salary.
Generally roles are asking for experience in:
Setting test strategy
Test automation (different frameworks and languages)
CI/CD pipelines
Talking about testing, coaching and socialising testing concepts
Working with uncertainty
There’s an issue though, where different organisations are all asking for different things. Some companies just don’t know what they want, or think they know what they want… so it becomes very hard to guess what to showcase to get a testing role.
Linkedin is one place to look for roles but Quick Apply has meant that hundreds of people apply for every role and your application may get lost. I find that talking to recruiters or networking to directly identify roles is much more successful.
Hope this helps, please reach out if you want more information or clarification on any of this. Plus, best of luck in your job hunt
Yep, quite accurate.
Two ways for testers to find work:
be flexible and patient, take a lot of time for preparations resumes interviews, and look for jobs in many different countries, apply, then move
be flexible and adapt/learn on the current job other skills to have the ability to accomplish other tasks, even in other roles, so that you have a higher chance of finding a workplace in a highly competitive worldwide market (as mentioned, this pool of things is quite huge)
I’m already having to plan to move away completely from testing, as I can’t see myself finding another job in a couple of years.
Pretty much what the 2 previous posts said. It is pretty much dead out there. The odd one or two but other than that nothing. 20 years experience and i have never seen it as bad as this.
LinkedIn can be very disappointing when looking for a tester job. As soon as a job is posted, dozens of applicants flood in (especially if it is a remote job). I don’t know how recruiters deal with it. In my opinion, linkedIn is only good for self-presentation and connections (although I don’t know what benefits they give). But this is the only place where you can filter jobs according to experience level.
Try Glassdoor, Eures Jobs, PowerToFly.
To be honest, the market is really bad for most roles right now. So if you’re not enjoying your current role and want to become a tester, I wouldn’t necessarily tell you to give up or do something else just because of that.
Since you’re already working as a business analyst, I wouldn’t so much say you’re switching sectors as switching disciplines. As with a lot of career changes, your best bet is to try and transition to the new role within your existing company. Is this something you’ve explored?
As to where to find jobs, that really depends on your location, more than anything else, as the options and usage vary greatly.
The market is critical for every role in almost every country in the current scenario but still, those who have skills can find a place in this tough market.
Work on your skills, and networking and focus on building your portfolio. Connect with people, talk to them, and gain insight from their expertise. You already have clear ISTQB CTFL so you have an understanding of the basics of testing, however, if you are looking for a job in automation then you have to work on your automation skills also. Else if you are looking for a functional tester job then you can go ahead with your current knowledge.
Also, you already have experience in a business analyst position so use it in your favor, it will help in your role.
Just don’t rely on LinkedIn for job search, try different job portals and ask for referrals in your circle, at least somewhere you will get a job.
Hi there!
The market is tough, unstable, unfair, and crazy nowadays. There are not so many rules that work for most companies. In many companies hiring managers and teams don’t really understand what they need, what problems to solve, and what is QA and testing but still, they want someone to deal with all the issues they have (but just one person). At the end of the day, success in job hunting is a matter of luck, of course, you need to have some (impressive) experience and some skills (not necessarily to be an expert in programming and/or automation). Your soft skills, leadership, and managerial experience matter, and don’t forget about mindset and cultural fit. Quite often these criteria are very different for different teams and companies, you might be a top candidate in one company and can be rejected in dozens of others after resume screening, they may even don’t notice your exceptional skills because they are looking for a “superstar-unicorn-ideal-candidate” that doesn’t exist on the market. I can’t say that this is relevant only for QA and testers, maybe the demand for other roles is a bit higher but it seems that many other roles are even more competitive than roles in testing.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that there could be a piece of new effective advice in such a generally described case. After some time of job hunting you may learn about the market a get some grasp of what you lack and which strong skills and experience you have that should be highlighted. As I mentioned before, you might be a really damn good QA Engineer but still struggle to land a nice job, or you might be below a mediocre one and find a job in a couple of months - it’s just a matter of luck in the current market climate. Of course, you can learn lots of stuff and try different approaches but none of that will guarantee you higher chances of getting the job. And don’t count on certifications, per se they are useless, no one cares, especially about theoretical ones.
