Hi everyone, been considered if ISTQB Certificate is really worth for working abroad another country, but is really expensive then I confused to buy or not, could gimme advice for working move another country with alternative ways?
ISTQB is a board, not a qualification. Youâll need to narrow it down a little. If youâre referring to the Foundation, itâs not that expensive and (in my opinion) still relevant. If youâve not got many years testing experience, people will look for at least the foundation certificate to show you know something.
Having said that, I was a bit confused about your âreally expensiveâ comment, and had to go check. Iâm sure it wasnât that expensive before!! I see why you asked the question now, and in terms of value for money Iâm no longer sure itâs required.
Assuming you mean Foundation in testing etc.
- Shows an understanding of Testing Terminology and Methods
- Also the ability to pass a 40 Question Multiple choice exam (synical)
To be fair - that is it.
No different to taking a âDriving Testâ - fine on the day, but being able to apply what you have learnt is something else. The certifications are an understanding - every role is likley to utilise some of that understanding and not necessarily all.
But for employment purposes - you have to define a minimum standard. Up to you as an employeer if this is it.
I have employed QAâs with far greater skills than being able to pass an ISTQB certification.
I tend to find that its used and appreciated in some models of testing but to the point that its a negative and and a recruiter will consider that they need to reverse engineer some of the thinking out of you that you picked up from the training.
For me who has coached people passing it in the past I feel it still leans heavily towards manufacturing model of testing with verification and QC type activities at its core and a bias for known risks. I also felt it had a hierarchical culture feel to it, managers like with the common language of control, same activities and contraints the testers work within which can conflict with the alternative highly empowered and trusted environments. Some countries have more hierarchical cultures than others, some people even prefer to be told what to do on a daily basis so your target country may also be a factor in its value.
The models that may struggle with it lean more into testing as a discovery activity, not verification, not QC, discovery at testings core.
Now it depends on what model you are looking for in your testing, if you strongly favour one over the other that can make the usefulness decision easier.
The cost is a separate question, in my view there are a lot better learning options available including MoT, many of them free.
Yes, ISTQB is still worth it for beginners and manual testers because many companies recognize it. But for experienced QA or automation roles, practical skills like Selenium, Playwright, API testing, and real projects matter more than the certificate itself.
I feel like finance and other regulated industries value this certification more than startups. Another reason to get the certification is if you are a career changer without a work history in QA or engineering, the entry level certification may make the difference between being interviewed for a role and not being interviewed for a role. Some of the information is fascinating, for instance the automation certification guide had components of the knowledge I picked up on the job but described them framework and programming language agnostic. I am not sure if the entire knowledge base continued on with this style/structure but what I did read had me thinking in different ways about test automation.
So, like most people have said, it depends. What are you trying to achieve? What has brought you to a place where you are considering differentiating yourself from others through a certification? Is this for personal interest or career aspirations? how many years have you worked in QA and in what type of roles? All of these questions help give advice on what the actual value proposition is for taking one of these certifications.
One other angle that could be worth deeper discussion is that its quite formulaic in its approach and leans more towards mech strength activities than some of the other training materials that retain strong value around human strength activities.
AI agents could likely be trained on this easier than the other testing models and ideas, whilst I personally find it a bit daunting if test agents basis and training model is ISTQB that idea of âreplaceâ QAâs who stick to that model in my view is a higher risk.