I wanted to share something that’s been on my mind. Recently, I graduated from an academy dedicated to software testing, specializing in Quality Assurance. I’ve been studying both automation and manual testing, which I’m truly passionate about and want to make my career. But right now, I find myself in that tough spot many of you might relate to—trying to get my foot in the door feels daunting. Finding even an internship seems nearly impossible, and, honestly, I feel a bit discouraged.
The landscape has changed so much. It’s more competitive than ever, and it can be intimidating when you see job postings packed with requirements. There are moments when I question if I’ll ever have a chance to learn and grow in a real-world setting. I know I don’t have the experience that many others bring to the table, but I believe that everyone has to start somewhere, right?
So, I’m reaching out to ask for any advice, tips, or even just words of encouragement. I’d be grateful for any guidance on where to begin, how to strengthen my chances of landing an internship or junior role, or which skills I should focus on right now to boost my opportunities. At this point, I’m open to any experience—even unpaid—just to get hands-on learning and growth.
If any of you have been in this position before, or if you’ve got any pointers, I would genuinely appreciate hearing from you. Your guidance would mean the world to me.
Thank you so much in advance for any support you can offer.
Here’s how I ended up as a QA Lead, with much less training than you have now:
I got a job in Customer Support at a software startup, letting them know that I was ultimately interested in doing something more technical
When I saw a need for help with testing, I volunteered to do that in addition to my other duties
When I was successful at the Support job as well as at testing, I asked to be allowed to spend a larger percentage of my time testing
Because the company was small at the time and didn’t have an official QA department, I started setting up testing processes that proved valuable to the company
I took some coding and database classes with help from the company to fund the tuition
Because my work had proved valuable, I was moved to full-time QA
Eventually I was able to show the need for more full-time testers, and I was promoted to QA Team Lead when those testers were hired
I could talk about this for hours, but I’ll try to be selective!
If you can, tailor your application to the wording in the advert. If you can’t meet a requirement, is there something you can do? They want Ruby, but you know Python - say you’re capable of learning the new language quickly, or learn a little and say you’ve started to learn it too. Give them good reasons to bring you in for interview.
Not all elements in a job advert are true. Some are important to them, some less important, some they think they want but they don’t. Many of the requirements can be negotiated, including for experience.
If you want free experience and practice for your skills you can test for an open source project, or charity, or against a test website.
Consider what you have that’s not usually mentioned. Charisma, kindness, a desire to help others, a genuine interest in the subject, an interest in a company’s industry or domain, the will to self-improve, and so on.
If you’re stuck in a sea of applicants, stand out. Consider a cover letter.
Read and learn from everywhere. Groups, forums, books, articles. Not just about testing but testing-related things, from the philosophy of science to effective communication.
Finally, never let job application dishearten you. People are rejected all the time for hidden or nonsense reasons, and the reasons that make sense usually would mean that you wouldn’t want to work there either. Companies are not experts at judging people, so all you can do is make it as easy as you can for them to decide that you’re great. More of the process is up to chance than you may realise, so don’t let rejection of any kind stain your sense of identity and purpose. Learn from it, sure, but don’t treat it as the truth about who you are.
Finding passionate people when I hire is like gold dust to me. Your passion will come through. For one thing, for all those candidates, I see few coming to places like this and asking sensible questions. That speaks to your passion, your interest and your ability to solve problems.
When I’m hiring for people new into the industry, here’s the types of thing that I’m looking for:
Do they show they have an appreciation for the career?
Can they show they’re engaged with testing and read about testing?
Can they show that this is the career path for them, they don’t want this as a stepping stone.
Can they communicate / have a good attitude to things?
What can they show me that they already know about testing?
Look at large engineering orgs, they’re the most likely to have junior roles. However, what I tend to see more of is graduate programs than internships.
Create a portfolio of work, any blogs you write or github projects you make - get these in a portfolio to share.
Start networking! Talk to other testers, they’ll be able to point you in the direction of roles and opportunities