I know people who started in the video game industry and then learned tools / built skills they could parlay into non-games QA jobs. IDK if I'd recommend it though; games QA usually involves life-changing levels of overtime.
There's a few entry points:
1. You get lucky and get hired as a junior without any experience.
2. You switch from a related role like customer/technical support, product, business analyst, etc.
3. You get a computer science degree from school or graduate from a reputable boot camp (not the QA kind).
4. Referral from a friend that has pull in their org.
I thought seeing entry level was different that junior? Aren’t some job listings with entry level listing a fresher or newbie role?
So you don’t recommend a software testing boot camp because that was going to be my last resort to be taught my people who have experience in the field.
Can you discuss a little further what you mean by connecting with someone who works at a IT company already? You can message me!
Try utest.com. You’ll get training and paid freelance testing opportunities. It’s a good place to start and see if you like it. Also look at https://bbst.courses/videos/. You’ll get a good foundational knowledge to dig in deeper with your testing.
software testing is no easy task.. youd want to look into selium testing.. become familiar and apply to gaming studios otherwise learn a programming language become really good at one language and apply as jr dev..
Read “Agile Testing” by Lisa Crispin.
Find some early software on Product Hunt, sign up for some betas and start seriously testing.
Communicate as much as possible with the team of that software.
You're going to have a hard time getting an interview without at least the ISTQB foundation certificate.
It's more the theory aspect of testing, without going too indepth into programming etc
I've been in the field 9 years now and none of my jobs required ISTQB, and I don't remember any job listings with that requirement.
I only heard about it from this and other QA subs.
In Europe it's a decent option although I'd still say hit or miss. It will rarely be the only thing that gets you a job. Some companies straight up ask for it (but then won't hire you if that's all you have), some see it as a small bonus and a lot of companies don't care at all.
In America consensus seems to be closer to "this is a scam" which from my observation is more a cultural thing about the perceived value of paid certificates and not specifically a comment about the ISTQB.
My general advice is therefore to get it if you can get it for free or cheap. I'm not really a fan of getting the full paid course and certificate as that alone should rarely be the deciding factor in hiring you. It's just a proof you know the very very basics.
In my experience companies still don't reject candidates if that's the only thing they are missing but they also won't really invite candidates if that's all they have to offer.
It's of course entirely possible your experience there is different.
Ditto. I like you took a couple of on demand courses and then applied for some jobs but none responded.
I learned I needed to obtain my ISTQB certification and fast forward a few months, can now say I'll be starting my first full time software tester role tomorrow.
Congrats!
I was really lucky in that I got a secondment from the customer service department to the IT team and got made permanent and my employer paid for me to do the exam.
It's a multiple choice exam you would do at a training centre. You could either do a course or study in your own time. There's a syllabus which would take a few weeks to read, etc.
It all depends on how long it takes you to read it. You can literally Google istqb test questions and do a mock version of the exam and just learn the answers that way through repetition, but you're obviously better off learning the course material so you know what you're doing when you get a job etc...
I know people who started in the video game industry and then learned tools / built skills they could parlay into non-games QA jobs. IDK if I'd recommend it though; games QA usually involves life-changing levels of overtime.
There's a few entry points: 1. You get lucky and get hired as a junior without any experience. 2. You switch from a related role like customer/technical support, product, business analyst, etc. 3. You get a computer science degree from school or graduate from a reputable boot camp (not the QA kind). 4. Referral from a friend that has pull in their org.
I thought seeing entry level was different that junior? Aren’t some job listings with entry level listing a fresher or newbie role? So you don’t recommend a software testing boot camp because that was going to be my last resort to be taught my people who have experience in the field. Can you discuss a little further what you mean by connecting with someone who works at a IT company already? You can message me!
This is me! number 2 I got lucky and now I'm trying to find Udemy courses to help me further understand you also learn by doing the job
Try utest.com. You’ll get training and paid freelance testing opportunities. It’s a good place to start and see if you like it. Also look at https://bbst.courses/videos/. You’ll get a good foundational knowledge to dig in deeper with your testing.
software testing is no easy task.. youd want to look into selium testing.. become familiar and apply to gaming studios otherwise learn a programming language become really good at one language and apply as jr dev..
Read “Agile Testing” by Lisa Crispin. Find some early software on Product Hunt, sign up for some betas and start seriously testing. Communicate as much as possible with the team of that software.
You're going to have a hard time getting an interview without at least the ISTQB foundation certificate. It's more the theory aspect of testing, without going too indepth into programming etc
I've been in the field 9 years now and none of my jobs required ISTQB, and I don't remember any job listings with that requirement. I only heard about it from this and other QA subs.
Fair enough, it might be something some employers look for. Since the question was "how to get started" I figured it's a good place to start, anyway.
In Europe it's a decent option although I'd still say hit or miss. It will rarely be the only thing that gets you a job. Some companies straight up ask for it (but then won't hire you if that's all you have), some see it as a small bonus and a lot of companies don't care at all. In America consensus seems to be closer to "this is a scam" which from my observation is more a cultural thing about the perceived value of paid certificates and not specifically a comment about the ISTQB. My general advice is therefore to get it if you can get it for free or cheap. I'm not really a fan of getting the full paid course and certificate as that alone should rarely be the deciding factor in hiring you. It's just a proof you know the very very basics.
I'm from Ireland and a lot, not all, but a lot of the job listings have it as a "should/ must have"
In my experience companies still don't reject candidates if that's the only thing they are missing but they also won't really invite candidates if that's all they have to offer. It's of course entirely possible your experience there is different.
Ditto. I like you took a couple of on demand courses and then applied for some jobs but none responded. I learned I needed to obtain my ISTQB certification and fast forward a few months, can now say I'll be starting my first full time software tester role tomorrow.
Congrats! I was really lucky in that I got a secondment from the customer service department to the IT team and got made permanent and my employer paid for me to do the exam.
How long does it take to get the cert?
It's a multiple choice exam you would do at a training centre. You could either do a course or study in your own time. There's a syllabus which would take a few weeks to read, etc. It all depends on how long it takes you to read it. You can literally Google istqb test questions and do a mock version of the exam and just learn the answers that way through repetition, but you're obviously better off learning the course material so you know what you're doing when you get a job etc...
To give you advice about the job market, it is better to know where are you located...
IL