Career Track: Quality Assurance (Testing)
Quality Assurance Professionals, also known as Quality Assurance
Engineers, Testers or Specialists are responsible for testing IT
systems such as software or Internet applications to ensure the
technical and business requirements have been fulfilled.
Primary functions include executing the actual testing,
analyzing test results, and in some cases, defining the original
process to manage potential bugs. Quality Assurance
Professionals may be responsible for developing and implementing
testing strategies and automated scripts while reviewing test
designs and software tools. They may also be required to delver
software releases.
Educational Requirements:
While a college degree is required for most testing positions,
there aren't any degree programs that specifically target QA.
Normally 1-2 year's experience is required in a software-related
discipline but quite often people find themselves in this
position by default. Testing does require a certain personality
type and if you're it - you'll be in heaven. If not, you won't
last very long before moving on. In some cases knowledge of HTML
is a requirement and C++ might crop up as well. Other popular
languages in which to have fundamental knowledge are C, Java and
Visual Basic. Some testers are required to write their own
testing programs and therefore may need programming skills as
well.
Salary Potential:
(As reported by the U.S. Dept. of Labor)
Average salaries (nationwide):
Entry (less than 1 year of experience): $45,172
Junior (1-2 years of experience): $49,266
Emerging (3-5 years of experience): $56,171
Experienced (6-9 years of experience): $60,649
Advanced (10+ years of experience): $65,623
Industry Certifications:
Although there are two organizations that offer certification
for Quality Assurance Professionals, very few industry
professionals actually take the time to attain these. If you're
serious about a position in the Quality Assurance field, having
these certifications on your resume will definitely put you
ahead of the majority of your competitors.
The Quality Assurance Institute offers the following
certifications:
Certified Software Quality Analyst (CSQA)
Certified Software Tester (CSTE)
Certified Software Project Manager (CSPM).
The American Society for Quality offers the certification for
Software Quality Engineer. For more information please visit the
following link.
http://www.asq
.org/cert/types/csqe/index.html
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