Back to basics: what is QA?
Curious what we mean when we say "product?" Read This.
What is a QA Engineer?
QA engineers support engineering teams by actively testing and breaking new software releases. These roles need to have comprehensive understandings of their company's code and software architecture to do their job most effectively. They usually support multiple product teams and developers, and are the final step of the development lifecycle. They are usually the only blocker between major bugs and primary end-users of a product, and therefore need to be extremely thorough with their testing.
Though testing is the primary function of their role, QA Engineers also interpret and write technical documentation for their companies. If the company is particularly small, a QA engineer may also find themselves assisting with frontend development work even though their primary role is testing.
QA Engineers need to be creative in designing various test cases based on individualized products. They also need to constantly be searching for inputs or patterns that could potentially cause an application or software to malfunction.
Ultimately, the theme of the QA engineer role is diagnosing how to fix products in the most cost-effective and efficient ways.
Not interested in qa engineering? Check out our other job guides below for more traditional engineering roles that require programming experience.
What does a QA Engineer do?
QA engineers spend a majority of their workday collecting and analyzing data from their own experiences with a product. This is known as "debugging." Work is assigned to a QA engineer usually in a structured way, after the code has been completed by the primary developer.
QA engineers also spend time reviewing bug reports from customer service teams or individual users. They take this information and isolate code sections to be debugged by themselves or development teams.
They also write and run test cases to ensure code functionality for all users, even users who complete abnormal activities with their product.
Sometimes if a QA engineer or employer is more senior and mature, they will build and monitor automatic testing engines to administer tests to a software and analyze the results
Do I need a degree to be a QA Engineer?
None required for an associate/entry level QA engineering position. While this role seems more technical, QA engineers can come from all backgrounds, and do not normally require a degree. This is also a great role to break into the tech industry with limited experience.
We've seen these people be incredibly successful QA engineers:
- Data entry and receptionist professionals
- Restaurant servers and managers
- Accounting and budgeting roles
- Basically any role where you can prove attention to detail and creativity
If you're new here to bridged, we're glad to meet you! We are huge fans of alternate forms of education, and recommend specific certifications to target skills. Learn more here.
Our Favorite QA Engineering Certifications
There are not many QA engineering certifications out there because the role does not have too many hard skills. The most relevant course is the specialization from Minnesota, hosted by Coursera, which focused on fundamentals of QA and how to use some of the more relevant tools.
Software Testing & Automation Specialization
This class touches on software testing and validations for beginners. It's created by the University of Minnesota and hosted on Coursera.
JavaScript Unit Testing - The Practical Guide
This course specializes in how to structure and write unit tests in Javascript. It's a little more developer-heavy than a QA engineer would need to know, but it always helps to know more in your field than the next person.
Programming Foundations with JavaScript, HTML and CSS
This class is part of the java & software engineering fundamentals program from Duke University, hosted on Coursera. This is also a little more developer-heavy, but Duke is a premium name, and the certificate from completion will shine on resumes.
Career Path of a QA Engineer
We included two paths here to show the versatility in starting out as a QA engineer. Usually these users transition to become developers or engineering managers, but we've known several who've transferred into project management or even UX research (truly!). So while these paths are common, the #1 thing to keep in mind is this is a great path to get your foot in the door at a tech company.
*Or Jr. QA Engineer
Project Manager
Senior Project Manager
Product Manager
What is an QA Engineer's salary?
We've aggregated thousands of salaries across glassdoor and linkedin, and frontend engineers can make anywhere between 75k - 95k, depending on their location and skillsets.
Top Skills of an QA Engineer
We've compiled thousands of job descriptions for QA engineers to record the most common requirements to save you time. While preparing for interviews, keep in mind specific times you've demonstrated these skills.
Remember: there are not many hard-skills required for QA engineering, and these skills reflect that. Familiarity with programming and language frameworks is recommended to get ahead of other applicants, but not required to. be successful in the role.
- Create test cases that make sure the product is consumer ready
- Demonstrate excellent problem-solving skills pertaining to a product malfunction, and exercise creative ways to ‘break’ a product
- Contribute meaningfully to a team-based environment deeply rooted in continuous learning, teaching, and sharing information
- Write automated end-to-end tests via Testcafe and Cypress
- Be an active, curious participant and listener in daily meetings and discussions
- API testing, Karate and/or Java familiarity
Top Tools of a QA Engineer
We've also compiled the most common tools listed in job description. If you're serious about becoming an QA engineer, get familiar with these and be ready to talk about them.
For Testing Management
- TestRail
- Zephyr
- TestLink
- TestCafe
- Cypress
For Automated Testing
- Selenium
- Appium
- TestComplete
For Code Review
- SonarQube
- Crucible
- CodeClimate
Bug Tracking
- Jira
- Bugzilla
- ASANA
- Notion
- Trello
Key Traits of a Successful QA Engineer
QA Engineers will work closely with:
Difference between QA Engineers and Software Engineers
Software Engineers: the builders
QA Engineers: the testers & bug catchers
Both roles are integral for a functioning engineering team.
More Recommended QA Programs & Courses
Compared to other engineering programs, there is not much out there on QA. A lot of this is because there are not many hard skills, so a lot of the roles are filled through referrals rather than resume reviews and experiences.
Take a few of these certs and take your learnings to target your resume towards QA positions & verbiage. Showcase how detail oriented you can be. Review the products and platforms you apply for, and mention any bugs or experience hiccups you can find to show you've done your research.
For the complete beginners: The Complete Quality Assurance Course - Learn QA from Scratch
For the software-language-agnostic: The Complete Software Testing Bootcamp
Unit testing 101: JavaScript Unit Testing - The Practical Guide
For role-explorers: Programming Foundations: Software Testing + QA
Conclusion
Here at Bridged we are huge fans of stacking micro-certifications to achieve desired career results. We're building a product to make your career planning fun and affordable, and we'd love to talk to YOU! Was this article helpful? Did you land an interview for a QA engineering role?
Let us know at hello@getbridged.co
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