What is the growth of Software Test Engineer compared to a Developer?

Answer 1

It depends on the person and the organization.

In my experience it's mostly about the person; I've worked for HP and Cisco. Good test engineers are known to be good by the whole R&D team. That's because they come up with innovative ways to reveal defects and to quantify coverage. They lead by establishing test standards that are adopted for business decision making by the organization as a whole.

However, I have seen organizations where the test function is viewed as secondary to development. Often this is more perception than reality, the notion that "developing is creative and test is not". Good testers always prove this wrong.

So, I'm going to say you need to understand what you have a passion for, writing code or testing. Both are technical, both are important, both are good career decisions.

Finally, this isn't an either-or proposition. I, and many I know have been both developers and testers, development managers, and test managers. It's good to see the whole picture, and increases your worth to the organization.