Future Career in software Testing?

Question

I m looking for career change to software. I m thinkin of software testing as option to enter software industry.
1. Is it good career option?
2. What is the future of software Industry for say next 8 -10 years in general?, Software Testing in particular?
3. Career growth opportiunities in software Testing?
4. Resources in software Testing--- Books, Website, Article, Personal Contact IDs?
5. Where can i get real insights about real time software Testing in a software company?
6. I have lot of questions to ask.. For now its advanced Thanks

Answer 1

Hi, I spent 20 years doing software testing and management. I'll take your questions one by one.

1. Is it good career option?
It can be. Junior software testers at large corporations can make 60k. You'll need a degree in computer science.


2. What is the future of software Industry for say next 8 -10 years in general?, Software Testing in particular?
Nobody has figured out how to create software that does not need testing. Formal proofs, requirements tracing etc etc etc don't suffice. Software of any meaningful complexity is basically a huge set of interacting instructions; while modular design and good requirements promote quality software, there are undoubtedly bugs to be found. Software testing is not going away, and neither is software.

3. Career growth opportiunities in software Testing?
Very good, often better than software development (for good engineers). In my experience, good software testers move up the technical and managerial ladders faster than their development counterparts.


4. Resources in software Testing--- Books, Website, Article, Personal Contact IDs?
Books by Boris Beizer:
Software testing techniques
Black Box Testing
Software testing and quality assurance

Here's a website with many links out to others, this one answers a lot of questions: http://www.softwareqatest.com/index.html

5. Where can i get real insights about real time software Testing in a software company?
Hmmmm what do you want to know? I worked for two very large networking companies, testing their (Internet) Operating Systems. Huge (millions of lines) software, all real-time, highly complicated. You have to really like software technology and view testing as a challenge to find and eliminate all the important defects prior to release. You will be on the "critical path" and that can mean long hours, and big rewards.

6. I have lot of questions to ask.. For now its advanced Thank

Answer 2

I see software testing as the geek version (no offense) of video game testing. With the amount of willing "beta testers" out there today, if you want to test software it won't be on a freelance basis, but most likely just working for one company, like Google or Adobe on very, very early versions of the software.

Don't get me wrong, I think that it's a great job. But with the amount of willing beta tester geeks that are online now, I think that the job will start going down the drain soon, as big companies realize that they have thousands of software testers, willing to test software for free.

I've included some links that might tell you more about the job in the sources:

Answer 3

I don't see software testing as a very good career option, as it probably doesn't pay much.