Looking for your first software testing job? Or maybe you’re already employed in SQA but looking for new opportunities in the field? Wondering what the outlook for entry level and experienced testers looks like?
Thanks Daniil Komov
Some sources are pessimistic. The software testing subreddit (https://reddit/r/softwaretesting) has regular postings lamenting the difficult hiring environment that the poster has encountered. They mention changing job requirements, layoffs, and humans being replaced by AI. Is this real? Is it time to frantically switch careers? Not necessarily. Pause the knee-jerk panic and read on.
First, subreddit stories should be taken with a grain of salt. Successful job seekers are less likely to post than frustrated ones, who crave a forum that will accommodate their rant and provide empathy. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are wrong or that the software testing industry is not experiencing an uphill employment battle, but maybe don’t automatically believe everything you read on the internet.
Second, some sources are not only not pessimistic, they are surprisingly optimistic. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics, BLS (https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm), says the outlook for “Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers” is very positive, forecasting a 15% growth in jobs from 2024 – 2034, “much faster than the average for all occupations.” One major caveat with this – they are lumping software developers in with us testers and that could easily skew the numbers.
Indeed.com (https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/software-tester-career-path-and-job-outlook) talks a bit about the software tester career path and job outlook, but the article references the same BLS stats. Ditto for DataUSA (https://datausa.io/profile/soc/software-quality-assurance-analysts-and-testers). Slightly different stats were provided by Big Future (https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/careers/software-quality-assurance-analyst-or-tester/income-and-hiring) which estimates a growth of 7.83% over the next 5 years. But I could not find the source for their numbers.
And for what it’s worth, searching for open positions for “software testing” on Indeed in a 50 mile radius from my home in Fairfield California (which just overlaps both San Francisco and Sacramento) returned just over 100 postings. I did not look through them for applicability, but I can at least say there are more openings for a software tester than, say, a house painter (under 20) or appliance repair tech (also under 20).
So what does this all mean? Should one continue pursuing their QA Engineer dream? Despite the presence of some less-than-optimistic signs, I say Yes. And here’s why:
- The pessimism of the software testing subreddit is matched by the overall job market pessimism that everyone’s talking about (for example, see the recruitinghell subreddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/). Plus there’s a difference between jobs not being easy to land and jobs being non-existent.
- AI is affecting everything, especially tech. And software testing is part of tech. With any disruption, there will be casualties, and strictly manual testers who will not learn how to play nice with AI are suffering. But AI will not replace software testing. If anything software testers will become even more crucial, as they will be counted on to reign in AI code that doesn’t understand context.
- Going along with the previous point – AI makes it easier to code which means more code and more applications, all of which will be of dubious AI quality. Which in turn means more good QA will be needed to avoid flooding the market with AI slop.
- In any industry, even one that is shrinking, there are employees that stand out. If you have a mission to make software better and you commit yourself to that mission, there will be a place for you. Almost by definition, you will improve yourself in ways that are useful and valuable to the industry. If this describes you then Carry On.
Finally, you may want to take this whole article with a grain of salt. I am in QA and have been for 30+ years. I want it to continue to be a relevant and thriving occupation. I see reasons to be optimistic about the future of SQA, but maybe I’m just seeing what I want to see. My point is that you shouldn’t make decisions based on a blog or a subreddit. Get out there and experience things for yourself so you can include your own first hand experiences in your decisions.
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