QA Professionals, Entry Level Job Description: Are you tired of the mundane day to day of a 9 to 5 job? Tired of the politics and wondering if you are actually making a difference? If so, then you may want to take your career into your own hands by leveraging your QA skills on a part time freelance basis. It is easier than you think!

INTRODUCTION

By the time you finish reading this article, you’ll know how to find the best entry level jobs. Entry-level jobs can be those that are traditionally offered in alternative schooling or community education (for example, adult education), or can refer to any position that requires little experience or is often a stepping stone to other positions.

What Does an Entry-Level QA Tester Do?

The job duties of an entry-level QA tester, or quality assurance tester, are to ensure that new computer software, applications, or products do not have any defects or issues. The responsibilities of a QA tester often involve planning a test case, carrying out manual or automated testing, locating and reporting each bug, and ensuring that the product meets expectations. An entry-level QA tester often works as part of a team or under direct supervision.

What Is it Like to Work as a QA Tester?

A quality assurance tester (QA tester) examines software to ensure that it works properly. Your responsibilities are not only to test a product but also help to debug it by accurately reporting on the problems that you find. You can also perform these duties on websites, applications, and other products. You can either test manually or create automated tools using coding languages. In an entry-level QA testing job, you work within frameworks set out more-experienced team members, and you confer with them to gain an understanding of the requirements and parameters for tests. You also document your tests and results.

How to Become a QA Tester With No Experience

The qualifications that you need to become a quality assurance tester (QA tester) with no experience include a computer-related degree, the ability to undergo training, and computer coding skills. Most employers expect entry-level employees to have a degree in computer science, information technology (IT), or a related field. You can gain experience by working as a QA intern during your undergraduate studies. Most employers expect you to know relevant computer languages, such as Java, C++, Python, Perl, and SQL. Language requirements vary depending on the type of software or systems with which you work.

QA/Software Testers in High Demand; Hiring from International Staffing Talent Pool Opens World to Employers

As the world becomes more digitized and dependent on technology, the lack of QA/Software Testers could put businesses at risk. However, because of the Great Resignation, American companies would do well to recruit from an international talent pool, says Neelesh Rangwani, founder of Wishup, a remote employee platform.

According to Indeed, there are currently close to 20,000 QA Tester jobs available in the United States.

QA Testers are high in demand. The biggest reason being that software continues to grow and evolve. Soon, everything will become software; every process in life—consumer, entertainment, finance, etc.—will be ruled by technology. As it evolves, so will the demand for software test engineers.

According to Statista, there are 26.9 million software developers around the world, with the majority—4.3 million—located in the United States,(1) and of these, approximately 310,000 are Quality Assurance (QA) Testers.(2) As the world continues to digitize more and more, the need for qualified testers becomes more dire. In fact, software programming fails cost US enterprises more than $2 trillion a year.(3) “There are 3 main factors at play when software fails. First, the loss of data, which in and of itself, could cause the business to shut down while they fix the problem. Second, the additional cost of fixing the problem. And the third factor is the most damaging: the company’s reputation takes a severe hit,” says Neelesh Rangwani, founder of Wishup, a remote employee platform based in the US and India.

These quality analysts, also known as QA Engineers or simply Software Test Engineers, work with IT teams to ensure the quality of a software program and that it provides a top-notch user experience (UX) for the consumer. As technology grows, adds Neeraj Kumar, Chief of Business and Technology at Wishup, for every two software developers there should be a QA Tester. “QA Testers are high in demand at the moment. The biggest reason being that software continues to grow and evolve. Soon, everything will become software in the world; every process in life—consumer, entertainment, finance, etc.—will be ruled by technology. As it evolves, so will the demand for software test engineers.

“Plus, the problem has been exacerbated by the Great Resignation currently affecting the US. The United States would do well by expanding their hiring horizon to include an international talent pool, especially in Western Europe and Southeast Asia,” notes Neeraj Kumar.

Responsibilities of a QA/Software Test Engineer(4)
In addition to being responsible for reviewing and implementing systematic test plans, a QA Tester will collaborate with the software developers to locate, troubleshoot, and repair procedural issues that could lead to code flaws and application bugs. Other responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Executing test cases under different scenarios
• Documenting and evaluating results
• Detecting and reporting program errors
• Tracking errors and defects, and troubleshooting them
• Reviewing test procedures
• And subsequently, bringing down the risk of the entire application.

The Hybrid Model
“Not all testing is done manually by an engineer as typically 30 – 35% of all QA testing is automated,” says Kumar. “There are certain repetitive tasks that can and should be automated, but the value of the human tester cannot be understated.”

Software Test Automation is useful when software is developed, tested, and deployed several times per day as is the case for most of the agile enterprises of today. For the most part, the coding and testing processes of software development can be treated as separate phases, but with automation, testing takes place more frequently—therefore, it’s easier to find and correct problems as they happen, substantially bringing down the cost and impact. Manual testers follow a written plan and report any defects they find directly to the developers. The two methods can be used simultaneously, but each works better in individual areas. Manual testing is best used when dealing with subjective parts of testing like UX testing or while performing exploratory testing. In the end, the hybrid model comes full circle as automated testing runs on frameworks established by testers and designed by the developers.(5)

The QA Tester has to have more than an analytical and logical mindset, notes Kumar, as they have to think of what will break and how. They need structured thinking. Tests have to be repeated constantly as new developments arise. The QA Tester is in the best possible position to identify what needs to be automated. “Not everything calls for automation. For example, one-time testing would be performed manually, but repeated testing can be automated,” adds Kumar. Automating the test has an initial investment associated with it. At the same time, in the long game, there’s better ROI for automation. Another point in favor for humans is Negative QA testing, which is inputting erroneous data to see how the system will perform. In this scenario, experience comes into play.

An international staffing agency, notes Rangwani, is the best tool an American company could have as the Great Resignation continues to wreak havoc in the job market. “From bookkeepers to content writers and more, HR departments and C-Suite executives have no need to stress over a lack of candidates when they have the entire world open to them—at a substantially lower cost, I might add,” says Rangwani.

According to Indeed, there are currently close to 20,000 QA Tester jobs available in the United States.(6)

“Technology will continue its march forward and if a company wants to succeed in this ever-evolving arena, they need to embrace the rest of the world and look into hiring from an international talent pool. By using an international staffing agency, they can be assured the candidate has been vetted and is ready to perform his or her duties from day one. It’s a global community, why play in just one sandbox?” adds Rangwani.

CONCLUSION

So, let’s say you’re just starting out in the design world. Maybe you’ve recently graduated from art school and still have no practical experience. Or maybe you’re a seasoned designer who wants to try something new. The good news is that there are plenty of entry level jobs out there for you as a designer thanks to companies recognizing that introducing fresh talent into the company may prove to be a fruitful investment. In addition, many designers seek career advancement through experience and by trying something new, so seeking an entry level job can end up being two-for-one opportunity for real growth. And speaking of real growth, we want to emphasize that when we say “entry level jobs” on this list, we mean it. For example, if you apply for a graphic design internship at Facebook you won’t be designing their page; you’ll most likely be designing buttons for Facebook ad campaigns or helping out on some workflow-heavy project like developing a new way to organize 100,000 images. You’ll work hard, but it’s all adding valuable experience to your resume while giving yourself a leg up over other designers looking for similar opportunities (which is really the ultimate goal of an entry level job). Furthermore, redesigning the Facebook logo while offering up banners