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Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer

Also goes by: Quality System Specialist, Quality Coordinator, Quality Technician, Tester

What Is a Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer?

These developers don’t normally build software, they test it! This can include writing automated tests, performing manual tests, and more.

How much will I make?

Salaries can range by location and years of experience, but these are averages for the US.

$80,912.00
according to Salary.com

Will I get a job?

Projected job growth is 17% for the period 2020-2030 in the US, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

1,545
Total Openings
according to comptia.org

Who will I work for?

  • Tech Companies
  • Software Companies
  • E-commerce Companies
  • Game Development Companies

Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer’s Daily Activities

No Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer works alone! Quality Assurance (QA) Engineers spend their days collaborating with designers, other developers, and product or project managers to bring software applications to life. Below you will get a sense for what a day-in-the-life of a Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer could be:

Collaborate With Your Team Members to Build software applications

Quality Assurance (QA) Engineers work hand-in-hand with their team members to create software applications. In order to do this, you’ll need to have an understanding of a wide variety of skills including Information security principles, Cryptography, Networking. Collaboration can take many forms, including planning and strategy meetings, design brainstorms, reviews, and pairing.

Code Your software application

Much of a Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer’s day is spent coding. In practice this means having a development environment set up on one’s computer that allows you to track your progress as you go.

Test Your software application

One of the joys of working as a Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer is that software applications are ALWAYS breaking! As a developer one of your core duties is testing your software applications for bugs and errors and working to fix them

How To Become a

Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer

It’s absolutely possible to become a Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer even if you have no prior experience in tech and no degree. In fact, a career as a Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer is one of the best entry level jobs in tech. Read on to learn how to do it!

1

Learn The Required Skills

First things first, in order to become a Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer you have to learn the required tech skills!

Information security principles

Information security is the practice of protecting information assets from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction.

Cryptography

Cryptography is the practice of encrypting and decrypting data. Encryption is the process of converting data into a form that cannot be easily read by unauthorized users. Decryption is the process of converting encrypted data back into its original form.

Networking

The process of connecting and exchanging data between devices or systems to facilitate communication and resource sharing.

Vulnerability and risk assessment

Vulnerability and risk assessment involve identifying and analyzing potential weaknesses and threats in computer systems or networks, assessing their potential impact, and implementing measures to mitigate or eliminate these risks.

Firewalls and intrusion detection systems

Firewalls and intrusion detection systems (IDS) are security devices that are used to protect networks from unauthorized access. Firewalls block incoming traffic that does not meet certain criteria, while IDSs monitor network traffic for malicious activity.

Ethical hacking

Ethical hacking is the practice of using hacking techniques to assess the security of a system or network. Ethical hackers are hired by organizations to find and fix security vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by malicious actors.

Python

Python is a general-purpose coding language—which means it can be used for other types of programming and software development besides web development.

Read More

Cloud Security

Cloud security involves protecting data, applications, and resources stored on or accessed through cloud platforms, implementing security measures to safeguard against data breaches, unauthorized access, and other cyber threats.

Security standards and frameworks

Foundational rules and practices for safeguarding information and systems from unauthorized access and potential threats.

Incident management

Incident management is the process of responding to and resolving incidents such as a system outage or a data breach.

Version Control

Version control is the management of changes to documents, source code, or other files, allowing multiple users to collaborate and track revisions, facilitating teamwork and preventing conflicts.

Read More

Incident Response

Incident response is the process of investigating and responding to incidents such as outages and data breaches.

2

Build A Portfolio

The best way to demonstrate that you have the necessary skills—especially when you have no prior experience—is with a portfolio of professional quality coding samples.

Check out these blog posts for more:

3

Apply For Tech Jobs

Once you’ve learned all the required technical skills and built a killer portfolio, it’s time to dust off that old resume and LinkedIn profile and hit the pavement, or Internet superhighway as it were, in search of your first job as a Front End Developer!

➡️ Prepare Your Resume, LinkedIn, and Portfolio

Although your most valuable asset as you job search is your portfolio, you do have to cross your t’s and dot your i’s and when it comes to the job search that means optimizing your resume and LinkedIn profile. Tech employers expect you to have all three!

Check out these blog posts for more:

➡️ Build Your Network

Your net worth is in your network, which can be hard when you’re changing careers! But don’t worry, the tech industry is incredibly welcoming to newcomers. Whether you prefer in-person meetups, Slack channels, coffee-over-zoom chats, conferences, hack-a-thons or a little bit of everything, there are tons of opportunities for you to meet fellow techies.

Check out these blog posts for more:

➡️ Find Good Jobs To Apply For

A good job can be hard to find—or is it? The good news about tech is that there are so many openings at so many diverse companies that your biggest challenge will most likely be keeping up with all the opportunities!

Check out these blog posts for more:

➡️ Practice Interviewing

Whether you’re a season pro, or brand new to the tech industry: interviewing for a new job is tough! Add to that technical interviews…and you’ve got a recipe for heartburn, practically guaranteed. Luckily there’s an antacid on the market that works every time: practice. Read on for expert guidance on how to prepare for your next tech job interview.

Check out these blog posts for more:

➡️ Prepare for Technical Tests

Ah the dreaded technical test! Technical tests can come in many different forms: whiteboard tests, pair programming tests, take-home tests, algorithmic tests…just to name a few. Luckily, getting good at technical tests is a skill, just like anything else, and it’s one you can absolutely practice ahead of time.

Check out these blog posts for more:

Keep Exploring

You Might Also Be Interested In Learning About:

DevOps
Engineering

While not strictly a “developer” title, DevOps engineers work closely with software development and IT teams to oversee code releases. They might work on infrastructure, automation, CI/CD pipelines, and more.

Learn More

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