Hi,
I work as a software tester since 6 years.
I feel very insecured about what will the future be, because i am still a manual tester.
It is not that i havent tried automation testing.
I reach half the way of learning it, but get distracted by the personal problems and then it gets discontinued.
I am working in the same company since 3 years.
Trying to switch the job since 2 years, but still i fail to do so.
I dont know what path should i go, so that i progress in my career.
Feeling helpless.
Hello Aparna,
Thanks for your question.
It’s not uncommon for us to feel like we get lost in our career path at some points and it’s totally fine for me. I’ve been there by the way. While it sucks when we get lost, but the bright side is that you do care and take your career seriously.
Now, get back to your concerns:
“Where should I go?”. The better question should be “where do you want to go?”…and “why?
Note that it’s not the easy question to answer. To some extent, it’s as hard as the question “where should I go”. What I’m trying to say is that you need to understand what you really want in life, what type of works you like to do every day, what type work that fits your strength, more importantly, what makes you happy.
For example:
If you’re good at coding and you love writing, debugging code but you also do not want to dig deeper like developer, automation test may be the right fit for you.
If you’re good at finding bugs, you are very creative and can think of good test ideas, manual testing may be the right fit for you.
Note: Manual testing not necessary the low level job compared to automation. It’s just a different job with different required skill. If you find it low-level job and you are not getting far with it, it’s likely that you are not doing the job right.
Also note that, you don’t have to pick either path (e.g.: manual or automation). Why don’t you apply automation knowledge to help you test product better?
If testing does not fit you well (either manual, automation or whatever), you may consider to change job if your situation allows. I mean if you are not financially constrained by the job you’re doing, you feel free to change the job or the career you want to follow.
I wrote a post about testing career paths where I introduced some paths you may consider following. You may want to take a look to see if it helps: https://asktester.com/qa-tester-career-paths/
Final thought:
In some case, changing job will give you advancement in your career path but it’s not always true. Changing too frequent and following the trend may hurt you because a little bit here and there won’t take you far. Instead, focusing on your strength and be the best at what you do. Opportunity will find you.
And as usual, easily said than done 😀
I wish you luck.