The Top 5 Skills for Future Software Testers

The software field grows every year, and so do all of the individual facets it contains. We can personally attest that software testing companies are expanding, looking for talented folks interested in pursuing a career in testing and QA. That’s why we just published a QA jobs website , to help guide those who are interested in joining us here at the US’s largest software testing company. Careers in this industry are satisfying and fast-paced, but they aren’t for everyone; here on the QualiTest Blog we decided to look at the top 5 skills for future software testers today.

A software tester’s biggest job is to mentally get inside a system, figure out what makes it work, and come up with interesting ways to “break” it.

1. Logic and analytics – any career in the tech field will need this one; figuring out how things work correctly and independently is a godsend to software-related teamwork, as it means you’re likely to come to the right conclusions with little to no handholding.
2. Communication – It’s by far the most important skill for software testers old and new, as without it, testers have no idea what they’re supposed to be doing, and stakeholders have no idea what’s going on with their project.
3. Creativity/ability to think outside the box – a software tester’s biggest job is to mentally get inside a system, figure out what makes it work, and come up with interesting ways to “break” it.
4. Understanding of business processes – similar to the above, this skill allows you to better understand a system, and how can you test the functionality of a system you don’t understand?
5. Some amount of technical understanding – your employer won’t expect you to be their new IT admin, but you should have some basic understanding of how the program you’re testing works, and how the hardware you’re using to do so works as well.

If you have these five skills, congratulations! You’ll probably be an awesome software tester (and you’d also be great at a bunch of other careers in IT/technology). If you don’t, you’ll definitely be at a slight disadvantage, but most of them can be picked up with a bit of hard work. The best thing about these skills is that they don’t necessarily require prior hands-on experience in software development or testing; sure, the only real way to learn to test is by actually testing, but the above skills can be sharped from just about anything – college schoolwork, part time jobs, or experimenting with technology in your own free time. Software testing is great like that.

Source: http://www.qualitestgroup.com/blog/test-methodologies-and-philosophies/top-5-skills-future-software-testers/