Introduction

While learning software development in the past 10 years, I have seen how software testing has slowly become a necessary part of the SDLC. Without testing software from an end user's perspective, we don't deploy them in the market.

Whether you are developing a mobile application or software, you need software testing that reports to developers about all the bugs and issues within the system, such as functional bugs, compatibility and syntax errors, security bugs, etc.

As a beginner, you might not know what career path awaits you after completing a software testing course, your job and salary scope, required skills, responsibilities, etc. This guide will help you know the software testing career paths in 2024.

Is Software testing a good career path in 2024?

Yes, software testing is a good career path in 2024, as the demand for software testers won't fall anytime soon. There are multiple job opportunities available after completing a reputed software testing course, which offers competitive salaries and job security.

1. Increasing popularity of software testing

The software testing market size has increased in the last few years. Some of its growth drivers include digital transformation and a shift towards cloud-based testing, the adoption of Agile and DevOps methodologies, an increase in the use of mobile and web applications, and the need for secured software with the rise in security threats.

According to Coherent Market Insights, the global software testing and QA services market value is estimated to rise up to $90.39 billion by 2030 from its value of $38.42 billion in 2023. Its market value is growing at a CAGR of 14% from 2023 to 2030, offering software testers to prosper in this domain. 

The graph below, from Google trends data, illustrates the search demand for the term “software tester” in the past five years in India and globally.

1. Attractive salary scope for software testers

Though software testers aren't paid as high as developers, they receive a decent pay. In most cases what I have seen is, these testers start with a low salary but gradually the salary rises with upskilling and work experience. An early stage software tester job can offer you less pay checks, but the scenario is different for senior software testers, test managers, SDET engineers, etc.

The average annual salary of software testers in the United States is between $57T - $1L.

Below is the average salary of a software tester in different cities in the US.

City	Software tester annual base pay salary
Boston, Massachusetts	$76T - $1L
NewYork City, New York	$77T - $1L
California	$75T - $1L
Chicago, Illinois	$58T - $1L
Virginia	$72T - $1L
Lansing, Michigan	$66T - $1L
Huntsville, Alabama	$63T - $98T
Ohio	$52T - $90T
Indiana	$53T - $85T
Nebraska	$77T - $99T

The average annual salary of a software tester in India is ₹4.7L.

Below is the average salary of a software tester in different cities in India.

City	Average annual software tester salary
Bangalore	₹2.0L - ₹8.0L
Hyderabad	₹2.0L - ₹7.7L
Noida	₹1.8L - ₹7.0L
Pune	₹1.2L - ₹6.5L
Mumbai	₹1.5L - ₹6.6L
Vijayawada	₹1.8L - ₹8.7L

A Trainee software tester salary in India can earn around ₹1.0L - ₹3.4L per year. However, with 1-5 years of experience, your salary can grow up to ₹6.8 LPA, while a senior software trainer with 9 years of experience can make up to ₹14.5 LPA.

If you want to learn about software testing, you can enroll in one-on-one classroom programs to get practical learning experience. 

For example, Codegnan offers software testing courses in Bangalore that offers hands-on project learning and placement assistance to students.

1. Software testing job availability

Finding a software testing job is comparatively easy, as every software development company, from startups to top MNCs, requires software testers to develop high-quality, bug-free software. So, you have a high chance of landing a trainee or early-stage software testing job immediately after completing your software testing course. 

While we were looking for some software testing vacancies in India, we found nearly 57,000+ job vacancies on LinkedIn. 

Additionally, on Glassdoor, we found 23,000+ software testing job vacancies in the United states. This indicates job opportunities for software testers are high. 

Software testing Career Paths in 2024

• Associate software tester

An associate software tester is an entry-level job position you can apply for immediately after completing any software testing course. These people usually work in a team under the mentorship of seniors in the domain. Their primary task involved manual testing, regression testing, and assisting in the development and execution of multiple test plans. It is the time when they can acquire a proper understanding of software development and testing processes.

Years of experience required: 0-2 years

Role type: Entry level 

Average annual salary: ₹3.8 LPA in India, $82,285 in the United States 

Job responsibilities:

1. Test Planning: Collaborate with the development team to understand project requirements and develop comprehensive test plans
2. Test Execution: Conduct manual and automated testing to identify defects and ensure the quality of software applications
3. Bug Reporting: Document and report bugs and issues, providing detailed information to assist the development team in resolving them
4. Test Documentation: Create and maintain test cases, test scripts, and test data
5. Regression Testing: Perform regression testing to ensure that new code changes do not negatively impact existing functionalities
6. Collaboration: Work closely with developers, product managers, and other stakeholders to ensure smooth project delivery
7. Continuous Improvement: Participate in reviews and provide feedback to improve testing processes and practices

Key skills required:

1. Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field
2. Experience: 0-2 years of experience in software testing, preferably in web and mobile application testing
3. Skills:

• Familiarity with testing methodologies and tools
• Experience with manual and automated testing
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Attention to detail and a commitment to quality
• Good communication skills and the ability to work in a team environment

1. Technical Knowledge: Basic understanding of programming languages and software development lifecycle
2. Preferred: Knowledge of testing automation tools like Playwright, Selenium, or similar

• Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)

This role is especially for people who want to work closely with development teams and participate in the entire software development lifecycle, from requirement gathering to software deployment. These professionals are responsible for developing and maintaining automated test frameworks, testing scripts, and tools to ensure the quality of software.

Years of experience required: 1-3 years

Role type: Entry level 

Average annual salary: ₹13.6 LPA in India, $1,69,229 per year in the United States

Job responsibilities:

1. Create, maintain, and execute test specifications and test cases 
2. Perform integrity and regression testing using a combination of manual and automated techniques 
3. Writing and executing automated tests for new features 
4. Follow, Identify and implement best practices/opportunities to improve the QA process 
5. Work with Engineering and Product teams to identify high-impact issues

Key skills required:

1. 1- 3 years of experience writing automated tests using automation frameworks and tools, such as Selenium, Appium and Qtest, is preferred.
2. Ability to learn NodeJS and Ruby quickly
3. Knowledge of general QA procedures and methodologies, as well as software development fundamentals
4. Comfortable working in a fast-paced, constantly changing atmosphere
5. Bachelor's degree in a technical field preferred

• QA Analyst

QA Analyst is a mid-senior level job role where a professional is responsible for ensuring the quality and reliability of software or applications using necessary tools, systems, and processes. They not only identify software bugs and issues that need to be corrected by the development team but also make necessary suggestions to prevent these bugs in future products. 

Years of experience required: 3-4 years 

Role type: Mid-senior level

Average annual salary: ₹6.4 LPA in India, $86,391 in the US

Job responsibilities:

1. Drive quality across all disciplines, providing guidance, feedback, and suggestions to improve quality practices across the engineering organisation
2. Plan and coordinate testing activities, thoroughly identifying and documenting bugs
3. Collaborate with Engineering and Business Analysts to identify system requirements
4. Collaborate cross-functionally with different teams to identify their testing needs and design/implement a solution
5. Maintain relevant knowledge about new testing tools and test strategies

Key skills required:

1. At least 3 years of relevant experience in Software Quality Assurance both on Frontend and API testing
2. Experience with a variety of different testing techniques such as Manual Testing, Automated Testing, etc
3. A strong sense of pride in the quality of your work and embracing ownership
4. An obsession for customer experience

• Senior test engineer

A senior software test engineer is an experienced professional who has mastered the software development life cycle and is capable of leading a team and managing testing activities within an organisation. These professionals have extensive knowledge of different testing methodologies, automated testing tools, and best practices to create and implement different test strategies, design complex test cases, and supervise the execution of manual and automatic tests.

Years of experience required: 3-6 years

Role type: Senior level 

Average annual salary: ₹10.6 LPA in India, $1 LPA in US

Job responsibilities:

1. Utilise or develop automation tools or scripts to improve product and engineering health.
2. Develop test plans based on Product test strategy and conduct test plan reviews with engineers within one or multiple teams.
3. Define the test framework, test preconditions, and other test control and reporting functions to enable others to test functionality.
4. Improve test infrastructure or create new test infrastructure to increase efficiency and productivity in test case development, scheduling, or deployment.
5. Participate in product design reviews with product managers, software/hardware engineers, and other stakeholders to contribute to product design, testability, and implementation.

Key skills required:

1. Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
2. 3 years of experience in specialised testing such as production testing, system integration testing, etc.
3. 1 year of experience working in a changing organisation.
4. Experience with software development in one or more general-purpose programming languages.

• Test Automation Architect

After acquiring a few years of experience in manual and automation testing, you can apply for a test automation architect position. This is a senior-level job position that requires a professional to work closely with development teams and ensure that the software is thoroughly tested and meets quality standards. They are primarily responsible for selecting appropriate software testing tools and technology, defining testing processes and best practices, creating scalable and maintainable automation frameworks, and mentoring other junior team members on automation techniques.

Years of experience required: 4-8+ years

Role type: Senior Level

Average annual salary: ₹22.6 LPA in India, $1,72,890 per year in the United States

Job responsibilities:

1. Promote QA productivity through automation, tools, and other best practices.
2. Lead and drive Transformations in QA Space
3. Lead the definition, implementation, and maintenance of standard test automation processes, methodologies, tools and templates.
4. Work with teams on the automation Strategy and the Tool Kit Selection
5. Work with the team to educate them on the Git standard process and enhance the code review process.
6. Assist in ongoing process improvement efforts to ensure test planning, execution, and reporting are effective and efficient.
7. Do Code reviews and verify coding standards are being met.
8. Work with peer discipline leads in Development, QA, and Project Management
9. Able to shadow developers and document the test Plan, test scripts, test scenarios, etc
10. Assess the problem statement and arrive at innovative solutions.
11. Mentor junior and senior software quality engineers.

Key skills required

1. Proficient in Selenium and Python/Java. Automating QA for web apps on Selenium with Python/Javascript. Developing Selenium automation framework from scratch. Experience in Windows GUI automation and API automation.
2. Experience in BDD with Features - Step Definition, Behave, Pom.xml, Test runner, Hooks, log4j, environment properties, selenium support functions, webdriver utilities, page implementation, page object model.
3. At least 8+ years of experience in Automation with at least 4+ years of experience in Automation Architect role
4. Experience in creating Test automation strategy & Road map, Capacity Planning
5. Contribute to the design & architecture of automation projects.
6. Excellent knowledge of Building and creating & maintaining Test Automation Frameworks
7. Experience in implementing DevOps and integrate CT pipeline with CI/CD
8. Should have very strong analytical skills and should be able to see the test automation architecture as a whole system and not as individual components and should be able to drive to benefit from its contents for future usage.
9. Agile/Lean methodologies experience
10. Hands-on experience in Mobile testing, mobile automation
11. Knowledge of NFT testing

• Principal software engineer

A principal software engineer is a senior-level job position where professionals are responsible for leading and maintaining a team of software engineers, making technical decisions, and working on the overall software architecture and design. They assist team members in designing, testing, and documenting high-quality test specifications and demonstrate best practices in functional and automated testing.

Years of experience required: 4-7 years

Role type: Senior level 

Average annual salary: ₹30.1 LPA in India, $3,03,504 in United States 

Job responsibilities:

1. Work collaboratively with team members to design, develop, test, and document high-quality test specifications.
2. Demonstrates best practices in functional and automated testing.
3. Provide technical assistance to advance the capabilities of products and resolve issues.
4. Leverage your advanced knowledge to identify, investigate, and report product defects.
5. Ability to collaborate with the Product Owner to understand use cases and effectively design a solution to satisfy use cases.
6. Ability to work across teams and communicate priorities effectively.
7. Ability to provide constructive feedback during code reviews, retrospectives, design reviews, etc.
8. Ability to serve as a representative of the team working with stakeholders.
9. Guide team members on test planning, test execution, and test automation technologies
10. Strong desire for product quality and understanding of test strategy and methodology; ability to communicate test strategy effectively across teams.
11. Should be able to mentor new team members or interns as part of onboarding.

Key skills required:

1. Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related technical discipline / BE/B. Tech or Equivalent
2. 4-7 years of experience developing test plans from use cases
3. Practical knowledge of software testing best practices
4. Software test experience with Java, Selenium, TestNG, or other technologies
5. Exposure to Windows and Linux operating systems
6. Experience in testing mobile applications, web applications, UI, applets, client/server, portals, or warehousing
7. Experience testing RESTful/SOAP APIs
8. Troubleshooting, debugging, and reverse-engineering skills.
9. Experience with modern scripting languages (Shell, Python, Perl) will be an added advantage.
10. Agile/Scrum development methodology experience

Skills and Prerequisites to be a Software testers

• Knowledge of software development life cycle

If you don't know how a software is developed you cannot evaluate the complexity in the application and take proper measures. This makes having an in-depth knowledge of software development life cycle important for software testers. With that, you must also learn different development methodology including from scrum, kanban, and waterfall models. 

• Programming languages

Software testers don't require in-depth programming knowledge like developers but they need to understand the functionality to develop test cases. If you have knowledge in Java, you must choose a project working on that particular language. It will help you understand errors in code and communicate with the developers. However, you can software testing genre that doesn't require programming skills like manual testing, ETL, RPA, Salesforce testing, etc. 

• Basic SQL knowledge 

Software testers need to ensure data integrity at different stages of software development, and having basic knowledge of SQL help them directly query the database and verify the test data. It will mainly help  you in data manipulation, analyzing database performance and designing better test cases. 

• Automation testing

Manual testing on one hand is essential for software testers, but with digitisation use of automated tools is necessary as well. This makes learning automation testing important for software testers. It ensures AI won't take away your job but help you in improving your testing outcomes. Automation testing offers faster feedback timing, enhanced accuracy, eliminating the chance of manual errors, reduced business expenses, etc. You will be required to learn certain tools for automated testing like Selenium, Cypress, Apache JMeter, RFT, Appium, etc. 

Having in depth knowledge with test management tools help to efficiently organize, track, and report on multiple test activities. 

• Agile software development

Software testers in 2024 need to learn agile software development principles because companies are looking for more customer-centric product development where you are continuously in contact with customers, seeking regular feedback, and making changes to the software accordingly. Agile testing aligns with iterative or waterfall software development models in which requirements are developed gradually from customers and testing teams. Companies are looking for testers who can help with software testing throughout the sprint who can provide early feedback, and reduce costly bug fixing at the end of SDLC. You must learn using certain agile testing tools like Selenium WebDriver, JIRA, Appium, etc. 

• Basic Linux command

Whether you are working as a manual tester or an automatic test Linux command is used. These commands can be for multiple purposes like moving a file from one folder to another, transferring folders between machines, finding the IP address of a machine, install/uninstall applications, take backup of logs or other files, etc. Most companies keep their application on a Unix or Linux machine as they are reliable and secured, and they expect testers to know different Linux commands for completing multiple tasks.

Learn basic Linux commands for software testers

• API testing 

Understanding the concept of API testing for software testers is essential. It gives you the knowledge on how to test the functionalities of an API module. For example, if your website is having a login page, API testing ensures the login functions work properly. Additionally, you can do integration verification on your website. Take a case, for logging into a website you need to register yourself. This means the registration and the login pages must be integrated. API testing ensures that the developer didn't miss any of these integrations. With API testing you can also do error handling, ensuring data integrity, and website reliability. A few tools that you must know for API testing includes Postman, JMeter, RestAssured, SoapUI, etc.

• Efficient Reporting 

Besides testing , these professionals are responsible to create test reports that effectively speak about the bugs and defects found in a software to the software developers. Based on their findings, the development team will rework on the project to develop a high quality product. 

Other software testing skills for 2024:

• Security testing 
• Cross platform testing 
• Use of bug tracking tools (JIRA, Bugzilla)
• Deploying cloud services (AWS, Azure)
• Version control system (Git)

Will AI replace Software testers?

No, AI will not replace software testers but will improve their workflow and efficiency. Or we can say AI will change the roles and responsibilities of software testers in future. 

AI can streamline the test case generation process, improve test case execution and help manual testers evaluate large datasets for better test case analysis. However, there are multiple limitations of AI. For example, AI learns from historic data so working on new software threats can be difficult. Additionally, AI cannot evaluate GUI and requires software tester’s perception and judgment. 

So, you need to remember three things,

1. Al cannot make judgments like a human. They don't have critical thinking ability, and creativity skills.
2. Someone needs to instruct AI function and they will verify if the results are accurate and reliable 
3. AI feeds on past data, how are they going to deal with new software vulnerabilities?

While we questioned the experts on Reddit about “Will AI replace QA” we found a few funny responses. 

If you are still worried about AI replacing software testers, upskill yourself with the upcoming trends in the software testing domain. 

Final takeaways

Software testing is a good career option for people willing to enter the IT domain or have a knack for finding errors in software. They can work beside the development team throughout the SDLC. I hope this guide gives you a basic understanding of the software testing career path in 2024. If you find this domain enticing, you can enrol in a software testing course at a reputable institution.