Why QA Engineers Switch To Development
Intro. 🔗
I went through the path of QA Manual -> QA Automation -> Developer. In this article I want to share my thoughts of pros and cons of switching to development.
Have you ever heard of a developer who switched to QA Automation or QA Manual? I have not. However, I still don’t consider the path from QA to Developer as a natural career advancement. These are two different careers and one can go either path. Let’s compare the pros and cons.
Pros of Switching to Development. 🔗
- More interesting tasks.
- Better compensation.
- Can build start-up with development skills.
- More relocation possibilities.
- More skilled peers.
- Never need to help manual QAs.
- If test automation will be done by programs, developers will still stick a few more years :)
- Options of choosing a company.
- Developer can do what QA does but QA can’t do what developer does.
- Less routine.
- More career growth opportunities.
- More independence.
Cons of Switching to Development. 🔗
- More responsibilities.
- More stress/pressure.
- More hours of work.
- More skills to learn.
Myths. 🔗
- Only the best QAs can switch to development.
- Development is the next career step for QAs.
- Developers don’t have routine tasks.
To switch, or not to switch. 🔗
Even though you lose some money, time, go out of comfort zone - it’s still worth it and will pay off later in the future. At any point you can get back to testing, if you don’t like development.
If I would go my career path again, the thing that I would change is - switch to development earlier.
Salaries comparison. 🔗
https://djinni.co/salaries/qa-manual/