Developing in the field.
WHAT ENTRY ROUTES EXIST
Manual testing roles Support roles, moving across Development roles, specialising Domain roles, bringing business knowledge
WHY DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE IS A ROUTE
Understanding the business is harder to acquire than tooling.
WHAT TO LEARN FIRST
Testing fundamentals, properly How to write a clear defect report One application domain
WHAT TO LEARN SECOND
Programming Automation Interfaces and databases
WHAT SPECIALISMS EXIST
Automation engineering Performance testing Security testing Accessibility Test architecture and strategy
WHAT PERFORMANCE AND SECURITY SPECIALISMS OFFER
Scarcity, and higher demand.
WHAT CERTIFICATION PROVIDES
Shared vocabulary, and a credential some employers require.
WHAT IT DOES NOT PROVIDE
Skill.
WHAT TO BUILD TO DEMONSTRATE CAPABILITY
An automation framework, publicly Written analyses of how you approached testing something Contributions to testing tools
WHAT EMPLOYERS ASK ABOUT
How you would test something specific A defect you found and how How you decide what to test
WHAT TO PREPARE
Examples from actual work.
WHAT MATTERS MOST
Demonstrating how you think about risk.