Lateral entry into software testing means entering the profession without an IT background through structured training. The best way to get started is through an internship or a training program followed by a permanent position. Certificates alone are not enough. Communication skills, curiosity and the willingness to ask a lot of questions are important prerequisites.
Key Takeaways
- Certificates and courses alone are not enough to start a career as a software tester: according to Isabelle Chariot’s observations, you won’t find a job without demonstrable practical experience, for example through an internship.
- Communication skills from non-specialist professions are a real advantage in software testing, because testers have to actively question unclear requirements and ask fundamental questions that others don’t even notice.
- Lateral entry into software testing is easier via structured support programs that combine training and employment than via the traditional route of a long course of study.
- Software testing is not a homogeneous profession: what testers do on a daily basis differs considerably from company to company, which is why job descriptions from a single position should not be generalized.
Lateral entry into testing: a path without an IT past
Software testing can be learned without a traditional IT background. Isabelle Chariot came from an online communications background and now works as a software tester in the insurance sector. Her path shows that professional experience from a completely different field can be useful in quality assurance.
Before switching, she worked at the French embassy in Vienna for over ten years in online communication. The job was interesting, but offered few opportunities for further development. The question of how she wanted to spend the remaining years until retirement was the impetus for the change.
An educational leave in the direction of digital marketing and data management brought her into contact with technical topics such as databases for the first time. This content appealed to her. This gave rise to the idea of going into IT, without knowing exactly which direction to take.
What many people think about testing and why it’s wrong
If you don’t know testing, it’s easy to underestimate it as pure trial and error. Isabelle had never heard of the profession before her training and imagined that testers play all day. This idea does not match the reality of the work.
A more apt analogy is untying knots. Isabelle describes a moment by the sea when children kept bringing her knotted fishing lines. She transferred the urge to untangle this line from beginning to end to testing: untangling structures, step by step, until everything unravels.
Testing has something of the solving of a puzzle. This appeal, combined with the prospect of contributing her own strengths, made the job attractive to her.
Which skills from another profession can be used in testing
Communication skills are the bridge between many previous professions and testing. Isabelle had to talk to different people at the embassy, understand their interests and get to the heart of what they actually meant. This is exactly the skill you need when requirements are unclear and you need to ask questions.
In addition, she has a tendency to look at things closely and analyze the what, how, where and why. This analytical attitude was hardly in demand in her old job, but is key in testing.
Part of the testing work consists of clarifying with developers what they were thinking when implementing a requirement. Those who like to talk and ask questions have an advantage here.
Why newcomers ask the most valuable questions
A lack of prior knowledge is not only a disadvantage in testing, but sometimes an advantage. A newcomer asks the basic questions that others have long since stopped thinking about. It is precisely these questions that uncover gaps.
You really do ask the stupidest question there is, not out of trickery, but because you want to understand. And then come the fundamental questions that nobody had thought about before.
- Isabelle Chariot
This added value is concrete. If you want to write good test cases, you have to understand what a requirement means. A catalog of questions that names ambiguities and asks for explanations improves the test basis, precisely because requirements are often incompletely formulated or missing altogether.
What the introduction can look like in concrete terms
A combined model of training and a job significantly lowers the barrier to entry. In Vienna, Isabelle took advantage of a support program from the Vienna Employee Support Fund called “Job plus Training”. A company financed the training with the intention of hiring her permanently afterwards.
The training lasted one year and was divided into three parts:
| phase | content |
|---|---|
| Theory at the university of applied sciences | Fundamentals of programming, software development life cycle |
| Practice in the company | Internship at the company that financed the training |
| Consolidation and certificates | Gain practical experience, obtain certificates |
The certificates she gained included ISTQB, Requirements Engineering, DevOps, Scrum Master and Product Owner. After completing her training, she was taken on and has been working at the company ever since. The transition from internship to permanent position was seamless because the internship was geared towards her future job.
What the day-to-day work of a junior tester involves
The term software tester means something different depending on the job. Today, Isabelle does black box testing of backend systems in the insurance sector. Different applications are tested in different frameworks.
Test automation makes up the majority of her work. She operates software that was built to automate tests without knowing in detail what is technically behind it.
Automation does not replace thinking. Even an automated test only checks what it has been given. Testing is done primarily with the mind. In addition to automation, there is also exploratory testing of new features, which Isabelle describes as a separate, mental activity.
The playing field in testing is large
Career changers often start in technical testing and develop from there. Typically, they start with black box testing, system testing or acceptance testing. From there, paths lead to more technical testing, infrastructure, quality engineering or test automation.
Isabelle classifies her current position as junior and sees potential for development. The job is what she imagined, but she is not yet where she wants to be. Experience can only be gained through time and action.
She finds more technical tasks within testing appealing. Not every area has to interest you. She doesn’t want to deal with hardware for the foreseeable future, and that’s acceptable in testing.
Testers need breadth, not depth everywhere
In testing, you need knowledge of many areas, but only real depth in some of them. Some things can remain on the surface. Many topics can be approached with a healthy half-knowledge, as long as you know exactly where you need to be.
Where knowledge is lacking, a simple rule helps: ask questions or keep quiet. Asking is always possible and should always be possible. This attitude protects against fake knowledge and keeps the learning curve open.
The switch to testing is challenging. It’s a lot at once, every company explains things differently and the field is constantly changing. You shouldn’t be impressed by this.
Why certificates alone won’t get you a job
Courses and certificates are not enough to get you started. Isabelle’s clear observation from her network of career changers: if you only collect certificates, you usually won’t find a job. That’s the bitter reality.
What makes the difference is practical experience, preferably in the form of an internship or traineeship. Only proof of having applied what you have learned in a company makes the certificates usable. Without this practical part, entry rarely works, except in the case of luck.
For all those who are toying with the idea, there is a sequence: first talk to several people who work in testing and find out what the work feels like. Then specifically look for an opportunity for practical experience instead of just stringing courses together.
