Article Directory
background
If 2020 is a great challenge for the whole world; then, 2021 is definitely a year with plenty of opportunities. As we all know, as the epidemic is gradually brought under global control, both the international and domestic environments will show a gradual upward trend, and opportunities in various industries will also emerge. So, how will the software testing industry change in 2021?
Has the industry become saturated? If it is saturated, how will industry practitioners break the situation? If it is not saturated, what kind of person is suitable to enter this industry? Today, we will talk about the 7 major trends in the software testing industry in 2021 on these issues. I hope to resolve the confusion in the hearts of some of my friends.
1. What is the prospect of the software testing industry?
1) Subjective feelings The reason why so many people worry about this problem is mainly because many friends who want to change careers, after hearing other people's words, do not know the truth, and can only search the Internet for "the future of the software testing industry". Class keywords to understand the problem. However, when you search for these problems on the Internet, there is generally only one result, which is to belittle the software testing industry and say that the software testing industry has no future. Such remarks may be more in the forum, because the person expressing such remarks may be someone who has just started or has not yet fully started. They are under pressure from work or their own ability is not strong, so they will post complaints. The website forum is the place where "heroes cherish each other's hearts", so such a scene is inevitable. And when some people say that the software testing industry has a good prospect, because you have seen a lot of negative comments before, so the positive ones are not willing to believe it. This is human nature. It is the same as 1W+ praise in Taobao shops, and not as great as a negative review on the shop. It is the same reason. Therefore, in order to describe objectively, we use data to speak. After all, cold numbers are not mixed with emotions.
2) Below the objective reality, let's take a look at whether the software testing industry has any prospects. Let's look at the first set of data.
01. Junior test engineer
年薪约在4-7万元左右。他们的工作通常是按照测试方案和流程对产品进行功能测试，检查产品是否有缺陷。具有一些手工测试经验，开发测试脚本并开始熟悉测试生存周期和测试技术。
02. Intermediate test engineer
年薪约在7-12万元左右。他们要能够编写测试方案，测试文档、与项目组一起制定测试阶段的工作计划。能够在项目中合理利用测试工具来完成测试任务。能够独立编写自动测试脚本程序并担任测试编程初期的领导工作，进一步拓展编程语言、操作系统、网络与数据库方面的技能。
03, senior test engineer
年薪约12-18万元左右。他们不但需要掌握测试与开发技术，而且对所测试软件对口的行业非常了解，能够对测试方案可能出现的问题能够进行分析和评估。帮助开发或维护测试或编程标准与过程，负责同级的评审，并能够指导初级的测试工程师。
04, Team Leader (Test Supervisor)
年薪在18+万，一般具有5年左右工作经验，负责管理一个小团队。负责进度安排、工作规模/成本估算、按进度表和预算目标交付产品，负责开发项目的技术方法，能够为用户提供支持与演示。
05, test manager
年薪在22+万，能够担当测试领域内的整个开发生存周期业务，能够为用户提供交互和大量演示，负责项目成本、进度安排、计划和人员分工。
Judging from the average salary of software testing practitioners across the country, under the influence of the epidemic, the salary of the software testing industry is still showing a trend of increasing year by year. In 2020, it has increased by 13%, steadily ahead of many industries. Judging from the data, I don’t have to say anything about the prospects of the software testing industry.
2. Is the software testing industry saturated?
Then the previous topic said, if you often see some pessimistic tunes on the Internet: testing jobs are hard to find, the industry is saturated, the requirements are high, and so on. It is estimated that this kind of argument is a "competitor" who has recently entered the industry or has weak business or technical capabilities, and low-sightedness. So, is there a big talent gap in the software testing industry? In fact, the talent gap in the testing industry is still very large. If you skip the forum and post it and go directly to the major recruitment websites, you will know if I am right. I guess, some students would definitely want to ask: "Since the gap is large, why are so many people unable to find a suitable job? Or can't find a job with the expected salary?" The author believes that the key to the problem lies in the fact that Do you belong to the person the company wants to recruit. Throughout the past few years, the requirements for software testing practitioners on major recruitment websites have been increasing year by year. Understanding software engineering theory, bug tracking management, test-related document writing, environment construction, and database are all basics, and more also require a programming foundation, master the use of mainstream testing tools, and preferably have actual project experience. For applicants, especially those who have just graduated from university, if you have not had the corresponding practical experience during the university, it is indeed relatively unconvincing if you want to apply successfully. In fact, it is understandable that companies also want to recruit a comprehensive talent with a wide range of skills, strong learning ability, experience and self-motivated. Therefore, if you really can’t meet the corresponding application standards, I think the most you should do is not to complain, not to go to the forum to talk about the saturation of the software testing industry, but to be steadfast, learn technology again, and start again. . Even in the worst case, the industry does have a trend of saturation, and it is certainly saturated at the most basic level. Anyone can do the work. Once they have certain survival skills, they will never be easily saturated. Just imagine, which industry is not the survival of the fittest? Which industry does not have the ability to live in? If your technique is hard enough, then others will always be saturated.
3. What is the status quo of the software testing industry?
So, when a company is recruiting, what kind of testing skills can its small partners more easily gain the favor of the company? In other words, what skills do you possess that are the "seed players" that companies must hire first? In fact, looking at the world, as long as you pay attention to the boundaries and trends of technological development in the industry, you can easily understand which types of talents are more important to companies nowadays when recruiting talents. Next, let's get to know it together.
Employment competition is small : According to data from 51job.com, among the 1.2 million software practitioners in China, no more than 50,000 can actually take up software testing positions. The talent gap has reached 200,000 and has a tendency to expand year by year. The extreme shortage of talents makes many IT companies have to delay or even stop their projects, which has a negative impact on the development of enterprises, but it has a positive significance for the employment of talents. The shortage of talents makes the employment competition pressure of software testers significantly less than that of other occupations of the same kind, which is beneficial to the physical and mental health of practitioners. In addition, due to the late start of software testing in our country, most of the large and medium-sized IT companies that have set up independent testing departments and have strong demand for testers are highly discerning large and medium-sized IT companies. Software testing talents do not need to accumulate experience in small companies to obtain entry passes to well-known companies, and their starting point is higher than other professions of the same kind.
High salary not discussed : In order to attract more talents, companies have adopted high salary strategies. Software testers who have just entered the industry have a starting monthly salary of around 3000-6000 yuan, which is much higher than the salary level of 1000-2000 yuan for their peers, working 2-3 Years later, the salary is doubled.
Diversified development : Compared with other IT positions, the biggest advantage of software testers is the diversification of development directions. Due to the particularity of the work, testers not only need to test the quality of the software, but also involve in the establishment, management, pre-sales and after-sales fields of the software project. In this process, testers not only improve their professional software testing skills, but also have access to all walks of life. Project management, communication and coordination, market demand analysis and other abilities can all be well exercised, thus contributing to their diversified development. Foundation. Talents who have been baptized in software testing positions are often generalists in the industry. They are more malleable than other IT talents and can develop well in technology, management, marketing and even other non-IT fields.
No gender discrimination : If the software development field is compared to men's singles, then the software testing field is mixed doubles. Due to the special nature of their work, software testers often prefer to be serious, patient, meticulous, sensitive, and other personality elements, which to a certain extent are consistent with the personality of women. It is understood that at present, the proportion of software testers in many IT companies is becoming more balanced, and there is even a situation where female employees become the mainstream.
These characteristics of the testing profession have attracted the attention of many software talents. Looking forward to 2021, software testing talents will show the following development trends:
1. The demand for intermediate and senior software testing talents has further increased
It is learned from many corporate HRs that the current difficulty in recruiting is mainly senior test engineers, that is, mid- to high-end talents in software testing positions. This is not difficult to see from the recruitment positions and requirements of some well-known companies.
For example, Microsoft China Recruitment: Software test development engineer supervisor, requires more than 4 years of test-related work experience. Many companies are required to have more than 2 years of test-related experience in recruiting software test engineers, and mid-to-high-end positions require at least 3 years of work experience.
2. Improved ability requirements
Faced with such a large demand for talents, companies still have choices to find suitable employees. Those with a strong spirit of exploration, patience, care, responsibility, good communication skills, strong logical thinking and learning skills, Those who have solid basic computer knowledge, comprehensive business knowledge and high testing skills, and who have an understanding and love for software testing are the talents that companies really need.
3. Junior engineers have great potential to rise
According to the survey, software testing practitioners with 1-3 years of work experience accounted for 45% of the total, followed by newcomers who worked within one year, accounting for 39% of the total, and work experience within three years accounting for 84% of the total. Only 16% of the practitioners have been tested for more than three years.
Since software testing has only received attention from the domestic IT industry in recent years, testing talents with more than three years of work experience are relatively scarce. Therefore, some companies often require three years of work experience. It is unrealistic to recruit enough talents. Most of the professional development stage of software testing practitioners is at the junior level. Junior test engineers and test engineers account for 74%. In addition, 11% of software testing practitioners are test team leaders, and senior test engineers account for only 5%. This on the one hand reflects the pyramid-shaped talent structure that exists in every industry, and on the other hand, it also reflects the industry’s need to strengthen the training of software testing talents.
The birth years of software testing practitioners were concentrated in the 1980s, with 81% of them born in the 1970s, 18% of those who were born in the 1970s, and only 1% of software testing practitioners in the 1960s. Software testing is an emerging profession. Newcomers who were born in the 1980s are the main force in this work. Due to the lack of experienced testers, these newcomers have a huge career development space.
Software testing started relatively late in China, and most of the software testing practitioners are still in the initial stage of the workplace, indicating that there is a relatively broad career development space in this field.
4. Obviously refined test areas
Many software tests are aimed at a specific industry or field. Therefore, mastering the professional knowledge in this field is also very important. And with the continuous growth of project experience and in-depth understanding of the industry background, software testing practitioners will become more popular as they grow older.
According to survey data, 51% of software testing practitioners are engaged in manual functional testing, followed by test case design, with a proportion of 16%. The proportion of practitioners engaged in test management, functional automation testing, and performance testing is comparable.
66% of software testing practitioners are concerned about the business knowledge of the application software industry, followed by telecommunications/Internet services, with 42%, software outsourcing, typical industries (finance, banking, insurance, etc.), telecommunications/Internet systems and equipment The proportions are 31%, 24% and 24%, respectively. The degree of software testing practitioners is concentrated in undergraduates, with a proportion of 70%, followed by a college degree, with a proportion of 23%. Those with a high degree of education (including masters and doctors) account for 6%, 1% of those below college degree.
5. Professional training institutions are more popular
Software testing actually runs through the entire software project, from requirement analysis, function point coverage, system analysis, code development, to the final test and acceptance. Therefore, software testers must have rigorous logical thinking ability, comprehensive technical ability, strong sense of responsibility and teamwork spirit, and excellent communication skills and other professional qualities. These qualities need to go through special training before they can be possessed.
At present, there are three main types of training institutions for software testing talents in China: enterprises, colleges and universities, and IT training institutions. Most of the talents cultivated by enterprises are software developers who have explored themselves through participating in the project. Due to the lack of a comprehensive understanding of software testing, they need to be further improved in terms of testing ideas, skills, ways of thinking, and communication skills. The talents cultivated by colleges and universities possess certain theoretical knowledge, but their hands-on ability are poor. They need to be trained after entering the enterprise and cannot be employed immediately. Training institutions can make up for the shortcomings of the first two methods, and allow students to systematically improve the professional qualities of software test engineers through theoretical explanations, computer operations, case discussions, and project practice. In the future, more and more students from universities and even key colleges will participate in IT training, which will gradually improve the comprehensive quality of software testing talents provided to the IT industry.
It is precisely because of the development and problems in the field of software testing in China that the state promulgated relevant policies in a timely manner, requesting to vigorously cultivate software testing talents. In the No. 124 document jointly issued by the Ministry of Information Industry and other five ministries and commissions, it is clearly pointed out that: "Accelerate the training of software testing talents and carry out research on software evaluation technology... to form a software evaluation system guided by the government, participating in the society, and effective supervision and management. "As an important base for the training of software testing talents, professional training institutions will rapidly rise to scale with their professional training systems and sensitive market insights, and deliver more outstanding talents to the software industry in our country.
4. Finally
In fact, even if you don't have unique insights in a certain field, or more in-depth research, it doesn't matter. If you want to gain more grounding than others in 2021, there is another way, that is, to achieve the ultimate test content in your own hands. For example, if you can only test manually, then take this professional skill to the extreme. If you can be proficient in manual testing, then you will have more opportunities to enter a better platform to highlight your advantages. Of course, once you enter the big factory, you still need to develop new skills. After all, no skill can last a lifetime. Of course, this is the main reason why many companies are increasingly picky about practitioners who only have manual testing capabilities. Just imagine that if you are not proficient in just one skill, it is hard enough for such a person to be recruited into the company, let alone get a high salary.
Everyone can join the group exchange ( 644956177 ), which has various software testing resources and technical exchanges.
Come on, tester! Regardless of the wind and rain, as long as you keep going and don't give up, the road in the distance will eventually be clear. The road is at your feet, and success is tomorrow!
You in the future will definitely thank yourself for your hard work now!