Contractor-test engineer vs tester

The differences between contractor-test engineers and testers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a contractor-test engineer and a tester. Additionally, a contractor-test engineer has an average salary of $77,879, which is higher than the $65,202 average annual salary of a tester.

The top three skills for a contractor-test engineer include C++, test cases and troubleshoot. The most important skills for a tester are java, test results, and web application.

Contractor-test engineer vs tester overview

	Contractor-Test Engineer	Tester
Yearly salary	$77,879	$65,202
Hourly rate	$37.44	$31.35
Growth rate	5%	-
Number of jobs	46,172	52,595
Job satisfaction	-	5
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 70%	Bachelor's Degree, 46%
Average age	44	44
Years of experience	4	4

Contractor-test engineer vs tester salary

Contractor-test engineers and testers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Contractor-Test Engineer	Tester
Average salary	$77,879	$65,202
Salary range	Between $60,000 And $99,000	Between $42,000 And $99,000
Highest paying City	-	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	-	Maryland
Best paying company	-	Apple
Best paying industry	-	Telecommunication

Differences between contractor-test engineer and tester education

There are a few differences between a contractor-test engineer and a tester in terms of educational background:

	Contractor-Test Engineer	Tester
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 70%	Bachelor's Degree, 46%
Most common major	Electrical Engineering	Computer Science
Most common college	California State University - Long Beach	-

Contractor-test engineer vs tester demographics

Here are the differences between contractor-test engineers' and testers' demographics:

	Contractor-Test Engineer	Tester
Average age	44	44
Gender ratio	Male, 82.2% Female, 17.8%	Male, 63.0% Female, 37.0%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 6.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 12.0% White, 67.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%	Black or African American, 6.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 12.0% White, 67.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%
LGBT Percentage	11%	11%

Differences between contractor-test engineer and tester duties and responsibilities

Contractor-test engineer example responsibilities.

Develop Perl scripts to automate test program cleanup tasks.
Create Perl scripting tool to automate substitution of strings in docx files.
Manage projects including for entire aircraft electrical distribution with respect to EMC requirements and testing.
Develop software tools and test software routines for WiBro/Mobil WiMAX RF measurements, instrument control, and device control.
Install new hardware, used Linux UI commands and debugging tools, run diagnostics, review activity and error logs.
Modify and write UNIX and SQL scripts.

Tester example responsibilities.

Manage requirements and maintain test repository using QC.
Manage departmental inventory and troubleshoot testing, reporting and inventory issues.
Network scanning using tools like NMap and Nessus.
Perform unit testing using Junit for class, method, & web services testing.
Perform functionality testing, UI testing, integration testing, regression testing, system testing and browser compatibility testing.
Analyze new test cases or test cases from regression test suites store in ALM to pick the automation candidates.

Contractor-test engineer vs tester skills

Common contractor-test engineer skills

C++, 13%
Test Cases, 8%
Troubleshoot, 8%
Python, 7%
QA, 5%
Test Data, 4%

Common tester skills

Java, 10%
Test Results, 5%
Web Application, 4%
Test Scripts, 4%
QA, 4%
Regression, 4%