Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between junior testers and quality assurance engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a junior tester and a quality assurance engineer. Additionally, a quality assurance engineer has an average salary of $82,215, which is higher than the $70,002 average annual salary of a junior tester.
The top three skills for a junior tester include test results, test scripts and manual test cases. The most important skills for a quality assurance engineer are java, python, and regression.
| Junior Tester | Quality Assurance Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $70,002 | $82,215 |
| Hourly rate | $33.65 | $39.53 |
| Growth rate | - | - |
| Number of jobs | 44,154 | 243,536 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 60% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
A junior tester has strong critical thinking skills and is very much familiar with automation. They must be a team player; they work with others to create and test out a software program. They monitor and report issues, like system bugs, and help to fix them. Most of the time, a junior tester works at a company that is related to software, web application, java games, or video games.
A Quality Assurance Engineer's role is to oversee the overall production and ensure that the product is cost-efficient and aligns with the company's standards. The responsibility mainly revolves around conducting activities that examine and scrutinize the condition of a product or service to identify issues and come up with possible solutions to resolve the issue or attain stronger customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the Quality Assurance Engineer must also ensure that the product adheres to the government regulations and market guidelines.
Junior testers and quality assurance engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Junior Tester | Quality Assurance Engineer | |
| Average salary | $70,002 | $82,215 |
| Salary range | Between $52,000 And $93,000 | Between $61,000 And $109,000 |
| Highest paying City | Arlington, VA | San Mateo, CA |
| Highest paying state | Virginia | California |
| Best paying company | QSSI | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | Start-up | Technology |
There are a few differences between a junior tester and a quality assurance engineer in terms of educational background:
| Junior Tester | Quality Assurance Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 60% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Computer Science |
| Most common college | California State University - Long Beach | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between junior testers' and quality assurance engineers' demographics:
| Junior Tester | Quality Assurance Engineer | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 59.2% Female, 40.8% | Male, 69.5% Female, 30.5% |
| 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% |