1. California State University - Long Beach
Long Beach, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$6,798
Enrollment
31,503
Software test engineers are professionals who ensure that software is doing what it is designed to do consistently. From their title, one major duty of a software test engineer is to test out the software. They carry out a variety of both automated and manual tests to ensure the software is consistently producing the desired results. After tests have been carried out, you have to come up with reports about the outcome of the test, which will aid decision-making. You are also to collaborate with developers and other colleagues. Sometimes, you could be called to monitor the work of other testers.
Generally, software test engineers hold a bachelor's degree in software engineering or computer science. Having a master's degree gives you an edge and makes you eligible for leadership positions. Software test engineers are not only expected to be shrewd, but you have to be a great communicator. Paying attention to detail, the ability to handle stress well, and multitasking are some other skills you must possess. The median salary per year is $83,070.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a software test engineer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 9.0% of software test engineers included python, while 7.3% of resumes included java, and 5.8% of resumes included test automation. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
If you're interested in becoming a software test engineer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 70.3% of software test engineers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 17.5% of software test engineers have master's degrees. Even though most software test engineers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of quality assurance analyst you might progress to a role such as business analyst eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title senior product manager.
What Am I Worth?
The role of a software test engineer includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general software test engineer responsibilities:
There are several types of software test engineer, including:
Software Engineers get to apply lots of different areas of study into their everyday work. Whether it's science, engineering, mathematics, computer science, or even design, these engineers are able to use lots of different methods and techniques in their line of work.
Essentially, software engineers design, develop and test software applications for computers. They usually work in offices or labs during their average 40-hour workweek. Even though they use a wide range of study, typically software engineers only require a Bachelor's degree, although a Master's degree is appealing to most employers.
If you want to earn an annual average salary of $74,632, you can try being a Test Engineer. Not only that, but you can also excel and try other roles related to being a Test Engineer. You can be a Software Engineer, a Project Engineer, a Systems Engineer, and a Manager of Systems Engineering.
If you are a Test Engineer, you will be observing and recording product quality like durability, safety, speed, and functionality. You will check the materials of the product and procedures done to come up with this product. You will be running tests and identifying technical issues.
Most Test Engineer applicants today include Test Scripts, C++, Hardware, Python, and Test Equipment in their resumes, so you might want to brush up your skills and knowledge on these things. This way, you are at par with other applicants and have a good chance of getting hired since you know relevant things about the field.
While playing games, using specific apps, or merely using your cell-phone, do you ever think who develops them? Well, it's the Software Development Engineer who works day and night to make your screen interaction better and bolder. But trust us, the effort is paid quite well because as a Software Development Engineer, you can make, on average, $56 per hour.
Becoming a software development engineer, however, is not possible without hard work and patience. You need hours and hours of practice after acquiring the required knowledge. Thus, to become one, you must at least get a bachelor's degree. But you will find that more than 45% of the practicing professionals have a master's degree!
As a Software Development Engineer, you will be hired for a 9-5 job, but you don't need a physical office to work. In fact, most of the companies will ask you to work in your comfort zone while completing your projects effectively.
Mouse over a state to see the number of active software test engineer jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where software test engineers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Long Beach, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$6,798
Enrollment
31,503
Cambridge, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,832
Enrollment
4,550
Stanford, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,354
Enrollment
7,083
West Lafayette, IN • Private
In-State Tuition
$9,992
Enrollment
33,495
Cambridge, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$50,420
Enrollment
7,582
Durham, NC • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,695
Enrollment
6,596
Pomona, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$7,353
Enrollment
24,841
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
Mankato, MN • Private
In-State Tuition
$8,184
Enrollment
11,675
Cullowhee, NC • Private
In-State Tuition
$3,926
Enrollment
9,835
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Software Test Engineer templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Software Test Engineer resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
1. Software Engineering Immersive (Full-time)
Meet the global demand for technical problem-solvers by developing your coding skills to create full-stack web applications across multiple frameworks, incorporating functionality from third-party APIs, executing software engineering projects in an Agile development workflow, and more...
2. Intro to Coding
Discover if coding is a career fit for you In this free, two-hour livestream, explore the building blocks of the web — HTML and CSS — and learn how you can apply these programming languages to develop your own simple sites. All in real time, taught by an industry professional. Come learn the basics and gain the skills you need to write your first line of code!...
3. Software Testing
When writing software, destruction can be just as valuable as creation. Learn how to catch bugs and break software as you discover different testing methods that will help you build better software...
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a software test engineer. The best states for people in this position are California, Washington, Maryland, and Nevada. Software test engineers make the most in California with an average salary of $104,836. Whereas in Washington and Maryland, they would average $95,352 and $87,891, respectively. While software test engineers would only make an average of $87,632 in Nevada, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Washington
$95,352
Avg. Salary
2. California
$104,836
Avg. Salary
3. Delaware
$86,955
Avg. Salary
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ software test engineers and discovered their number of software test engineer opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Tech Mahindra was the best, especially with an average salary of $80,023. Larsen & Toubro Infotech follows up with an average salary of $76,917, and then comes Microsoft with an average of $121,615. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a software test engineer. The employers include Autodesk, John Deere, and Veeva Systems
Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | $130,869 | $62.92 | 580 | |
2 | Microsoft | $121,615 | $58.47 | 1,074 |
3 | Expedia Group | $119,946 | $57.67 | 241 |
4 | Cisco | $114,409 | $55.00 | 91 |
5 | Nokia | $108,978 | $52.39 | 156 |
6 | AT&T | $107,356 | $51.61 | 84 |
7 | Citrix | $106,057 | $50.99 | 188 |
8 | Arista Networks | $105,819 | $50.87 | 188 |
9 | Hewlett Packard Enterprise | $95,957 | $46.13 | 86 |
10 | Versa Networks | $93,267 | $44.84 | 91 |
No, a software tester is not a software engineer. A software engineer builds things. Then the software tester tries their best to break it. Both roles play a critical part in designing a quality piece of software engineering.