Is Quality Assurance a Good Career?

Quality assurance engineering is a fast-growing tech profession. As AI solutions start playing a greater role in tech, there will be a greater need for professionals who can check the quality of AI-generated work. 

But there’s more to it, too. Keep reading to learn why quality assurance engineering (QAE) will be on the rise in the next few years — and why quality assurance is a good career choice if you’re thinking about switching to tech.

What do quality assurance engineers do? 

When you use an app or a website, you’d like it to be an easy, smooth, and intuitive experience. A quality assurance engineer’s job is to make that happen. They ensure a product or service is fully ready for the final customer by running automated and manual tests. 

For automated tests, engineers write scripts to check whether the code is stable, functional, and follows the best practices. Without  tests like these, a new feature or improvement can break the whole architecture of the web application or other piece of software. 

During manual tests, QA engineers act as end users to see if all buttons, modules, visual elements, and connected services function properly. 

So, is becoming a QA engineer a good career choice? We think so. But if you’d like to know more about what QA engineers do, get the full rundown on the profession_{QA Engineer: A Quick and Easy Guide to the Job}. 

What do experts say about the future of QAE? 

There are currently thousands of QA engineer vacancies on Indeed in the US alone. This number is constantly growing, as the demand for QA engineers is closely tied to the expansion of the tech market.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms that the total number of software developers, QA testers, and engineers will increase by 25% by 2032. It predicts that roughly 153,900 new QA vacancies will appear over the next decade. In fact, according to the tech job board, Dice, demand for QA engineers will grow for years to come.

So the outlook for QA jobs is good. And there are three contributing factors:

1. The advancing complexity of software

Each year, software becomes more complex, and its flawless, continuous operation becomes  more vital. Errors in programs can cost companies millions of dollars. For example, Knight Capital Group invested in a stock trading bot, which, due to an error, bought shares for $7 billion in just 45 minutes. The company didn’t have enough money, so the shares had to be sold the next day. This mistake resulted in a loss of approximately $440 million before taxes, and in the summer of the following year, Knight Capital Group was acquired by its competitor, Getco LLC. 

To stay solvent and competitive, companies must develop and improve the quality of their software. Low-quality software now costs US companies more than $2 trillion annually due to recurrent bugs and downtime. This means that companies must integrate QA as a core element throughout the software development lifecycle. It’s easy to see: QA engineers will play key roles here .

2. AI development

AI_{Solving the Trolley Problem Won’t Make AI Ethical} will most likely lead to increased demand for QA engineers. Edoardo Turelli, former Vice President of Engineering at Adbrain and now an independent consultant, noted that the role of AI in code generation will only grow in the near future. This AI-generated data will require extensive testing and control. Software development will shift from writing code to analyzing what’s already available.

If AI is responsible for at least half of the application's code, there will be a need for specialists to guarantee its work is impeccable. Complex projects that rely on machine learning and AI often involve Machine Learning Ops, a set of practices for collaboration and communication among data scientists, data engineers, QA engineers, and DevOps professionals. Its task is to reliably and efficiently deploy and maintain machine learning models in production. This includes version control, software management, and cybersecurity. 

With the spread of these practices, QA will quickly become a bottleneck, stimulating the demand for professionals with relevant skills.

3. Investing in new software

The Bureau of Labor Statistics adds that the increased demand for quality assurance specialists will be associated with the development of software for artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and robotics. Investments in these areas will lead to an increase in demand for developers and specialists capable of ensuring the quality of these solutions. 

The quality assurance for this software will be slightly different than that for end users, as machines will be the major operators of the programs. And if software-for-humans should operate error-free so that companies don’t lose clients and profit, software for robotics should be even more infallible, as one minor error can break the whole system.

How to become a QA engineer

So, if you’re still wondering if quality assurance is a good career, we’re here to say an enthusiastic, “yes!” QA engineering is in high demand and will continue to be so in years to come. It’s also considered one of the easiest entries into tech industries_{QA Engineer: A Quick and Easy Guide to the Job}, with many prospects for growth. 

Thinking about a career in tech? Well, QA engineering may be a good choice. Enroll in TripleTen’s five-month online program, and like our grads, you can earn a starting salary of $67,000 per year. 

We’ll help you master a new profession and land your dream job, as most of our graduates get their first paycheck within 180 days of graduation.

Hear from our students about their experience at TripleTen — and secure your future today.