Recent research shows that even in 2023, 95% of employers looking for tech talent have encountered a skills shortage over the past year. But what skills are they actually looking for? Roles in technology are incredibly varied, stemming from software development through to architecture, project management and of course software testing. Each of these career paths requires a slightly different skillset, and it can often be tricky to work out what skills you need to achieve your career goals. So if you want to thrive as a software tester, what skills do you need?

Technical Skills

Let’s start of with the technical skills. It’s an advantage if you can learn the theoretical foundations of testing and have a good understanding of terms such as exploratory testing, black and white box testing and boundary value analysis. You can learn this through reading books on software testing (and many are available!), watching Youtube tutorials or by completing a course or certification. The ISTQB offer a software testing foundation certificate which can be a fantastic way to learn the basics of testing. If you don’t like exams, you can find plenty of more casual courses on sites like Coursera or Pluralsight.

It can also be helpful for testers to have some knowledge of programming. Which programming language is best to learn does depend on the context of what you’re testing. If you’re going to be a hardware tester, you may need to learn more specialised languages unique to the electronic components you are testing. If you’re a software tester, a great language to start with is Python. Python is commonly used by software testers working in all levels of testing: you can use the PyTest library for your unit tests, or build more complex test scripts to perform system level testing and simulation.

Testers can be required to use a variety of test tools to support them with test design, execution and reporting. If you have experience of using and administering these tools, that can be a huge advantage. But don’t worry if you haven’t! You can find out information on many testing and quality tools online, such as qTest, SonarQube or XRay. Even if you’ve not used these tools before, having the ability to design, execute and monitor tests is vital and these skills are transferrable across all test tools.

Finally, all testers need to have an understanding of different software development methodologies, particularly Scrum and V-Model. It’s so important for a tester to understand where their work fits into the development lifecycle, and what the operational constraints will be. If you’re working in an iterative way, regression testing will be key. if you’re working in a linear way, you may need to design tests to adhere to certain regulations in order to hit a project milestone.

Soft Skills

Whilst technical skills are important, some would say (myself included) that soft skills are even more important. The role of a tester can be a difficult one: no one likes to hear about problems in their code, defects and edge cases can be tricky to identify – and so the testers with even the very best technical skills and expertise need to develop a range of soft skills to ensure success for them and their teams.

Communication is a skill that testers use daily. Testers need to be able to communicate information promptly, clearly and objectively. This can be through reporting mechanisms on test statistics, meetings with team members, or providing verbal updates in daily stand-ups. We need to be able to explain what the issue is and suggest a way forward. We need to explain this in such a way that it doesn’t cause conflict, but instead brings the team together to collaborate on fixing the issue.

Testers also need to be creative problem solvers – writing tests is not always easy! Testers are often given a set of tools and an end goal – ‘Write a unit test for feature A’ – and expected to fill in the missing steps themselves. Some of this skill comes from experience, but problem solving is a skill you can develop in many other ways such as solving puzzles like Sudoku. Being an analytical, systems or logical thinker can also help you to be better at problem solving – if you are able to take a step back from a problem and see the bigger picture it can be easier to see the path you need to take to reach a solution.

Finally, testers need to be resilient. Testing can be very challenging – you can get stuck on tasks like root cause analysis, hit technical obstacles around test performance times, or run into other problems that can be frustrating and deflating. You need to be able to bounce back and learn from these challenges, and use them as opportunities to grow. Resilience is a skill learned over time, and having a strong support network or team around you to lean on can help you to be more resilient.

What are some skills that you think testers should have?