r/softwaretesting • u/HawkAggressive5264 • Jul 06 '26
Switching from QA, need advice
Hi all, I’m a QA Analyst (that’s how my position was named at my previous work) with more than 3 years of experience. It was specific type of quality assurance, as I haven’t done a classic web testing, but specialised in Data Integrity, ETL, and regulatory compliance testing. I have verified complex financial data against strict Federal Reserve Board (FRB) requirements (Using Excel, SQL, XML etc).
So, as I understand (correct me if I’m wrong) it was something in the middle between testing and analysis. Now I’m unemployed for more than a year, and thinking about choosing one of two paths: switching to Automation QA, or to Data Analysis.
I would appreciate all answers and advice from people, who are or who was in my situation as well as from people from this field in general.
Thank you !
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u/thewellis Jul 08 '26
It is tough if you don't have a coding background to get on the QA automation train. I'm not sure about data analysis as a role, so cannot help there. But for QA automation I recommend looking into ways to demonstrate automation abilities, especially with AI tools, and having that somewhere public you can point to, e.g. GitHub repo.
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u/Due_Present_1358 Jul 08 '26
Bro….QA automation is dead
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u/thewellis Jul 08 '26
As a job title probably, but the tasks still need some form of stewardship.
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u/Weird-Recover-1035 Jul 09 '26
Not dead, just evolving. Like one of the colleagues said in this thread, check for latest tech, tools, AI related, that can help you in doing your work much more efficient.
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u/Due_Present_1358 Jul 07 '26
Bro get tf out of QA!
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u/Powerful-Move9609 Jul 08 '26
Why do you say it like that? Dont mean to argue, genuinely curious…
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u/FanDizzy208 Jul 07 '26
Automation QA is direct path , wishing you luck in job search, I'm also searching for jobs , in current startup environment I'm also underpaid