Education · 1 of 4
The path
Many roads in, and the job itself is a road to somewhere else. Quebec has its own route: tap Quebec route to add it.
- 1
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Computer science if offered. Testing rewards people who are careful, curious and a little suspicious. Try breaking the apps you use and writing down exactly how.
- 2
Training, or not
0 to 4 years
A 2-year college diploma in computer programming (Algonquin, Conestoga or St. Lawrence in Ontario, for example) is a common route. Some testers have a computer science degree. Some have no training and got in through a game studio or a contract.
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First testing job
Months
Manual QA (quality assurance): following test plans, clicking through features, writing bug reports developers can reproduce.
- 4
Add automation
1 to 2 years
Learn to write tests in code (Selenium, Playwright, Cypress) and to read the developers' code. Get the ISTQB (International Software Testing Qualifications Board) Foundation certificate.
- 5
Specialize or move on
3 to 5 years in
Automation engineer, performance tester, security tester, QA lead, or cross over to development or product management.