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Are you guys looking for cheap developers? 🙂 Prepare to ask yourself many uncomfortable questions 🙂

This trend is really interesting these days, I’ve been bombarded by recruiters looking for SDET position candidates on a daily basis. I know, recruiters aren’t those who write job requirements. So this post would be more addressed to Hiring Managers. So who do you guys really want? Let’s look at skillsets(obv. incomplete, just for the sake of visualization):

  • Software Tester(QA Engineer):
    • Testing approach: Black Box, White Box, Grey Box.
    • Understanding of SDLC
    • Different types of testing: Functional, UX/UI, etc.
    • Test tracking and management tools.
    • Automation tools for testing. (This one deserves a separate list I think)
    • Programming basics.
    • Critical Thinking, Communication skills.
  • DevOps:
    • Infrastructure as code
    • CI/CD
    • Test automation
    • Containerization
    • Orchestration
    • Software deployment
    • Software measurement
  • Developer
    • String knowledge in programming language or multiple (OOP, Frameworks, etc.)
    • Version control
    • Understanding of SDLC
    • CI/CD
    • Software Algorithms, Design, Architecture
    • Databases
    • Unit/Integration testing
  • SDET:
    • Everything from Software Tester (QA Engineer)
    • Everything from DevOps
    • Everything from Developer

Just think about this for a second. Let it sink down.

What is very interesting is that most of SDET job descriptions represent a developer background. Not just any, a strong developer background with 3-5 years of experience.

Let’s look at simple life scenario of SDET at work:

– Hey, {Name} can you test this?
– Sure, here’s a bug.
– Can you look in the code and make sense what’s wrong?
– Sure, here’s the problem in the code.
– Can you fix that yourself?
– Yes, I can fix that and I’ll test the fix after.

Ask yourself these questions now:

  • How is that an SDET and not a Developer?
  • Should your developers stop testing their code? Because that what’s going to happen.
  • What’s going to happen with the software quality when approach like that is used?

Here are some more questions to think about:

  • Why would a developer cut like 15 – 20% of their pay to become an SDET and focus on testing?
  • What kind of developer would be the one who wants that? Why do you think they will be better at testing?
  • How is it possible to be good at all of these areas at the same time given current software complexity?
  • Why do you think there’s such a demand for SDETs in the market?

Who can actually make a good SDET?

  • College grads / Junior developers. They still have a lot to learn. Good start for them to decide which way to go. QA, DevOps or Dev.
  • Testers who want more in their career. Who can and want to automate more or become developers.

So these are those who are you looking for to fill your SDET positions. Plain and simple.

Same article on LinkedIn