At the beginning of 2019, we (together with the Software-testing.ru and Dou.ua portals) conducted a study of the level of remuneration of QA specialists. Now we know how much the services of testers cost in different parts of the world. And we also know what kind of knowledge and experience a QA specialist should have in order to change a stuffy office and a modest salary for a beach chair and a thick pack of currency. Want to know more about everything? Read our article.
So... Imagine the situation, you came to the interview and you get a completely standard question about the “Expected salary level”. How can you go wrong with the answer? Someone will begin to build on the salary at the last job, someone will start from the average salary for this vacancy in Moscow, someone will take as a basis the salary level that your friend QA engineer boasted about yesterday over a glass of tea. But you must admit, somehow it's all vague, I would like to know my worth for sure.
Therefore, any tester interested in money sometimes asks the following questions:
- How much do I cost as a specialist?
- What skills do you need to develop to increase your value to an employer?
- Will I get more by changing my office job in Barnaul to a remote job in Moscow?
- this is a kind of universal equivalent of the success of a hired specialist in his professional field. If we discard subjective personal and social factors, perhaps it will not say anything better than a salary about the qualifications and level of competencies of a hired specialist. But if we know everything about our level of income, then in which direction to develop in order to increase this income, we can only guess.
According to the Pareto principle, the employer/customer is ready to pay 80% of the funds for 20% of our skills and abilities. The only question is what skills in modern realities are included in these 20%. And today we will try to find the very key to success.
In our study, we decided to go, so to speak, “from a person”, and therefore we are conducting a survey not at the level of CIO and HR departments, but at the level of people who are “vitally” interested in the results of the survey: you, dear QA-specialists.
Summary:
Introduction: organizing the survey
In this section you will find general information about the survey itself and its respondents. Want the most juice? Feel free to scroll on!
So, the survey was conducted in December 2018-January 2019.
To collect most of the data, we used a questionnaire in Google Forms, the contents of which you can find at the link below:
For help in conducting the survey, I would like to thank the portal and personally Natalia Barantseva. Also, we want to say special thanks to: the portal , VK community , telegram channel .
The survey involved 1006 respondents who work for companies from 14 countries in 83 cities. For the convenience of work and data visualization, we combined the geography of all respondents and their employers into 6 independent regions:
- Russia.
– Europe (EU zone).
— CIS.
— USA.
— Asia.
— Oceania.
The Asian region and Oceania had to be excluded due to their underrepresentation in the sample.
How were QA specialists distributed by regions of employers?
US dollars were chosen as the main currency of the study. It's not that we all receive salaries in dollars, it's just that they have fewer zeros and more accurate conversion from other currencies.
In what currency do QA specialists get paid?
We managed to clearly identify 4 main salary ranges:
— less than $600 (with a median of $450);
— $601-1500 (with a median of $1050);
— $1500-2300 (with a median of $1800);
— more than $2300 (with a median of $3000).
97% of the positions indicated by the respondents were identified and classified into 4 classic categories of QA specialists. We deliberately took the classification adopted in international companies, because. even in Russia, these terms are common, and the remaining 42,2% of respondents work for other countries.
How were QA-specialists distributed by job categories?
Part one. The level of remuneration of QA-specialists in Russia and the World
To begin with, let's define the salary level of QA specialists in Russia and how it depends on the format of work.
How does the level of remuneration of a QA specialist depend on his format of work (Russia)?
Approximately half of all QA specialists (48,9%) work in the office on a salary of $601 to $1500. Another third also work in an office format, almost equally divided into two camps: with a salary < $600 (17,3%) and with a salary of $1500 - $2300 (18,1%).
Interesting: The percentage of highly paid specialists is much higher among adherents of flexible office and remote schedules than among testers who are constrained by a rigid work schedule. As for freelancing, all of its few representatives noted their income level as <600$.
These indicators are typical not only for the Russian market of QA services. Similar trends can be traced internationally.
Comparison of the average salary level of QA-specialists (Russia vs World)
The salary benefits of flexible telecommuting are even more visible when compared to global levels. Probably, this is affected by the absence of employer costs for org. equipment, infrastructure and organization of the employee's workplace, which are partially converted into his RFP. So, if you dream of drinking cocktails on the ocean and earning 24% more than your colleagues fighting for the air conditioner control from 9 to 18, you now have additional motivation.
Interesting: Most of all, the salary in Russia lags behind the world in the case of a remote hard format (35,7%) and freelancing (58,1%), and freelancing itself, although also poorly paid, is much better developed abroad than in Russia.
You ask: “Where do these salary figures come from? Probably only Moscow and St. Petersburg participated in the polls. No, colleagues. In cities, the geography of almost all of Russia is represented, but we did not dare to analyze cities with less than 20 respondents in terms of average salary. If anyone needs - write to [email protected], we will share data on other cities.
Average remuneration of QA-specialists (cities of Russia)
The picture is predictable, mainly cities with a population of over a million are distinguished by high salaries, with the exception of: Saratov, Krasnodar and Izhevsk. The capitals traditionally share the palm, but the top salaries in cities are closed by the Chernozem region and Voronezh, the difference in salaries with Moscow is almost twofold (45,9%).
Interesting: We ourselves do not fully understand how Saratov entered the top three in terms of salaries. We will be grateful if you share your guesses on this matter.
For those who have decided to work for "decaying Europe" or the nearby CIS - we hasten to please you. There is every chance to experience a significant increase in salary. Those who already work for them probably know about it without us.
Average salary level of QA-specialists (regions of employers)
Everything is predictable here, the level of remuneration of Russian employers is on average 10% lower than in the CIS, 14,8% more modest than in Europe, and 28,8% than in the USA.
Interesting: The level of salaries in Europe and the CIS does not differ as much as we originally predicted (only by 5,3%). Whether the globalization of the industry, the blurring of the concepts of "Europe" and "CIS" in the minds of respondents, or economic prerequisites is to blame, it's hard to say for sure.
It is logical that higher salaries attract more qualified specialists who are ready to work for a foreign company. The process of leakage of specialists becomes easier when large companies open branches in dozens of countries and cities, and remote work formats erase the remaining boundaries.
Where do QA specialists live and work?
The record holder for recruiting personnel from other countries is the United States, 15 times more QA specialists work for American companies than live in the states. In the CIS, on the contrary, they prefer to live rather than work for local IT companies. In Russia and the countries of the European Union, there is a relative balance between workers and the living.
Interesting: Sometimes the only barrier separating a specialist from joining a Euro-American employer is language skills. The labor market of Russia and the CIS is lucky that this factor in our century is still holding back the "brain drain".
Part two. The dependence of the level of remuneration of QA-specialists on experience, education and position
We were unable to identify a direct relationship between the level of salary of QA-specialists and the education received. But we were able to draw very interesting conclusions about the impact of education on the position held by a specialist.
How does the position/category held by a QA specialist depend on his/her education?
The percentage of juniors (junior) highest among people with humanitarian, economic and secondary specialized education.
Good leads are obtained from students of technical specialties, lawyers, people with an academic degree and, logician's attention, specialists with specialized management education.
Good seniors (senior) come out of techies and, it is noteworthy, either people with a school education, or specialists with two higher education.
But the middles (middle) enough everywhere, except perhaps among lawyers and settled them a little less.
Interesting: Our statistics collected during the year of work of the online institute of testers (POINT) fully confirms the above data on the education of juniors. And the company's internal statistics show that technical specialists are the fastest growing up the career ladder.
How many disputes go around the classification of QA-specialists and remuneration by grades. Juniors (junior), who receive as seniors (senior), leads (lead) on the salary of the middle (middle) - quite a common practice these days. Let's try to figure it out.
How does the level of remuneration of a QA specialist depend on the position/category he occupies?
Let's start with the destruction of the main myth about the growth of seniors into managers. Going to leads is not a step up, but to the side! All the experience gained over many years of work as a QA specialist hardly helps in a new role, because you have to work not with code, but with people and plans. All this is perfectly understood by the management, and in fact we see that neither the salaries nor their structure for seniors and leads are fundamentally different.
The difference between juniors and middles cannot be called catastrophic either. Yes, on average, a middle earns his $1500-2300 instead of $600 more often. But like juniors, half of all middles receive salaries in the $601-1500 range.
Interesting: Where the jump in salaries is really visible is when comparing middles and seniors. salaries under $600 are a thing of the past, with 57% of all salaries moving into the $1500-$3000 range. It remains to understand what a seigneur should be able to do and develop in this direction, but more on that later.
But work experience, unlike education, directly affects the level of salary.
How does the level of remuneration of a QA specialist depend on work experience?
The diagram below clearly shows how, with experience in the profession, the indicator of low-paid specialists falls and the number of salaries exceeding $ 2300 grows.
How do salary ranges change as the experience of a QA specialist grows?
The main thing for Jun is to hold out for the first year. Even after it ends with a salary of $1500-2300, one-year-old testers may not count, but there is a good chance (56%) to join the ranks of specialists with a salary of $600-1500 per month.
Finally, judging by the salary, the value of a specialist ends up forming between 4 and 6 years of work, coming to an average wage level of $ 1500. After this point, the growth rate of salaries slows down, for some it reaches $2300 per month, but in general, experience after 6 years in the profession of a tester simply guarantees an income of $1500-2000, and then everything, as always, depends on the city, company, person.
Interesting: The growth rate of wages for a QA specialist in the first 3 years is 67,8%, while the salary growth rate in the period from 7 to 10 years drops to 8,1%.
Part three. The dependence of the level of remuneration of QA-specialists on the level of testing skills
Remember, at the very beginning of this article, we tried to understand our value as a specialist. Now let's move on to the analysis of testing skills. What skills do QA specialists have and how does this affect their salary level?
What are the best skills for QA professionals?
Consider the necessary minimum skills, without which we cannot do in the profession.
What should every QA specialist know?
- Skill of localization and institution of defects - The most common skill. 4 people do not know it at all, 16 people do not speak it well. And 98% of respondents have a good and perfect skill.
- Knowledge of bug tracking systems (Jira, Redmine, YouTrack, Bugzilla) - also, only 6 people are completely unfamiliar with this skill.
- Client testing of web applications - 81% of respondents are good or perfect at it.
- Knowledge management systems and test case repositories (wiki, confluence, etc.) - the same 81%, but only 27% of them are perfect.
- Knowledge of test analysis, test design and test combinatorics techniques - 58% of specialists are good at this skill and another 18% are perfect. Should they be left behind?
Now consider the skills that can be considered scarce, and therefore well paid in our profession.
What can you brag about to your employer/colleagues?
- Experience developing load testing scripts in JMeter or similar applications - the rarest skill. 467 people do not have this skill at all (46,4%). 197 people speak it at a sufficient level (19,6%). Only 49 people are fluent in it, and 36 of them earn more than $1500.
- Knowledge of automated test results reporting systems (Allure, etc.) − 204 specialists have a sufficient level of knowledge.
- Knowledge of drivers and add-ons for test automation – 241 specialists.
- Knowledge of test frameworks for automation (TestNG, JUnit, etc.) – 272 specialists.
Interesting: The most rare skills expectedly turned out to be load testing and automation skills, which confirms the current situation in the labor market of QA services. The shortage of automators and loaders can be clearly seen in terms of the level of remuneration of their work against the background of other specialists.
What skills pay the best?
The most modest (up to $ 1410 per month.) basic skills of bug tracking, skills in the field of web / mobile applications, test analysis and layout / adaptability are paid.
Not far from them (up to $1560 per month) the skills of testing integration and databases, possession of version control systems and logging are gone. On average, they are paid 10-15% better.
Even better (up to $1660 per month) the skills of managing test case repositories, possession of traffic monitoring tools, and the fundamental skill of localizing and introducing defects are paid.
Well, if you like the figure $1770, then, as mentioned earlier, welcome to the league of autotesters, loaders and continuous integrators, these are the skills that, according to the results of our study, are best paid.
Interesting: mastering the skills of load testing and automation increases the size of your salary, on average by 20-25%, with an equal position and work experience.
A QA specialist who owns only one or even 2-3 skills is rather a rarity in the profession. It is more correct to assess the qualifications and salary of a tester by the number of skills that he has in total.
How does the level of remuneration of a QA specialist depend on the number of skills he has mastered?
The myth about the profitability of specialization in testing has not justified itself. The number of skills in a tester's arsenal directly affects his salary. Each additional 5-6 skills in a specialist's piggy bank lead to an increase in wages by 20-30%. The most noticeable increase in salaries is for specialists who have mastered more than 20 skills. Such "wunderkinds" receive an average of 62% more than narrow-profile specialists with 5 skills in their luggage.
Interesting: Only 12 people out of 1006 have all the skills. All of them have a high level of HP. All 12 people work in the office, all have extensive work experience (only one respondent has 2-3 years of experience, the rest were evenly distributed according to 4-6, 7-10 and more than 10 years of experience).
Conclusion: portraits of QA specialists
Instead of boring conclusions and summaries, we decided to draw verbal portraits of QA specialists with different salary levels. Portraits are far from ideal, as they reflect a certain set of QA specialists, and therefore may differ from reality in particular cases. There were four portraits in total.
modest
Portrait of a QA specialist with a salary level of up to $600.
Location: small towns in Russia and the CIS.
Employer: predominantly companies from Russia and the CIS.
Work format: freelancing or a rigid schedule of remote work.
Education: any, most often humanitarian.
Category/position: junior.
Experience: up to a year.
Good at: 4-5 skills.
Must have at least:
- bug tracking systems;
— skills of localization and institution of defects;
— client testing of web applications or mobile applications;
- test analysis skills.
Middle class
Portrait of a QA specialist with a salary level of $600-1500.
Location: large cities of Russia (Saratov, Novosibirsk, Kazan, Rostov, etc.) and the CIS, Europe.
Employer: mainly companies from Russia, the CIS and small European ones.
Work format: Predominantly tight schedule of office and remote work.
Education: any.
Category/position: junior or middle.
Experience: 2-3 years.
Good at: 6-10 skills.
In addition to the basic set, he owns:
- Integration and database testing skills;
- version control and logging systems.
Prosperous
Portrait of a QA specialist with a salary level of $1500-2300.
Location:
— Russia (capitals);
— CIS (cities with a population of over a million);
— Europe.
Employer: companies with capital from Europe and the USA.
Work format: office formats and flexible remote work.
Education: any, most often legal or managerial.
Category/position: middle or senior.
Experience: 4-6 years.
Good at: 11-18 skills.
Must additionally own:
— knowledge management systems and test case repositories;
— traffic monitoring tools;
- version control systems.
Moneybags
Portrait of a QA specialist with a salary level of $2300.
Location:
- without reference to a place (man of the world);
— Russia (capitals);
— CIS (capitals);
— Europe (major cities);
— USA.
Employer: companies from Europe and the USA.
Work format: flexible office or flexible remote format.
Education: any, but technical is better.
Category/position: Senior or Lead.
Experience: >6 years.
Good at: more than 19 skills in testing.
Mandatory skills include:
— 2-3 automated testing skills;
— 1-2 skills of load testing;
- Knowledge of continuous integration systems.
We hope now it will become a little easier for you to evaluate yourself (as a QA specialist) in the labor market. Perhaps this article will help someone to be patient, study hard and start growing in the most profitable direction. Someone will have the courage and data to talk with the manager about a salary increase. And someone will finally decide to leave their native latitudes and move to live on the coast of Thailand.
Whoever you are, we wish you good luck, because you already know approximately where and how much to grow.
Source: habr.com