Selenium is a widely-used automation testing tool used in many organizations – big and small. A large percentage of automation testing positions have Selenium as a mandatory requirement before getting in. Thus, it is critical to be familiar with Selenium to thrive in the automation testing field.
Selenium opens you up to many career opportunities especially if you have a training certificate of completion from a reputable institute. The demand for certified Selenium testers is on the rise and in this article, you will discover some of the job opportunities that await you after completing a Selenium certification course. You will also get insights into how to get there.
To begin, let’s understand why Selenium is so popular.
Why Selenium is in High Demand
Selenium is in high demand in the automation testing space for a variety of reasons.
- Compatibility with various browsers: Unlike some automation tools that are browser-specific, Selenium supports multiple browsers. In Java, you can use frameworks such as TestNG to map test cases from your Java file. This ensures that your test cases work for all browsers without fail.
This singular feature gives Selenium testers an edge over others because you can test applications for a larger audience, irrespective of the browser they use. Also, Selenium WebDriver offers an easy and fast API to use, both for SOAP and REST APIs. So if say, your target API is a REST API, you can use REST UI to accomplish the test case.
- Selenium supports multiple programming languages: Selenium is one tool that can be used in different programming languages such as Java, Python, Perl, Ruby, etc. In other words, if you are familiar with Java, you do not need to learn another language to use Selenium. Same thing applies if you are a Python, Perl, or Ruby programmer.
- Selenium is open-source and has a wonderful community: Apart from the fact that Selenium is completely free to use, it has a wonderful community. It is the community that keeps the tool up and running, and also provides technical support for its wide users. The Selenium community is large and active, consistently eradicating bugs, releasing updates, and providing other technical support. This makes Selenium both cost-effective and extremely functional.
If you are not so strong in programming, Selenium is also a good option as writing test cases does not require relatively heavy coding.
Now, you understand what makes Selenium a choice automation testing tool. Let’s discuss some of the responsibilities of a Selenium automation tester in the workplace.
Responsibilities of a Selenium automation Tester
While the responsibilities may vary based on the company, a Selenium tester is mostly tasked with the following duties.
- Reading and understanding the product requirement to find out the best testing methodology to use.
- Maintaining existing test cases by other testers
- Creating new test cases for new launches, APIs, and product updates
- Attend agile meetings to stay up-to-date with the tasks to be done for any assigned projects.
- Find possible bugs in products and relay findings to the QA team or software developers.
- Automate boring and repetitive tasks in the workplace.
- Execute regression suites
…and so on.
Career Path to Becoming a Confident Selenium Tester
More often than not, Selenium jobs are usually beginner level. Companies hire folks who have 0 to 5 years of experience in Selenium testing and train them based on the peculiarity of their product and the product requirements. They can be assigned small tasks to evaluate the level of performance, while they are allowed to grow on the job. For beginner-level jobs, they are usually assigned to work under the aegis of an experienced software tester and take instructions from them.
After 2 to 3 years of experience, they can then be assigned independent tasks with little or no supervision. In this period, they are expected to boost their confidence and gather leadership skills. After 5 years of experience, they are usually promoted to senior roles, team lead, Scrum Masters, etc while working with the less experienced testers.
Salary Expectations as A Selenium Tester
According to Glassdoor, the average automation tester in the US makes an average of $85,222 per year. This figure may vary depending on the company, the lowest at $66k per year while the highest at $110k per year. Be sure to always negotiate your pay based on your level of experience and portfolio.
Selenium-related Roles in the workplace
Roles that require Selenium are a handful. Depending on your portfolio in Selenium and automation testing, you can take any of the roles listed below:
- Selenium tester
- Selenium automation engineer
- QA automation tester
- Quality Engineer
- Software development test engineer
- Selenium test analyst
- Java Selenium automation engineer
Wrapping up
Selenium Testers are in high demand with a lot of career opportunities even as a beginner. In this article, you have seen how you can move up the rank as a Selenium tester after completing a Selenium certification course.
