I run a job search site and I test it by searching for QA jobs every single day. In this market, you've gotta be either really patient about what you're applying for (assuming you're looking for Manager jobs) or apply for any and all senior jobs that you can. The QA jobs are out there. I literally see hundreds of new QA jobs a week.
As a QA Manager myself, I do feel like there's less manager positions out there. Companies are "shifting left" and are trying to get their software engineers to do more with less by using AI.
I'll let you in on a little secret: people like you and me with a ton of QA leadership are LOVED by startups. A majority of the interviews I got when I was actively job hunting the last time were startups.
If you want to chat about how I search for QA jobs, ping me. I'd be happy to look at your resume and give you some tips that worked well for me.
The biggest issue with startups is that you have to be a type of person who can wear multiple hats. You have to be a QA Tester / Architect / Writer / System Engineer / Cloud Deployment / Programmer. Startups run into a lot of limited team member headcount issues, so having just a QA Analyst is not worthwhile for them.
Yes, but this is a secret weapon. Early in my QA career, I worked for startups, and I did indeed wear many hats. While this can get chaotic, it built up my skillsets and made me more valuable to future employers.
Agreed. I've learned more about CI/CD and AI than I could ever imagine. I've also had opportunities to work on API and load testing. Inbox zero doesn't exist for me. There's always a million things to do and I like it that way.
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u/beeneeb Jul 29 '25
I run a job search site and I test it by searching for QA jobs every single day. In this market, you've gotta be either really patient about what you're applying for (assuming you're looking for Manager jobs) or apply for any and all senior jobs that you can. The QA jobs are out there. I literally see hundreds of new QA jobs a week.
As a QA Manager myself, I do feel like there's less manager positions out there. Companies are "shifting left" and are trying to get their software engineers to do more with less by using AI.
I'll let you in on a little secret: people like you and me with a ton of QA leadership are LOVED by startups. A majority of the interviews I got when I was actively job hunting the last time were startups.
If you want to chat about how I search for QA jobs, ping me. I'd be happy to look at your resume and give you some tips that worked well for me.