In my experience there are several types of people who do QA work, the types are affected by the attitude of the companies towards QA and their view in respect to its importance.
Here in Israel there are 4 types of Testers:
The Temp - This type of tester is usually in between, he will usually be a person fresh out of military and on his way to the the big trip/ university.
He is looking for a way to earn some money for the above purposes and can not be depended on in regards to long term plans
On His Way to Development - a close friend of the tester mentioned above , this one is usually already spent a couple of years studying and plans to start working in the R&D, he is basically looking for a foot hold in a company in hopes that it will open the door to a development position.
Can't find any thing Else - this type of tester has been forced into trying to find work in QA since he can't seem to be able to find work else where, the only reason he got hired as QA is that some one has very low standard for QA and very poor opinion as to their role in the development process. *
Serious QA - This is the type of person you would like to see handling your testing process.
This type of QA Engineer will usually have some formal technical education , he is here to do QA work and will focus in being efficient and productive, he will invest the time in researching QA methodolgy
* The Question the Pops to the mind is obvious why would any one hire for QA work any other then the forth type of tester.
The reason as always is complex, but the root cause is similar to the chicken and egg question, which came first.
basically what happens is this , due to lack of available type 4 testers mangers are forced to look at the other types ,this in turn harms the professional opinion in regards to QA engineers , which in turn causes HR in companies to lower the salary bar for QA which ... are you ready for this causes less people to be interested in careers in QA.
And here we go again.
Just for an example :
a few years back some one approached my QA Manager in regards to a vacant position in one of our teams, when my manager inquired in regards to relevant experience the developer which made the inquiry raised a brow saying "what do you mean he knows nothing... what are QA suppose to know"
The problem is that it is not just one person but the entire industry is plauged with this misconception
Managers and HR do not contribute by setting low standards and low wadges , another example, in our QA group which is in charge of testing a very telecom related system most of the QA do not hold any degree and those who do have had no relevant telecom education.
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