Do you want to build general skills needed in all industries and useful for testing any type of software? Or do you want to build specialized skills for specific industries or cases? ASTQB has ISTQB certification options for both paths.
General Testing Skills
If you want to build general skills, we recommend that you start by adding ISTQB Agile Certification to round out your knowledge of Agile testing. It's the second most popular ISTQB certification among testers looking for jobs in the U.S.
Then we recommend that you choose from among these more advanced certifications, as they will prepare you for a promotion:
Test Analyst: This is designed for a tester who will have a deep understanding of the business domain and the needs of the user. Consider the Agile Technical Tester certification instead if your organization is all-in on Agile.
Technical Test Analyst: This is designed for the technically minded individual who has knowledge of programming or scripting.
Test Manager: This is designed for the tester who wants to lead and manage the QA process and other testers.
Specialized Testing Skills
If you want to build specialized software testing skills that set you apart, you will want a mix of several ISTQB specialty certifications based on your industry.
Good starting options for many people are:
ISTQB Mobile Application Testing: So much software is used on mobile devices that this is an excellent choice for almost any tester.
ISTQB Acceptance Testing: Proven skills in this area will allow you to lead others in user acceptance testing (UAT) as well as alpha and beta testing.
ISTQB Test Automation Engineering: A little more advanced than some of the other specialty certifications, this certification is worth it! You will be in very high demand with test automation skills.
ASTQB's software testing career path does a great job of describing each of these options. We highly recommend that you review it once or twice per year because career options are added continually.
Regardless of which skills you choose next, keep moving forward! Technical people respect others with strong technical skills. Getting additional certifications shows you are staying current with software QA trends and are ready to take the next step up in your career.
