[anm89]

Just to give an alternate take, I think you can get pigeonholed as a QA person and if you want to be a developer it may be a better route to look for positions that are going to give you practice developing.

That being said, the reality of job market these days might be that entry level positions are too competitive and this just isn't practical in which case getting your foot in the door with a QA role is still a much better option than nothing. But I would say it is a fairly indirect route to where you want to go.

[littleninja]

As someone who came into software dev without a degree and started in QA, this is correct. Some shops are setup with QA as a separate function on separate teams. If development tickles your fancy, starting on one of those QA teams may limit you.

Sharing from my anecdotal experience, if you’d prefer an environment where you can grow beyond manual testing (QA Engineer) and automated testing (SDET), look for positive cues: “QA as a role” or cross-functional teams or embedded QA within development teams. Ask for stories (examples) about a team member who made a lateral move, how leadership looks for this potential and supports the transition.

[curiousllama]

QA is a VERY solid career, by any general standard. OP is looking for a job, not a creative outlet. Shouldn't apply an SF lens to this.

[grumpwagon]

Totally agree you can get pigeonholed, but my read of the OP is that they want a job that can support their family first, and that development was one of the things they were considering, not that development was a goal in and of itself. My thought is that QA is a solid career, and that once they are established, and get a support structure for their family, if they want to become a dev they can work towards that from a position of strength, rather than a position of near-crisis.

[sokoloff]

Plus, it’s 1000x better than sanding Bondo all day!

[faldore]

I went this route. Once you are in QA it is extremely difficult to get out. Everybody views you as "a tester" no matter how good your development skills are. If you genuinely want to be in QA as your career, or if you are truly desperate for work and willing to spend the 5 years or so it will take for you to dig yourself out of QA, then do it. It worked for me. But if you really want to dev, do not take a QA job unless you really can't find a dev job.

[pmiller2]

100% correct. I did a brief stint in QA before I moved into dev. That job no longer appears on my resume, because I don't want to do those things anymore.

I know a guy who's a senior QA and has been writing automated tests in Python for over 10 years. He can't get hired as a developer because of this "pigeonhole effect." It's nothing to do with his personality, either. He gets hired in QA with no issues.