From Developer to QA: How Switching Roles Made Me a Better Engineer

When I started my career as a developer, I never imagined I would one day become a QA engineer. I won’t go into too much detail about why I made the switch, just that it was a “take it or leave it” decision. At that moment, I didn’t have a backup plan, and for better or worse, I decided to jump in and accept the challenge.

The Advantages

As I made the transition, I felt confident because of my background in coding and systems analysis. I thought this would give me an edge, and it actually did. The technical aspects of QA, such as system analysis, debugging, and understanding the code, were familiar to me and relatively easy to handle.

That was the easy part. The real work came in shifting my mindset from building software to ensuring its quality. I had to start looking at the product from a different perspective where the focus isn’t just on building but on breaking it and making sure it works as intended. This mental shift was a bit more difficult than I expected, but it gave me a completely new and valuable perspective on software development. And that was a good thing.

The Hard Truths of Being on “The Other Side”

I soon realized that the biggest challenge wasn’t learning testing techniques, the real challenge was facing the stigma against QA roles. As a developer, I didn’t fully appreciate the value of QA until I stepped into that role myself. With now being in this other side of the line I have come to see how QA is often underestimated. Surprisingly, most people, including developers and even managers, assume QA is there just “click buttons” or say random things. That perception makes it harder to get recognition, regardless of your technical background.

QA can be as demanding as development, it is not easy work, you have to wear a lot of hats to really succeed. Whether you’re running into last-minute bugs during critical releases or dealing with tight deadlines, regressions, whatever it is, QA comes with its own set of challenges that require patience, attention to detail, sometimes a good technical depth, and, most importantly, strong communication skills.

Becoming a Better Engineer

This switch made me a more complete engineer. As a developer, my world revolved around feature tickets and solving bugs. But as a QA engineer, my focus shifted to ensuring that code was functioning correctly, wasn’t causing unexpected bugs, and met product requirements.

This broader perspective has changed how I write, test and think about code. It gave me empathy for other roles, a stronger sense of product thinking, and a more holistic approach to problem-solving. I now see the application as a whole, and my commitment to quality will stay with me—whether I’m coding or testing.

Finding My Passion in Automation

The turning point for me was automation. It felt like a “coming home” moment for me. Being able to write automated tests reconnected me with my developer roots. I realized I could work on test frameworks, automate frontend and backend tests, optimize pipelines, and build tools and workflows that help the entire team move faster and catch issues earlier.

That blend of development and QA made me more effective and reignited my passion for coding. I could use all my technical skills in service of something bigger than just writing features, with this, I can contribute to shape the entire product, but most importantly, it made me feel like I was back in control of the code—something I’d missed as a QA tester.

Advice for QAs: The Value of Coding

To my fellow QA engineers, don’t let anyone make you doubt your worth. QA engineers are software engineers who specialize in testing. In a field where it’s easy to feel overlooked, remember that your skills and knowledge are powerful. Hold onto that confidence. I’ve holding into that to carry on this path, and it’s actually being good, I have being learning a lot with that mindset.

And if there’s one piece of advice I can give you, it’s: learn to code. I strongly encourage you to do so. Understanding how the system works under the hood will level up your testing and confidence. It will make you more effective and improve your communication with developers. It will not only make you better at your job, but it will also open up new opportunities in your career.

Advice for Developers: Don’t Forget About Testing

To my fellow developers, It’s not just about writing code that works, write code that’s testable and maintainable. You may think that QA is just a side role, but testing is just as important as coding. Collaborate with your QA engineer, don’t get defensive when they find issues. That feedback is there to help make the product better.

QA engineers who can speak your language and understand your code are powerful teammates. And someone with experience in both QA and development? That’s not a red flag, it’s a big strength. Remember that we’re all working toward the same goal: delivering a reliable, high-quality product to the end user.

Final Thoughts: Build Your Own Path

Although I still feel some uncertainty about how my career path will unfold. I don’t have all the answers about where this transition will take me and that’s okay. Uncertainty is part of the journey. What matters is staying open to growth and embracing the challenges along the way. I’m still learning, still improving, and still figuring things out as I go.

It might feel risky to shift away from what you’ve known for years, but it doesn’t have to mean leaving everything behind. It’s also completely valid to walk away and explore a different path altogether. Ultimately, it’s up to us to decide how we spend our time on this planet. If you’ve spent 10+ years doing one thing, why not try something else? People do it all the time.

The path is challenging and can be tough, yes, but it’s also full of growth. You’ll expand your skills, gain new perspectives, and become a better engineer and maybe even a more fulfilled person. Whatever path you choose, make sure it’s something you enjoy and grow from. After all, it’s your time and you get to decide how to spend it.

No matter if you’re a QA or Developer, I wish you the best of luck! Thank you for reading!

If you liked this article check out this 👉 Beyond the Code: A Basic QA Mindset Every Developer Should Have