Unsure about which career to pursue? Do you want to want to kick-start your career in the IT field? Then, you are at the right place because we put your confusion to an end with Selenium. Technology is moving towards automation and AI in everything. Software Testing is indispensable to provide a quality product without any bug or issue. Therefore, forming a career in this field ensures an optimistic future in the software industry. Selenium sets you on the right track to enhance your career and boost your knowledge. Moreover, as companies are increasingly making use of web applications and test automation, and the market trends are steadily shooting up with extensive demand with Selenium. Start your career in selenium and lets get started.
But before you venture into this field, we provide you an overview of the industry. Further in this blog, we will talk about the career prospects of working with this technology.
Selenium Overview
Selenium is a popular open-source tool that automates web browsers. It provides a single interface that lets you write test scripts in programming languages like Ruby, Java, NodeJS, PHP, Perl, Python, and C#, among others. Moreover, it can work with Chrome, Firefox, IE, Opera & can simulate a human-like behavior
Given the increasing adaptability to automation and its implementation, selenium has gained much popularity. But the only thing that makes selenium more effective are its components.
Components of Selenium
There are 4 components :
Selenium IDE
The first component is Selenium IDE. It provides an Integrated Development Environment and is the major tool in the Selenium. This is implemented as a Firefox Add-On and as a Chrome Extension. It works on the record and playback principle, and therefore is the first choice automation tool for people.
Selenium RC
Selenium Remote Control (RC) refers to a server written in Java language. This accepts commands for the browser via HTTP and allows for better integration in existing unit test frameworks. It is used for injecting the javascript code in the browser for automation.
Selenium WebDriver
Selenium WebDriver is the third component that is the successor to Selenium RC. It accepts commands and then sends them to a browser. Also, it provides different drivers for different browsers and supports multiple programming languages. It is object-oriented and supports all the major browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari, etc.
Selenium Grid
Selenium Grid refers to a server that allows tests for using web browser instances running on remote machines.Using this, can make one server act as the hub. In which, the tests contact the hub for obtaining access to browser instances. Moreover, it also helps in the distributed running of Selenium tests in parallel across multiple remote machines.
Benefits of Selenium
Selenium is the most commonly used freeware and open source automation tool. It offers immense benefits for Test Automation. Most importantly, it enables record and playback for testing web applications and can run multiple scripts across various browsers. Moreover, its benefits include:
Open Special Source
Selenium is an open source tool, which means anybody can use it for free. Any organization can use it to test its website or web application and even freelance programmers can learn and practice automation testing using Selenium WebDriver.
Browser Compatibility
Selenium can be used to test your website on any browser, be it Chrome or Firefox or Safari or Internet Explorer. This simplicity needed to work with it makes it even more desirable.
Multiple Programming Language Support
In Selenium the scripting can be done in most of the widely used programming languages that include Java, C#, Ruby, Python, etc. Most tools in the marketplace require your specialisation in n one particular programming language. But with Selenium, you can start your career without any restrictions.
Easy Integration With Other Tools
Selenium can be easily integrated with other open source tools. Some of those tool are Jenkins, TestNG, Maven, JUnit, Sikuli & AutoIT.
Easier for non-programmers
Selenium IDE component of the Selenium suite provides record and playback features. Using these features non-programmers can also write automation scripts.
Roles and Responsibilities
Before beginning with Selenium it is important for you to know what are the tasks undertaken by a professional:
- Firstly, they must undertake manual and automation test processes and cycles
- Then, they should skill and estimate team efforts
- Further, they must manage people and employees
- Also, have proper knowledge of agile testing methods
- Further, undertake tasks like scheduling, planning, and track the test activities
- Moreover, undertake planning, designing the testing strategies
- Lastly, track and keep up with the activities related to test
Now that you have enough clarity about the industry, lets have a look at basic knowledge required for Selenium.
Basic Knowledge Required
Before you commence on your journey of you must have the following technical skills:
- Firstly, you should have familiarity with automation testing with Selenium WebDrive.
- Moreover, they must have a good understanding of at least one programming language like Java, C#, Ruby, Python, Javascript, etc.
- Further, you should have an understanding of the Selenium Webdriver API and Apache POI API which is for reading and writing data to excel.
- Also, as a tester you should know about IDE and version controls like GIT or SVN.
- Additionally, you should have an understanding of the testing framework that can be TestNG or JUnit.
- Lastly, youmust have knowledge of CI Tool(Jenkins) and Frameworks(KeywordDriven, DataDriven, and Hybrid).
With these technical skills you should also be possess soft skills like Analytical skills, Communication skill, Time Management and Organization Skills.
Career Path to become a Selenium Professional
Selenium is in fact a beginner level job where most of the workers have zero to less than five years of experience. You will be trained on new technologies post you hiring. Your career will progress and you will be assigned bigger and more complicated tasks. Further, after 2-3 years of working experience, you will be assigned independent tasks with minimal or no supervision. This time will help you develop your leadership skills and independent thinking skill. Also, after 5-6 years of work you will be work as team lead, senior software tester, scrum master etc. Therefore once you set on this path there is no turning back. You will keep climbing the Selenium career ladder and touch new heights!
Career Prospects
Major tech giants such as Microsoft and Facebook’s prefer Selenium test automation tool. The demand for Selenium Professionals is rapidly increasing as Companies specializing in websites and web-based application testing are constantly hiring knowledgeable professionals. The most interesting part is that this industry has seen a tremendous push in creating employment opportunities with very exciting packages. Few popular job roles for are:
- Automation Test Lead
- Senior Test Engineer
- Quality Engineer
- Automation Analyst
- QA Engineer
Top Recruiters and Salary Insights: Career in Selenium
Selenium Professionals are employed by Top MNC’s like Tech Mahindra, Akamai, Mphasis, Cognizant, HCL, Accenture, TCS. It is important to have an estimate of the salary structure for the Selenium Tester role before deciding your career. The average selenium salary in India is around 1.95 lakhs per annum. The entry level salary is anywhere between 2.5 lakhs to 4 lakhs in Indian context. After the entry-level, professionals usually get about 5-8 lakhs of salary. Also, it is interesting to note that around 10% of people working in this profile earn around 26 lakhs per annum. These salary trends suggest that only skilled professionals can grab high paying job in this field. Validating your skills through certification therefore becomes a must.
Top Certification for Career in Selenium
As discussed earning a professional certification will definitely help you open doors to new opportunities and increase your visibility. Moreover professional certifications in Selenium will help you prove your expertise and enhance your earning potential. There are various certifications that you can apply for. Now, some of the basic and advanced level certifications include:
Certification Providers
After knowing about the various certifications, the next thing that comes to mind is to get the best certification provider and available venues to help learn better. There are various certification bodies that can help you in becoming a Certified Selenium Professional namely:
- Vskills – India’s Largest Certification Body
- Edureka
- Udemy
- Simplilearn
- Coursera
Career Outlook
In the present scenario, Selenium is the perfect option for automated website testing. It is continuously becoming popular with its use rising at a rapid pace as time goes on. It is the first choice of automation testers as well as companies for automating the web-based application testing for both GUI as well as the functionality. With this rise, it is obvious that job opportunities in the respective field will surely become bigger and better. So, it is time for you to make the most of it!
Taking a career in Selenium testing is definitely the right choice as a brighter future awaits them. Employers are always on a lookout for skilled professionals. At times, companies are even willing to go beyond the industry norms when it comes to compensating their selenium testers, provided they have the required certifications and experience. Moreover, given the salary trends, you can surely expect it to boost your career. Your salary graph will always remain in upward trend in this field.
Future Trends and Career in Selenium
We are now living in a world of Cloud and Digital business. Application Development of almost all the platform is increasing at a much faster rate than expected. Therefore for providing utmost customer satisfaction, the application has to be seamless and bug-free. Moreover, business now requires rapid output, hot deployment and even faster testing. Hence, Automation Testing is on boom today. Automation with Selenium is even a better choice as it is an open source tool tester can play with. However, the market trends of test automation are continuously changing with Selenium having a rapid growth over shorter time periods. It also makes it convenient for clients for receiving ROI much faster by reducing the number of cycles involved in testing. All this proves that Career in this field is very bright and will keep on growing.
Expert Corner
Selenium is in great demand and this has led to even greater rise in opportunities. If you want to channelize your career in the right direction, selenium as a career choice is your path ahead. Moreover, for many top companies, it has become the first choice of automation testers as well as for automating the web-based application testing role. Therefore, earning a professional certification will be a valuable addition to your CV and provide you with recognition. You can take up online courses and refer tutorials to boost your chances and become a Certified Selenium Professional.
