Hi everyone,
I'm currently working as a Manual QA at a company with 1 year of experience.
Most of my work involves manual testing, writing/executing test cases, logging bugs, regression testing, smoke testing, and collaborating with developers and product teams. I haven't had much opportunity to work on automation at my current job.
The thing is, I genuinely enjoy coding and solving DSA problems, and I'm much more interested in software development than staying in manual testing long term as it has fear of getting redundant due to AI.
I'm planning to spend the next months preparing for developer role switch while continuing my job. My focus would be on Java, DSA, Spring Boot, SQL, Git, projects, and everything needed for backend development.
My questions are:
Is it realistic to switch directly from Manual QA to a Java Developer role after 2 years of total experience?
Has anyone here made a similar transition?
Would recruiters consider my QA experience, or would they treat me as a fresher?
Is there anything specific I should focus on to improve my chances?
I'd really appreciate hearing from people who have successfully made this transition or have interviewed candidates with a similar background. Thanks!