We all know that the material world is ruled only by material values and possibilities. And no matter how much concisely and tactfully the salary expectations are hidden under right words about spirit, importance to complete the task, everyone firstly looks on a line of possible income when studies the possibilities of new employment. And sometimes we wish to wait for something better and are always disappointed when getting budget offers or turn down the offers with low salaries.

It’s clear that in the beginning, you won’t get a big salary. It’s necessary to improve your skills as effectively as possible and only after that in some time you can more thoroughly overview the salary rate in software test outsourcing field in Ukraine.

In this article, we will use data from the CAWI method of interviewing – a special questionnaire based on Internet data. We want to admit the fact that these numbers and patterns are not 100 % true: the data are not based on the mathematical models, and they are focused on a small sampling. It means that you must be careful with the conclusions.

You must decide for yourself what to do with the results. But for today, it’s the most actual information available.

About 34% of respondents are full-time employees of firms with more than 500 employees, 28% of them are from big companies. Approximately 18% of answers of a total number were received from the companies with no more than 100 employees and thereabouts – 17% – from small firms (to 50 employees). And only 1,5% of answers were received from employees with the staff number of no more than 10 people.

And now we can differentiate professional areas where the respondents work: 23% work in the financial industry, 16% – in e-commerce+integration, 14% – in telecommunications, 9% – in web studios, and so on.

Analyzing total experience in the testing field, we have the following situation:

About 89% of respondents work as manual testers, a quarter from which are in some way connected with the automation processes. 34% of them are automated testers. By the way, don’t be surprised by a number of more than 100 % – some specialists have just studied a couple of areas at the same time.

A market for salaries of QA specialists: where are the best places

Current salaries in the middle of 2019 in IT outsourcing field differ much: a lower and higher threshold of one field in one city can be very different from each other. But the overall picture looks like that:

It means that more than half of respondents get an average salary in the range from $1000 to $1500. And it’s not the smallest amount: more than 6% of respondents receive from $300 to 500. And so work your way down – the fewer are the lucky ones, the more income they receive.

And what about work motivation?

Surprisingly, but about half of the respondents are sure that their productivity does not influence additional financial rewards:

And what types of motivation can be used? Frequently, an employer can give a monthly rise to a salary, give a quarterly bonus or an annual bonus. According to the chart, about half of the respondents receive only one type of it. It’s a rare case that an employee receives 2 types of financial motivation at once.

Here we’d like to compare not only an amount of income but its nominal amount regarding the location of a specialist. Frequently, we can hear that a tester from Zaporozhe, for example, gets much less than his colleague from the capital for doing the same work.

We can analyze a correlation between the income level and the experience and region. Most respondents work in Kyiv, of course, and receive from $1500 every month, have 2 years of experience and usually perform manual testing. In Kharkiv and Lviv, the same number of employees with 1-3,5 years of experience receive the same salary. Most of these specialists are
also engaged in manual testing. In other regions, fewer testers receive such a salary though they all are manual testers and have more than 1 year of experience.

The most popular salary of QA engineer is from $1300. In Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Lviv most employees have exactly the same income, have 3 years of experience and perform manual testing but even in Kharkiv, there is a category of testers who manage to combine manual testing with the management process. In most cases, we can see the same picture in other regions of Ukraine.

But as we all know, you can never have enough and when particular salary expectations were not met, some testers start to actively search for additional income. Taking into account the fact that the job of a tester is quite specific, it’s very interesting in what way a salary stopped
to satisfy him or her that he or she started to search for additional work.

Here we can specify such types of additional work as consulting, work services and also coaching.

According to a statistic from the interview, the main motivation for additional income of a tester is not a big salary, big expenses, necessity to pay off their debt, mortgage, etc. They are followed by hobby, daily habits, meeting their non-material interests and preferences. And only a few respondents search for additional work to improve their technical skills and gain new experience.

Does additional income greatly influence the total budget? As we can see from the next scale, additional work constitutes not more than 1/3 from the main work for most respondents.

But it is an exception when additional work is a hobby and is regarded as a good way to improve their technical skills. A QA specialist tries to find additional income, not from a good life. Of course, there is a good variant to work less and gain more. So flexible working hours is a good choice. It’s just our nature.

Actually, the loyalty of work conditions primarily depends on the work of a firm or a company itself. According to the interview, it is clear that the companies which give a possibility to choose the work time are the most loyal to their employees.

And let’s talk about such a question – are QA specialists satisfied with a current level of income?

As we can see from a picture, unfortunately, more than half of respondents are not much satisfied with the level of income which they gain. And if we add a group of “Not sure”, a situation will be quite gloomy and sad.

Now we can talk about work which is lucrative but you don’t like it.

Of course, there is a very interesting correlation between income and conditions of the employer. The situation is the following:

It seems like more than half of them are completely satisfied with their workplace but not a level of a salary.

As we mentioned above, there is no interview that can help to build a correct picture. But some variations can be identified.

100% fact that the respondents were divided into completely controversial groups suggests us an interesting thought.

There is no secret that during our whole life we face the situations when it is necessary to compromise. Everyone must always choose the best variant through trial and error.

Also, the numbers in Ukraine tell that many QA outsourcing specialists have to choose between a good team, interesting work, and big money.

We must decide for ourselves what is important for us, hoping that sometime we will find the right balance.

Human wish to earn much is quite good and must have big support from the employer’s side. But in all of this, it must be built not only on your personal wish but also on a level of human proficiency and basic experience in a particular field. Frequently, a desire to get all at once lets young specialists in firms with big income but not related to their field, therefore creating a big lack of really good employees.

And to conclude, we wish that when you and your acquaintance from QA field analyze a possible job offer, you will prefer only those companies and firms which offer cooperation only with interesting and developing projects.

Since as we know that a key to financial and career growth is based on the presence of advanced skills and competencies and also on a possibility to deal with complex tasks. Work only for yourself and then your future will certainly deliver results!

About Author

Anastasia Ilchenko is a Business Operations Director at Tesmatick company. In this role, she develops relationships with clients, maximizes new business development opportunities, monitors the team’s performance and motivates them to reach targets.
She founded Tesmatick company in 2009 and built it up to levels where it now – a leading player in the software testing market.