How is the background to QA Engineers different from other software developers?

Hi Matthew! Yea this is a pretty great question. Personally I came from a Support Engineering background before getting into QA, and from that I had a business degree with a focus in Information Systems. My support role had a lot of focus on technical challenges and customer feedback, so my company thought it was a good fit. Most of my colleagues in the field started with positions in manual testing, and most do not really have much experience in programming. I think traditional Computer Science degrees are great for QA, but often they don't have a lot of experience in testing, which I find a little odd. I think many who find themselves in "SDET" positions (Software Developer Engineer in Test) usually come from traditional programmer backgrounds though.

Those who I've observed are best with testing have gone through some training both in test automation and have a good sense of whatever the company is "doing". Each organization presents a unique set of challenges in what makes a quality product, so I've also seen some great testers with backgrounds in customer success departments. They have a really great idea of what makes a quality product to the customer.

Its kind of a diverse field with a lot of opportunity, especially in agile teams. Even just improving the release cycle tends to help a ton in improving quality. If you can knock out releases quickly by having lots of automated tests and a speedy release window, then you can fix problems more quickly and give your customers a better product. If you are the type that has a high attention to detail, you can be really valuable just in manually spotting problems as they arise.

Hope that answers your question!