I have been in the Banking and Finance Industry for almost a year as a Quality Assurance Engineer. I am planning to explore other options and expand my knowledge.
Would getting Certifications like below help my career?
Especially when I'm planning to work abroad?
The best way to help your career is to learn how to test and become very good at it. James Bach has a really good post directed at new testers, that is worth reading (lots of recommendations) and he says this about certifications:
Don’t get certified. There are no respectable commercial testing certifications.
If you are forced to get certified for some reason, do not take it seriously.
It’s not an achievement, it’s just a conveyor belt that extracts your money and gives you nothing you couldn’t get for the price of a Google search. True certification remains this: the respect of respectable people.
The rest of the post has good resources for learning how to test. There are also a few posts here that might be useful: Developers have code kata to practice skills. What test equivalents are there? and Where to get feedback on my testing skills?.
I always worry about what happens during an interview when I'm asked to demonstrate my testing ability (like a sample page) or give some verbal walk through of how I'd test something. That's when you either show you truly understand testing or you just talk a big game.
Yes and No. Hiring managers might like certifications, but here in the Netherlands the two most asked certifications are ISTQB and T-Map. So the ones you name might not be useful in Europe.
Also read this question: Do ISTQB/ISEB Testing Certificates prove that someone can test?
Personally I am a follower of the http://www.professionaltestersmanifesto.org/ movement, and I choose to be not certified.
I, as a professional software tester, believe:
That standards compliance is no substitute for knowledge and skills, and that possessing a certificate demonstrates neither.
That companies have been convinced that only certified testers should be hired.
That organizations who use certification as a surrogate for rigorous selection processes place the quality of their testing at risk.
That organizations who make money from creating or promoting standards and certifications are biased in their thinking by the potential financial rewards of convincing organizations that only certified testers are professional testers. Those organizations may include those who sell training, consulting or other related services.
That testing benefits from diversity and not homogeneity: that testing is not a profession that can be standardized but instead needs to remain an intellectual professional activity.
That choosing not to be certified does not mean I do not take my profession seriously. It is because I take my profession seriously that I choose not to be certified.
Would getting Certifications like below help my career?
Definitely Maybe. It probably matters where in the world you intend to work, and for what kinds of companies.
I tried to explore that question a while back. In my locale, I concluded that the answer is "It probably won't matter":
http://www.allthingsquality.com/2010/04/software-qa-certifications-aid-to.html
I'm finding in the UK more recruitment agencies are asking for ISEB/ISTQB Foundation Certificate, not sure whether this is required by companies using them, or they are using it as a 'quality gauge'. Agencies tend to know little or nothing about testing so this may be their only tool at their disposal.
May be possible that having a certificate means you get an interview for a role and if you aren't you don't?
I've been in testing for 20+ years (and I've never need or felt the urge to sit one of the exams) IMHO based on colleagues I've worked with, I wouldn't be able to tell who was and wasn't certified unless I had interviewed them and in was on their CV/Resume.
Mark.
You have one year of experience with the Banking and Finance Industry, that's good! Experienced or not, having a certification is good and proves that you have knowledge and know how to use the knowledge. Yes, it's helpful for your career. Put the certification and your one year experience as a bonus. HR will be interested in hiring you from this perspective.
May I suggest to you, a basis tester certification from ISTQB, which is known as CTFL. After getting this certification, you can add/upgrade with advance tester certification from ISTQB.
Certification boards offer certification because they want the corporate business to have trust in testers and make it look professional.
It might help you land a first job, but in my experience hiring, certs are no indication of a good hire, beyond teaching some technical language.
If you mean for getting a job,
Well, many companies and hiring managers prefer hiring a certified person, be it for development or for testing. For many it is kind of a proof that you are qualified enough. Many others like to show off to their clientele that they have so many certified staff that will be employed to work on their project. Some don't really understand the what and how of things so for them certification is like THE QUALIFICATION for a person to be eligible/suitable for the job. So it may help you land a job in several places.
For learning Testing,
I don't really think so it'll help. Most certification course out there may only teach you terminologies and present it to you as the standards of testing. BUT, there really are not standards and there is no better way of learning and improving your testing skills than to practice it, get it reviewed by people (experts/friends/non-testers/technical people) and improvise. You should also read blogs, article and books on testing and quality. You can also get ideas for testing from other books, your daily life activities, places you visit or any thing for that matter. You can solve puzzles to improve your logic and ability to do critical thinking. You might also want to learn various other things to gain domain knowledge for the projects you test so that you can generate more and better test ideas. All of this will not come with the certificate or the course you take for it. It'll all come from your passion and interest in testing and eagerness to be a better tester than you were yesterday.
