You Don’t Need a QA Automation Title to Claim Experience. Here’s What I Mean…

Matviy Cherniavski

Jul 25 (edited) • Career Friday

If you've ever been asked about your QA Automation experience and caught yourself saying:

❝𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒍, 𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕...❞

❝𝑰'𝒎 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒖𝒕, 𝒔𝒐...❞

❝𝑰'𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓...❞

⛔ 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲.

This keeps tripping up most Manual Testers making the switch:

They think they need a paycheck doing QA Automation to claim they have "REAL" experience.

This mindset isn't just wrong. It's factually incorrect.

🧠 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 = 𝗦𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝘃𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 + 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝘃𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗲

Notice what's missing? A paycheck.

Experience doesn't require someone else to validate it with a job title.

If you woke up this morning not knowing how to run a Playwright test, and by tonight you can do that… that's real experience. Period.

𝗦𝗼, 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗤𝗔 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲

🧬 Learning theory - Understanding testing principles and automation best practices

🐍 Learning Python/frameworks - Every line of code teaches you something new

🚀 Building personal projects - Shows initiative and real problem-solving skills

🤖 CI/CD pipeline work - Setting up GitHub Actions or any automation pipeline

🛰️ GitHub projects - Your commit history proves consistent work

🕵️‍♂️ Testing real applications - Practicing on live sites, apps, and APIs

🧩 Coding interview prep - Programming challenges are automation in pure form

Basically... if you can explain what you did, why you did it, and what you learned, it's experience.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲:

🔴 Wrong Answer:

"Well, I don't really have real experience yet, but I've been learning Python and Playwright on my own..."

🟢 Right Answer:

"I've been working on automation projects for the past six months. I built a complete test suite for an e-commerce application using Python and Playwright, integrated it with GitHub Actions for CI/CD, and solved several challenging issues around dynamic elements and API testing."

See the difference? Same person. Same experience. Completely different impact.

𝟯 𝗪𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗜𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀:

🎯 𝗕𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰. 𝗔𝘀 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝘀 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲.

Don't just say "I built a testing framework."
Say: "I built a testing framework using Python 3.7 and the latest Playwright, I implemented custom functions for better logs to also print a timestamp, and created reusable page objects for a 15-page e-commerce flow."

Specificity proves you actually did the work, not just read about it.

✍ 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗜𝘁 𝗮𝘀 "𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸" 𝗡𝗼𝘁 "𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴".

Never say: "I was just learning Playwright."
Always say: "I was working on a project using Playwright."

One sounds like a beginner. The other sounds like a professional who gets things done.

🗣️ 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆.

For every project you mention, prepare to explain:

Why did you need it - What problem were you solving
Your tool choices - Show your decision-making process
The end goal - Demonstrate you think in business terms
What you learned - Prove you reflect and improve

💬 Example story

"𝑰 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒇𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒖𝒂𝒍 𝒕𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆. 𝑰 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝑺𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒖𝒎 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒐𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒏 𝒘𝒆𝒃 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒕-𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒎𝒔. 𝑴𝒚 𝒈𝒐𝒂𝒍 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 30 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒖𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕, 𝑰 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝑷𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝑶𝒃𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒍𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒙 𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔."

🏆 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗘𝗹𝘀𝗲.

Before any interview, sit down and document: