Is a test automation career relevant?

Question

Software testing

Hello!
He started his career as a manual QA, but he almost didn't reach the developer.
Now, after I gained experience and seriously tightened up the gaps in programming knowledge, I had a question of choosing a future career, option 2 itself, either a developer or an automator, purely emotionally I prefer automation, and I don’t want to lose QA experience.
But is this direction relevant, because many companies do not use automation, and in general, it does not pay off on many projects.
Headhunter did not give an idea about the current market, since almost all vacancies do not write salary forks, and there are not very many pure automation vacancies.
And I wanted to know how it is with demand and competition, what do you think about this?
Thanks in advance for your replies, I'd love to hear your opinions.

Answer 1

The relevance of this specialization is only growing. I highly recommend this direction. Jobs can be found in large companies (with a progressive approach in development). Jobs can be found abroad.

Answer 2

Well, you, in principle, understand everything, test automation is now a very narrow specialization. There are pros and cons here. If you try to soberly estimate, then, from the point of view of the career and the future for the automator , the
pluses
are emotionally closer to you
- career growth is faster. Teams of automators are generally smaller, as a programmer you will start as a junior from the bottom of a large pyramid, and it is not difficult to become a senior automator if there are, for example, two automators.
- it is traditionally easier to move into management from testing
- in theory, this area should grow
cons
- there is less money in general
- in poorer times, all sorts of "excesses" such as test automation collapse
- the culture of writing code is generally low
- home-made testing solutions are widespread, relevant only within one company. Of the generally accepted frameworks, perhaps Selenium
Well, look here.

Answer 3

Automator - essentially the same programmer

Answer 4

Development is always more fun

Answer 5

The whole market is now turned on automation. Recruiters respond within a day. Definitely for.