As testers gain experience, their skills change and evolve. They begin with very detailed assignments, and grow into planning and reporting assignments. In the brief job summaries below you can see how both the tasks and the communication skills are likely to evolve.
Junior Tester
A Junior Tester is new to testing. This may be their first or second job. They may be a college intern, recent college graduate or often a skilled, adult professional in job transition. Junior Testers typically have a strong working knowledge of one operating system and several common applications (Word Processing, Internet Browser and email). They may have a knack for finding bugs, or have training in how and where to look for bugs. They will be good at executing test cases that already exist. They may need guidance in their communication skills and in how testing fits into this particular company. When a manager asks "How's it going?" they may respond with more information than the asker was looking for.
Mid Level Tester
A Mid Level Tester has 2-5 years experience. They have shipped several products and may have worked on several operating systems. They have a strong knowledge of how to test and how the QA/test process should work in an organization. They know how to divide up a product into testable areas, write test cases, and estimate how long a feature will take to test. They can test with or without a specification for the product or feature, and they can be flexible while at the same time explaining that they know how to do it the "right" way. They may have good written and verbal communication skills. At this point in their careers they are beginning to explore Test Lead roles or more technical testing roles such as automation, white box testing and tools. When a manager asks "How's it going?" they are likely to respond with an insightful comment about the area they are testing or the product as a whole.
Senior Tester
A Senior Tester has over 5 years experience. They have shipped several products, worked on several operating systems, know how to test, and know QA theory thoroughly. They have seen it all and have the war stories to prove it. They know how to write Test Plans, hire testers, estimate and schedule testing or they are very technical, and know a programming or automation language. They may have been a manager and chosen to return to a technical path. They may have good written and verbal communication skills. When a manager asks "How's it going?" they will likely get an answer about the quality of the product to date.
Test Engineer
A Test Engineer has typically done black box testing on at least one product and is familiar with the project life cycle. Some Test Engineers write automation code, some do White Box Testing and others specialize in other types of test tools. When someone asks "How's it going?" ideally a Test Engineer will respond with a level of detail that the asker can understand (for example, technical information to engineers, and summary information to managers in layman's terms).
Test Manager
Test Managers have over five years of experience and have shipped a wide variety of products. Some are process experts, others are technical and some are a hybrid of technology and process. They are skilled at hiring, developing teams and managing the work of Testers and Test Engineers. They have good written and verbal communication skills. One of their most valuable skills is to rely on their experience to foresee and mitigate problems before they occur. When a more senior manager asks "How's it going?" the Test Manager will either respond with a quick summary of the status of several projects, or with a brief summary of the status of the product that is closest to shipping.