What is software testing?What is its scope to get a job?

Software testing is the process used to measure the quality of developed computer software. Usually, quality is constrained to such topics as correctness, completeness, security, but can also include more technical requirements as described under the ISO standard ISO 9126, such as capability, reliability, efficiency, portability, maintainability, compatibility, and usability. Testing is a process of technical investigation, performed on behalf of stakeholders, that is intended to reveal quality-related information about the product with respect to the context in which it is intended to operate. This includes, but is not limited to, the process of executing a program or application with the intent of finding errors. Quality is not an absolute; it is value to some person. With that in mind, testing can never completely establish the correctness of arbitrary computer software; testing furnishes a criticism or comparison that compares the state and behaviour of the product against a specification. An important point is that software testing should be distinguished from the separate discipline of Software Quality Assurance (SQA), which encompasses all business process areas, not just testing. Today, software has grown in complexity and size. The software product developed by a developer is according to the System Requirement Specification. Every software product has a target audience. For example, a video game software has its audience completely different from banking software. Therefore, when an organization invests large sums in making a software product, it must ensure that the software product must be acceptable to the end users or its target audience. This is where Software Testing comes into play. Software testing is not merely finding defects or bugs in the software, it is the completely dedicated discipline of evaluating the quality of the software. There are many approaches to software testing, but effective testing of complex products is essentially a process of investigation, not merely a matter of creating and following routine procedure. One definition of testing is "the process of questioning a product in order to evaluate it", where the "questions" are operations the tester attempts to execute with the product, and the product answers with its behavior in reaction to the probing of the tester. Although most of the intellectual processes of testing are nearly identical to that of review or inspection, the word testing is also used to connote the dynamic analysis of the product—putting the product through its paces. Sometimes one therefore refers to reviews, walkthroughs or inspections as "static testing", whereas actually running the program with a given set of test cases in a given development stage is often referred to as "dynamic testing", to emphasize the fact that formal review processes form part of the overall testing scope. As it is required in every phase of the software development cycle it has got a huge scope and huge employment opportunities....they are also paid well.

Software testing is using software to find bugs. How much you do in the job depends on the employer. I turned down a testing job in mobile software last year because I was going to be sitting in a room, testing software, filling out a report which I'd send to the developer - meaning I'd get no actual coding experience. On the other hand my last job I had to test software, report, and then fix it, which was a lot more fun. So the duties depend on whether or not the company has seperated the testing and developing groups. Some companies actually don't develop, they just get hired to test software and report the issues so they would never be able to let testers develope. Other companies with proprietary software would probably be more inclined to let a tester also debug. Things they would want in a job would be a knowledge of how software development works, as well as a logical thought process and an attention to detail and an understanding of what is most important (ie a liver dialisys machine has two bugs - one makes it print out reports twice, the other makes it randomly shut off, which one is worse?).

Software testing is mere like a data entry job in IT world. 80% IT engg. r pushed into this. Zero scope!!

As it relates to finding a job, they are computerized assessments testing your skill level with certain software like MS Word, Excel, PPT, etc. They can also assess typing speed. Usually, companies have minimum scores that you must achieve on the tests in order to move forward in the hiring process. So, they are a very important step in the hiring process. If you know what software you will be tested on, practice it so you'll be prepared.