Help: Salary for tester / QA?

[BoWunder]

I am curious as to what the general salary are for testers, functional testers and/or QA in Denmark. I'm asking since it always seems as if I'm botching the question about salaries when it comes to job applications/interviews.

So far I've always gone with the border-area of 20-30 (usually I just say "somewhere in early 30s"), however this always seems to get a mixed reaction.

Have I been aiming too high all this time? What would you say is a good offer to give at an interview?

[jonaz.dk]

Not sure if any statistics exists on the matter in the local business. And salary depends highly on the individual company. Lot's of small struggling studios. With little money to spare beyond just developing their first title. And a small handful'ish of well established ones. Some might even have pension plans!

20-30 is quite the large gap. My general notion is that QA is not among the highest paid jobs. Not saying it's unimportant or doesn't take certain qualifications to fill properly. It sure is and does for developers to get proper testing of their games.

Early 30s sounds kind of expensive for testing for a lot of games companies would be my general impression. In traditional IT jobs it might not be completely unreasonable?!

Also what are your qualifications? Elite tester with tons of experience filling out detailed technical bug reports or starting out on the first'ish job with little experience?

[AngryAnt]

There are broader statistics to start from, like this one: https://www.skillsearch.com/news/item/g ... ion-survey
According to that, a salary of early 30s is average for a lead dev position in Europe.

That said, there are a lot of factors to consider:
1) Salary in DK tends to skew higher given the higher cost of living - particularly in CPH.
2) DKGames are generally not well funded. The couple of exceptions are salaried closer to non-game IT work in DK, while the remainder is closer to the average described above.
3) Saddened by low DKGame salaries? The SE rates are noticeably lower.
4) As Jonas points out, experience can change your game entirely. Titles are dumb, but seasoned veterans generally have access to "lead"+ salary levels after having dealt with a lot less for years and years. It sucks, but that's how it is today.

Actual in-depth QA work I would guess starts in the early 20s as entry-level, but honestly I would not be inclined to make that hire - preferring in stead to work with a QA house which would then handle the QA team management for me. There are a couple of those in DK and while I don't know the extent to which they cover games, I would definitely try to get my QA start there. As institutions they are great places for testing knowledge, which should make them great places to grow.

[BoWunder]

Also what are your qualifications? Elite tester with tons of experience filling out detailed technical bug reports or starting out on the first'ish job with little experience?

Done a little freelance, though I'll probably peg me as a "starting out" area more than elite.