Feeling Stuck in My Career – Need Advice to Move Forward

“I have 6 years of experience in manual testing. One of the biggest mistakes I made was joining TCS as my first company. The second mistake was believing that TCS was like a government job with job security, and I assumed I would retire there. As a fresher, I had no idea that TCS offered very low salary increments, not even up to market standards. By the time I realized this, it was too late, and this mindset made my career progression difficult.

For the first 4 years, I worked as a functional tester, primarily doing manual web-based testing. Due to the repetitive nature of the work, I started feeling like I was forgetting the knowledge I had gained during my B.Tech. This led to a decline in my confidence. I tried applying for jobs at other companies, but since my experience was limited to manual functional testing, I struggled to get interview calls. As a result, my confidence dropped even further.

Hoping to gain better experience, I decided to switch internally to an ETL testing project. I thought this would allow me to gain hands-on experience in ETL testing and eventually help me transition to a better opportunity. However, my luck didn’t favor me—the project wasn’t doing real ETL testing as I had expected. There were no proper stages, and it wasn’t pure ETL testing. After a year, the project ended, and I was placed into another random project within the same account. Unfortunately, in that project, no one really knew what they were doing, and I didn’t gain much knowledge. Eventually, the project contract was canceled, leaving me in a difficult situation.”

In 2024, I started taking automation courses in Selenium and Java. After completing the course, I again tried for an internal switch. Unfortunately, the projects I applied for required hands-on experience in automation testing. On top of that, they mentioned that clients are now looking for Playwright instead of Selenium.

Once again, my confidence took a hit. I had hoped that learning Selenium would clear my path and even help me switch to a better opportunity, but that plan also went in vain.

Now, I’m starting to feel really anxious about my future. The tech world is evolving so fast—Playwright has already started replacing Selenium, and just when I began learning Selenium, it already feels outdated. I can’t help but feel like I’m falling behind.

With 6 years of experience, I fear that switching to another company will be even more challenging. I’m frustrated with the salary and projects at TCS, but I don’t know what to do next.

I would really appreciate any guidance or advice on how to regain my confidence and move forward in my career.