How I transitioned from QA to SDET without a CS degree — honest timeline

People ask me this a lot so I'll write it out properly. **Background:** BA in English, worked in manual QA for 3 years at a fintech startup. Zero formal coding training. **Year 1:** Learned Python through "Automate the Boring Stuff" and then started automating my own manual test cases. Terrible code, but it ran. **Year 1.5:** Built a tiny pytest suite for our internal admin tool. Got it merged. That was the moment my manager took me seriously as someone who could code. **Year 2:** Moved to a mid-level SDET role (different company — same company wouldn't promote me because I "didn't have a degree"). 30% salary increase. **Year 3–4 (now):** Senior SDET. I lead a 3-person QA automation team. **Honest advice:** The degree matters less than demonstrated output. But you need to actually ship code that others use — not just learn in isolation. Contribute to your team's test infrastructure, even if it's a small thing.