A Software Tester plays an important role in the development of new IT programs.
To become a software tester you would normally gain experience of software development through University or from a previous experience. Any employer will expect you to be very technical in your knowledge and ability and have a lot of experience in different platforms and languages. You will also be expected to know the software testing lifecycle.
The languages you will be required to know are ones such as: SQL and programming languages such as PHP, .NET and Java. These programming languages change frequently so it is very important to keep your skills as up to date as possible or you will find you are lagging behind.
A software tester will test a new piece of software to ensure that it works and is ready for the outside world. A tester will need to put the software through its paces to try and find any faults with it and each stage of development. Once the new software has been seen as a faultless program then its time for its functional testing, customer scenario testing, stress and performance testing, as many tests to ensure that when this goes live it will work flawlessly.
To be a good software tester you must have a good understanding of the software development process, be able to understand the business that you are working in and how this software can help. You must have excellent communication skills, good presentation skills, be able to understand technical information and translate to not so techy people and be able to work to usually very tight deadlines under pressure.
It will depend on the company that you work for and the size of the team as to hours and days of work. Usually they are Monday to Friday normal work times however depending on the deadlines you may need to work extended hours and similarly with a smaller company and team.
The most important factor of any software job is to keep your skills as up to date as possible, seek out courses, many of them are online and that way you will stay ahead of the crowd.