From QA to front-end in six weeks

Lin (a pseudonym) spent three years in QA at a mid-size fintech, most of it writing test automation. The goal was to write product code full time. The worry was familiar: was the switch still realistic in this market, and would anyone read a CV with no front-end title on it?

I kept rewriting my CV and getting nowhere. What I actually needed was someone to tell me honestly what was missing, and what was not.

Week one: an honest inventory

The first conversations mapped what was already there: solid JavaScript from four automation frameworks, real CI experience, and a tester's eye for edge cases. JobExpress compared that against live junior front-end postings and named the gap precisely: component-framework depth, and public proof of building product features.

Weeks two to five: closing the gap

• One framework learned deeply instead of three learned shallowly, with the roadmap broken down week by week
• Two small production-style projects, a booking widget and a dashboard, built to look like work rather than tutorials
• The CV rewritten to lead with engineering: automation projects reframed as shipped code, each bullet with a number

Week six: aimed applications

No mass applying. Eleven applications went to roles JobExpress verified as currently open and junior-friendly, each CV tailored to the posting's own wording. Four passed screening, three turned into interview loops, and two ended in offers. Lin started as a front-end engineer eight weeks after the first conversation.

Names are pseudonyms and some details are blurred to protect privacy.