  This study attempts to understand motivators and de-motivators that influence
the decisions of software students to take up and sustain software testing
careers across three different Asian countries, i.e., China, India, and
Malaysia. The re-search question can be framed as How many software students
across different Asian geographies are keen to take up testing careers, and
what are the reasons for their choices? Towards an answer, we developed a
cross-sectional but simple survey-based instrument. In this work, we
investigated how software students perceived the software testing role. The
results from China and India revealed that students are not very keen on taking
up a software tester career, but the Malaysia students show a more positive
attitude towards software testing. The study also pointed out the importance of
considering software testing activities as a set of human-dependent tasks and
emphasized the need for further re-search that examines critically individual
assessments of software testers about software testing activities. This
investigation can academics involved in software testing courses to understand
the impacting factors on the motivation and de-motivators of their students, as
well as to try convey positive view of testing as challenging and requires
critical thinking and innovative ideas.
