The aim of this paper is to identify the most favourable perceived characteristics of software testers and contrast them with the group of existing software engineers’ characteristics provided by prior research. We conducted a qualitative survey among four software development companies using interviews as a main method for data collection and the thematic-analysis approach for analyzing the data. Our findings describe the characteristics which are perceived as most valuable for a tester based on the working experience accumulated by the participant testers and testing managers. The study findings suggest that there are differences between the characteristics of a software engineer and a software tester, with communication and possessing an IT background being cited as the most frequently favoured characteristics for ensuring a high performing tester.