As a engineer who is starting his/her career in software testing there are some points to focus on.

1. Think about what can go wrong in a software. When someone thinks that a software is bug free he or she would not be able to find any bugs and the software would be always of high quality for such a user but a tester has to believe that the software is not working as expected unless proven otherwise.

2. Think as a new user. As a user who is using a product for the 1st time he might not be fully aware of how to use the product. So in this endeavour to explore the new product the user might encounter some thing which he or she might not expect. A test engineer needs to develop this mindset.

3. Analytical skills. A test engineer should analyse what could be the possible ways in which a user will use the software and where he could encounter problems. This would help him identify the actual reason why a problem could occur in a software.

4. Good exploration skills. A test engineer should try to explore and dig deep to identify those scenarios as part of his test that can help him uncover defects in the software.

5. Strong observation and monitoring skills. When a user is using a software he has observes the behaviour carefully. A test engineer needs to do likewise.

6. Strong documentation skills in order to document the test scenarios and defects that might be encountered during test scenario execution.

7. Patience and perseverance skills. Users might not face issues with their products immediately. Similarly a test engineer needs to have the necessary patience and wait for the test scenarios to complete their due course to execute.

8. Effective probing and questioning skills. A test engineer should not hesitate to ask questions to the developers of the software as to why a feature is designed or developed the way it's been done so.