Software Testing:An underrated skill

Many number of times,people enter the field of testing with a perception that it does not require any special skill.But to the disappointment of all,it is a very creative field and requires lots of brains. As they say,"Its easy to commit a mistake but difficult to find a genuine one " :) .

I believe that it is very underrated skill and this aura is created by none other than the developers. No offense intended,but in my career I have met many developers who think of testers as nothing but just an additional load on the organization.What they forget is,that hadn't the testers been there,owing to their negligence,the software would never have gone live or the customers would have just run away.I don't only blame the developers for that.
Some organizations also think of testers as one level lower to the developers and I want to ask a question here, Why?

In my own organization,I felt this rift. We all were working so diligently for the release of one of our products,the best of the efforts were going in,be it testers,developers,PMs, everyone was trying hard and achieve the milestone. Suddenly we heard about management giving away incentive awards to boost the morale. Everyone was elated and then came the real bet, the incentives for the R&D team and QA team has a difference of INR 5000,R&D gets more.
The reason when asked, "This is how the management has decided and its just a little bit of difference." "Its not about the money", we argued and they said nothing but "concentrate on your work,you are getting the incentives". Hard to believe but it is the truth of the industry.

Agreed,testing(manual) does not need technology but what about the soft skills a tester needs? And when it comes to automation and white box, testers are no less than the developers technologically rather I would say more technically sound because they have to find the problems in the code.
Before erasing it from the mind of people working in the organizations,the organizations themselves have to believe in the equality of the streams.They have to believe that QA and R&D compliment each other.And this does not just have to come in words.Actions always speak louder than words.
And guys remember,testing is not a no brainer's job,so gear up before getting into this field.