A weekly source of software testing news
ISSUE #10 - Apr 9, 2017
This week we read up on hiring and interviewing for QA / test roles. I have seen the challenges of staffing a strong Quality Engineering team first hand, and continue to be on the lookout for better ways of sourcing and screening candidates.
Where do testers come from? Most people fell into testing in a variety of accidental ways, according to this informal survey. Keep this in mind when looking at resumes, as good test engineers are likely to be a motley crew, not following any particular mold:
https://dojo.ministryoftesting.com/lessons/testers-the-origin-story
How to hire a junior tester:
http://katrinatester.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/how-do-you-hire-junior-tester.html
How Dan Ashby (a known figure in agile testing world) interviews testers, laid out on a one-pager mindmap:
https://danashby.co.uk/2015/12/07/how-i-interview-testers/amp/
Training / exercise for improving or interviewing a tester. There’s odd bias in the article to assume that most testers will fail miserably. Not the ones I know…
https://www.stickyminds.com/article/next-generation-exercises-software-testers
A basic selection of questions for a tester interview, and additional “soft” interview questions:
https://blog.gurock.com/tester-qa-interview-questions/
https://www.qasymphony.com/blog/20-best-software-tester-interview-questions/
Use testing challenges in interviews, such as developing testcases for a palindrome app:
https://blog.gurock.com/improve-software-tester-qa-interviews/
http://blackboxpuzzles.workroomprds.com/
These testing challenges target web apps. Note that my team only got 14/18 on Challenge #1 and concluded it must be broken :-) If you manage to get all 18, please email me, as we remain puzzled.
http://testingchallenges.thetestingmap.org/
You know that “how would you test a pen?” type of interview questions? (I consider them harmful and do not use them in interviews, hence not mentioned above; they are an amusing thought exercise, though.) This blog seems to have all the answers… they covered 5 household items at the time I looked.
http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2007/10/howto-test-coffeeespresso-maker.html
Is it worth getting a testing certification? This tester says no to ISTQB (“got bored quite quickly”) but yes to BBST. To be honest, I had not heard of either, or even of the concept of being a certified tester, before discovering recently that a number of testing conferences run certification classes prior to the actual conference day. I haven’t met a certified tester yet. This might be more of a European thing…
https://club.ministryoftesting.com/t/are-software-testing-certifications-worth-it/259
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