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I recently read about 15 resumes for tester positions on my team. None of them told us anything about how well the candidate can test.
Here is what I saw:
- All candidates list a ton of ”technologies” they are familiar with (e.g., .Net, Unix, SQL, XML, MS Office)
- They also list a bunch of off-the-shelf testing tools (e.g., TestDirector, LoadRunner, QuickTest Pro, SilkTest, BugZilla)
…So far I don’t know anything about how well they can test.
- All candidates string together a bunch of test buzz words…something like, “I know white box testing, gray box testing, black box testing, stress testing, load testing, functional testing, integration testing, sanity testing, smoke testing, regression testing, manual testing, automated testing, user acceptance testing, etc.”
…as if I would be thinking, “yes, but do you know Glass Box Testing? That’s really what we’re looking for.”
- Some candidates will say something like “I wrote a 50-page test plan”, or “I’m responsible for testing an enterprise application used by 1000 users”
…okay, so how well can you test? To be fair, this is a difficult skill to convey in a resume and perhaps I am just not good at reading between the lines and determining which candidates would thrive as testers on my team. However, the candidate would have probably gotten an instant interview if they had included any of these:
- My approach to testing is as follows…
- See my software testing blog for my opinions on how to test.
- My favorite testing books and blogs are…
- I enjoy testing because…
Sigh. I guess the modern resume has not advanced far enough to reflect candidate traits to said extent. That’s why the interview questions will be so important. I get to participate in my first interview tomorrow and I have come up with a list of fun questions/activities to help me see how well the candidate tests. One of them will be to “Test that light switch over there on the wall completely.” (if the candidates are cool enough to read my blog, they’ll have a head start).
What are your favorite tester interview questions?
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