Do companies really judge candidate’s testing ability in interviews? Do they ask the questions that really judge the candidate’s skill? What questions should be asked to judge the candidate for software testing field? What is the key process to hire good candidates for software testing positions?
Ok, I am asking to many questions without giving answer to any of it. Well, each question mentioned above will require a separate post to address the problem fairly. Here we will address in short about - How to hire the right candidates for software testing positions?
Companies or interviewers, who are not serious about hiring right candidates, often end with hiring poor performers.
What I mean by “Not serious” here?
- They don’t know why and for what post they are hiring a candidate.
- They either fake or fail to post the exact job opening details.
- Or they don’t want to hire skilled performers at all. Hmm, jealousy might be the key here!
Whichever is the reason, there is definitely loss of organization. Loss in terms of both revenue and growth.
If you need answer to these questions, here is an informative video from Pradeep Soundararajan - Consulting tester of Satisfice Inc in India. He explained what is the current situation of software testing interview process in India and how interviewers are wrong in selecting questions to be asked to candidates. A nice start to spread the awareness and importance of software testing interviews.
Current Software Testing Interview situation:
Click on the bottom right button to see the video in full screen.
You can watch his more video’s on software testing here.
Do not forget to comment your experience on software testing interviews, either as an interviewer or as a candidate.
Related article: Choosing software testing as your career.
31 comments ↓
This is a fact in companies where they don’t take software testing itself seriously, whatever is the reason.
When I was interviewed for testing position in my current company there i gave three technical + 1 HR interview and same procedure what they follow for developer hiring.
informative video. thanks to vijay and pradeep.
I believe hiring right candidates for software testing positions should be the top priority for any organization and there should not be any compromise in this.
Hi…..
to many… too many
Nice site for knowledge sharing……
Thanks
very nice site
Send me Testing tips
if there is any requirement in testing jobs please give reference im also an istqb certified tester.So please tell me if there is any vacancy is there k bye my mail id is
vinodkumar@primora.net
nice answers if there is any requirement please inform to me on this mail-id ajbbgun@gmail.com
I agree with Pradeep for the bad state of testing interviews in SOME companies.
But Pradeep, in video you mentioned somewhere that there are few typical questions interviwers ask to candidates, like what is the difference between smoke and sanity testing. etc.. I think such questions even though asked by thousands of interviewers, are good to know how candidate think on such confusing questions. Even to see if he/she gets confused or able to handle it nicely, forget about the actual answer.
Rest I agree what you say about improving on interview process.
@Shantanu,
But Pradeep, in video you mentioned somewhere that there are few typical questions interviwers ask to candidates, like what is the difference between smoke and sanity testing. etc.. I think such questions even though asked by thousands of interviewers, are good to know how candidate think on such confusing questions.
Every interview has a mission - to check if a candidate suits the opening the organization has.
If the job would demand a candidate to keep answering such questions then it might make sense to ask such questions. There is a limited time that you can interview a candidate and I think it is a good idea to not ask such questions and ask questions that helps in understanding if the candidate fits the role.
Instead of spending time asking questions like “Difference between Sanity and Smoke testing”, an interview would be successful if they ask a candidate to sit in front of a PC in their office premises, show a bug and ask the tester to investigate the bug.
This helps in understanding the kind of experiments that a candidate performs which helps in understanding the “bug investigation skill” of a tester.
Hi every body iam searching job on testing 2+ if u know any openings plz forword to my id. rakeshreddi83@gmail.com
this is very useful site for thet testers..nice posting,,
Job seekers have to be sensible. For instance, posting Hi every body iam searching job on testing 2+ if u know any openings plz forword to my id. rakeshreddi83@gmail.com like this doesn’t get them anywhere and moreover this is not the right place to post it.
If they would have understood that they might have got a job by now.
There is a jobs section in this same website and there is an announcement for fresher recruitment there. Those people who are looking for a job should ideally look for openings there. If they don’t know to find where the job posting is, do you think they would “find” a job?
Hey, the trend of giving step motherly treatment to QA is no more. It was driven with a whip when customers started putting pressure on deliverability.
@Lakshmi Narayanan,
Hey, the trend of giving step motherly treatment to QA is no more. It was driven with a whip when customers started putting pressure on deliverability.
Do you mean earlier people were not putting a pressure of the quality of releases they were getting from vendors?
Do you mean in all parts of the world QA/Test Engineers
are treated well?
Do you mean all people will be proud to say they are testers, in all parts of the world?
I don’t think all testers have build credibility - among their developers, their management, their customers, their customers’ customers and with other testers.
You may want to go through this: http://www.testrepublic.com/fo.....ic%3A31602
They don’t know why and for what post they are hiring a candidate.
- They either fake or fail to post the exact job opening details.
- Or they don’t want to hire skilled performers at all. Hmm, jealousy might be the key here!
I do agree with above statement. Test engineers are not treated well. A kind of step children treatment we get. But I strongly disagree with the fact that it happens in every organisation.
Only small organisation, which does not have proper process running tends treat test engineer like a data entry operator. At one company, statement came as “office boy can perform the job of tester” Only happens where management does not know anything about Testing.
But companies like HCL and all do give proper importance to every job profile.
I attended an interview at HCL weeks back. Though I didn’t succeed but I enjoyed interview process. At the very begining, HR explained about the rounds of interview one has to go through. The technical round were so informative. The interviewer was explaining every terms & concepts like interviewee.
So its not like testers are not treated well everywhere. It depends on the organisation, How mature there process are and how much they know about testing?
Cheers
Kishore
hi friends i am new to testing so i would like to learn the manual testing any one help me
my mail id srilaxmi2004@gmail.com
thank you
now i am in US so i don’t have a chance to join in any in-
stute so please help me
Hi srilakshmi this softwaretestinghelp site is very good for begineers..do u have any doubts ask,,
Any Doubts Reqarding QTP … iam Glad to help you all
hi Anil in qtp project will they use only the cheeck points or the other things??
hi Anil Reddy please tell me what is tress structure , and bug investigation skills ,what are the scripting languages,and wha t is TSL script.
I don’t get any response to my questions???
I don’t understand what is the use of mentioning email?very disappointing
Hello sir i have interview on 2 nov 2008 for the post of sotware testing but i am fresher completed my BE in ISE so i don’t know what all things to be prepared and so please can guys help…….
Hi all, Iam new to testing. Plz help me how to start preparing for interview?
sir i need ur help as im a fresher from BSc group with math physics and electonics optionals and i need to prepare for my interview
my questions are
How to initialize the software skills?
what are the possible questions would be asked during interview?
i have a lot of tension regarding the job, iam recently completed my testing course. i want a job, i dont have any reference and recommendations etc i have sufficient knowledge. please do the entry level help for me
sujani_2008@yahoo.com
If u have first class through out the career and with good communication skills once send your resume to me at vinodkumar@primora.net or call me at my mobile no. 093906113222…thank you
i wish u wont miss this chance
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