Here is another article from my series of interviews of QA Leads about whether a tech degree is necessary to be a successful QA Engineer/Software Tester.
Lewis Prescott, QA Automation Lead at Cancer Research UK (CRUK) agreed to answer my questions. Lewis does not have a tech degree but majored in psychology. He worked in multiple professions including Counselor, Business Solutions Support, QA Engineer, and QA Lead. That means he is the perfect person to tell us whether a QA Engineer/Software Tester needs a tech degree to be successful.
Hello Lewis, thank you for accepting my interview! I believe that it will help a lot of people to understand the in and outs of getting a Software Tester/QA Engineer job. As I saw in your LinkedIn, you don’t have a tech background.
Was it hard for you to get a QA Engineer job? Since you have a degree in psychology did that help you getting QA jobs?
I was lucky enough to find a local company after university willing to give me a chance as an apprentice. This wasn’t the salary you would expect alongside an undergraduate degree or a specific role I was looking for related to my field psychology. As I was looking to work in Psychometric testing at the time, analysing people. However I was willing to start by learning how businesses worked and this ultimately gave me the exposure to software that launched my interest in QA. From there I managed to get a place on the Ten10 (formerly The Test People) graduate scheme to learn the trade of testing. This was a great place to start from me, learning the basics and gaining experience alongside experts in the industry.
Now you work as a QA Lead so I suppose you are participating in hiring new QA talents. Do you feel like it is hard in the UK to find good quality QA Engineers/Software Testers? And if so why?
I don’t know whether it’s hard to find quality QA Engineers or whether as a hiring manager we don’t know what we are looking for. Whether that be creating the right job specification or advertising the role to the right people. The role is so diverse and has so many different approaches, each organisation does things slightly differently. So I think finding someone with the same experiences and has the right approach can be very difficult.
What kind of personality are you looking for in a QA Engineer/Software Tester usually? What personality types make a good QA Engineer/Software Tester in your opinion?
Constant learner and passion for their craft with excellent communication skills (not exactly specific personality traits but attitudes). In my opinion, you can teach someone the skills and technical requirements for the role. What is very difficult to teach is someone’s ability to learn and pick up concepts quickly and take it in their stride.
Software testing requires the ability to communicate your acquired knowledge in a context that is complex. Also, the software moves so fast, you have to have the resilience and agility to move with it. Someone’s desire to learn and constantly improve themselves is far more important to me than the tools or technical skills they have years of experience in.
Do you have a good experience with QA Engineers/Software Tester applicants with non-technical background? Are there any pros and cons to having a more versatile work experience in your opinion?
Absolutely, most of the people on my graduate scheme didn’t have computer science degrees. With the right guidance and space to learn the technical skills anyone can code. I used to teach 9-11 year olds programming in python (Code Club), each of them came with their own approach and levels of creativity.
There are so many different ways to solve a problem in programming and software, the core to this is problem-solving. If you can problem solve then you can work as a QA. Versatility is key to a successful team I think, especially women in tech bring a much more tactile and logical approach in my experience. The cons can be that you end up talking about all the different approaches to the solution for far too long rather than solving it (who doesn’t love a good discussion though).
Is there a big difference in technical skills between QA Engineer/Software Tester with the technical and non-technical background?
There is no difference, it’s not your background that defines your technical skills. It’s your experience and drive to learn new techniques. A testers approach should be whatever is best for the team and provides the most value to the task in hand. Therefore whether that requires getting stuck in to code or delving in to the logs, there is no reason why you can’t pair with a developer or setup a mob programming session to achieve these goals.
In my experience I have always wanted to be as close to the code as possible in order to understand my testing approach on the deepest level, but that this not the only approach to take. I have seen many successful projects work by taking a team approach to testing where the tester is more of a coach than hands-on. Therefore whatever background you come from, you don’t need to let the technical skills define your testing approach.
Is there a way to recognize whether a person without a tech background will have a hard time to learn technical skills? Could you check that in the interview?
As I mentioned it’s all about problem-solving and your approach to learning. Within an interview, I like to present a problem to the candidate, either a bug on the UI or a bug in the test code. I want to see someone’s approach to firstly finding the root cause and secondly their thought process in how they would tackle it. I’m not looking for the “right” answer, I’m not looking for them to necessarily solve the problem either. I want them to explain their thinking to discover their communication skills and also understand why they chose the solution.
I feel I can learn a lot from whether someone truly understands WHY they are taking that approach.
Do you feel like having a testing certification helps to become a successful QA Engineer/Software Tester when not having a tech background? If so which one?
Personally I don’t see certifications as a marker for a successful engineer. However it does show the drive to gain certification and willing to learn new ideas. Therefore I would not recommend any but would not discourage someone from stating them (unless it’s ISTQB). For me experience and the ability for someone to apply the knowledge they have to a particular scenario is far more beneficial than any certification.
Would you hire young people right after high school too if they are interested in IT, have some pet projects online, and are curious?
100%, curiosity is core to the traits needed in software testing. I love seeing someone’s work on Github to discover their interests and learning experiences. Getting young people into QA, is a great way to get fresh ideas and new perspectives. Gen Z are made for this, the amount of time they spend on their phones and browsing the internet, it’s a no brainer.
What is the one thing (if there is one) that the QA Engineer/Software Tester candidate should not mention in the interview? For example, I heard that some candidates said that they just wanted to try testing or they wanted to do testing only to become developers etc. Would that make an influence on how you decide about such a candidate?
I have a few bugbears, for example, if someone says they want to achieve 100% automation tests or they delivered a bug-free product. These phrases are either impossible or not valuable. One question that I got asked when interviewing for a role myself was “how many tests have you automated”, this really put me off the role as that has no bearing on my ability or the quality of the product.
In terms of someone suggesting they want to try testing or want to use it as a path to becoming a developer, I respect that. I would much rather someone be honest with me than pretend they are passionate about it. In my teams I want engineers to be cross-functional, so the more areas someone wants to try the better.
Is there anything else you would like to add that could help prospective QA candidates without a tech background when looking for a software testing job?
If you are not qualified for a role because you don’t meet all the requirements on the job specification still apply (referring to imposter syndrome). Often job specs state must have a computer science degree, just ignore that and proceed with your application. Get involved in the testing community, whether that be the Ministry of Testing or your local testing meetup. If you are interested in automation testing check out the free resources on Test Automation University (https://testautomationu.applitools.com/). Reach out and find yourself a mentor, I have had amazing QA Leads in the past which have led to me reaching this position myself and I couldn’t have done it without their guidance and support.
Thank you so much for making time to answer these questions. I believe that your input will help a lot of people!!!
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