My next interview about whether a tech degree/background is necessary to be hired as a QA Engineer/Software Tester is with Václav Kroupa, a QA Lead at TireCheck in the Czech Republic. Václav has worked as a Software Tester and QA Lead in multiple companies. He does not have a tech degree which is perfect for the purpose of this article. As a QA Lead, he is hiring QA Engineers and Software Testers so he will be able to tell us first hand whether a tech degree is really necessary to become a successful QA Engineer/Software Tester.
Hello Václav, 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 do not have a tech degree. Was it hard for you to get a Software Tester job? Have you ever felt disadvantaged in your career not having a tech degree?
Hello Helena, I am glad I can try to help you! Yes, you are correct, I do not have a tech degree nor I do have any QA certification to this day, yet here I am.
Actually, the first QA job I started almost right after I finished school was the QA, which was unbelievable 15 years ago. Computers and all tech were always my love so my girlfriend-now-wife found me this job in a small startup company, where I applied and got a job in the first round of the interview. I guess they did not need the tech background. 🙂
Well, yes I sometimes miss not having a tech degree. I imagine if I had it the learning curve would not be so steep in some parts of my job, taking a different approach to software testing, learning to program for automated testing, maybe even interviewing people I am hiring.
I have never had a problem not having a tech degree when looking for a new job, though I have had QA experience after the first job myself.
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 Czech Republic to find good quality QA Engineers/Software Testers? And if so why?
It is quite hard to find good quality QAs, yes. The main reason for me is the hiring agencies. They mostly do not interview the applicants themselves for they have too many to check and no time, so they send everyone they think suits the profile. The job is on us to separate the grain from the chaff and it is a waste of time for everyone.
What kind of personality are you looking for in a QA Engineer/Software Tester usually? What personality types do make a good QA Engineer/Software Tester in your opinion?
Well, firstly the person must fit into our team, so a big part of the interview is a “friendly talk” where we talk things in an informal way. That way we get to know the person a bit. Secondly the person must have a passion, some drive which makes them like the work they are doing, whatever it is. And we also like perfectionists.
Do you have good experience with QA Engineers/Software Tester applicants with a non-technical background? Are there any pros and cons to having a more versatile work experience in your opinion?
I have some experience, but our applicants are usually filtered out by the hiring agency and they have at least some kind of technical background. That said, we are not afraid to hire junior testers with just a few months of experience and shape them to our liking.
Is there a big difference in technical skills between QA Engineer/Software Tester with a technical and non-technical background?
Definitely. Testers with some technical background know their ways around things, they can work on their own straight away and you do not need to supervise them that much. On the other hand, the applicants we hire, that have less to no tech background, tend to do their best to improve their skills to be on par with others in the team and it works. So I guess it’s up to people. If they want to learn, they will.
It may be slower at the beginning and you may have to spend some more time with them as the test leader, but it is time well invested.
Is there a way to recognize whether a person without a tech background will have a hard time learning technical skills? Could you check that in the interview?
We have a 1-hour long test during our interview which checks all kinds of tester/tech-related knowledge and some logical thinking, which helps us to identify the level of ability of the applicant. For us this test is just an indicative and it does not decide whether the applicant succeeded or not (unless it is an absolute disaster).
Would you ever consider hiring somebody right from high school who has good computer skills, is curious, loves learning new things, but possess neither a tech degree nor any other work experience?
Yes.
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?
I do not think it is necessary myself, having said the above about the passion and being driven to find those nasty bugs. But it can definitely help a person who wants to be a tester to get the basic knowledge of the technical terms, workflow and the point of this job. The foundation level of ISTQB should be enough to get this knowledge.
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 how you decide about such a candidate?
Well, we were hiring a few months ago and I can give you one such example from that period. The applicant said: “I am too lazy to learn new things”, feeling no shame. Such a person must have had no self-reflection. That made us laugh after the interview, but it was also the deciding factor not to hire such a person.
It is probably obvious, but anything that makes you look like you are lazy or that you don’t want to learn new things, and that you just want to have a job, any job, should never get out in the open. 🙂
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?
Do not dissimulate, be honest (well, just bear in mind the previous point about being too honest), and prepare well for the interview. If you have no technical background, do at least some Google search about the usual questions interviewers ask and memorize the answers. Don’t worry, you may forget them after the interview, but you will learn them in practice later.
Learn to like the job, to like finding bugs and seeing the final product working flawlessly thanks to you.
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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