This is the question I have asked Jiri Berka, a QA Lead at Oriflame Software in the Czech Republic. Jiri has a degree in computational linguistics. He started as a QA Analyst and worked his way up to a QA Lead and Manager. As such, he hires QA Engineers/Software Testers regularly. That is why I asked him whether a tech degree is important when applying for a Software Tester/QA Engineer position and what does it take to become a successful QA Engineer/Software Tester.
Hello Jiri, 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 have a tech background so it probably was not hard for you to become a QA Engineer and later a QA Lead, right? Do you still remember your first QA Engineer job interview?
Hi Helena, good question. It is not entirely true that I have a tech background, though 🙂 My studies in computational linguistics were predominantly traditional linguistics, i.e. philology, and the computational aspect was the smaller part of it. It included some lessons at the Masaryk Univerity’s Faculty of Informatics, e.g. basic lessons of Python and other technical stuff. So I suppose that this technical part of my studies probably did help me to get my first job as a tester after my graduation.
As I was already familiar with the basics of programming from university, it wasn’t very hard for me to prepare for the interview which I knew upfront was going to include some basics of SQL and also some fundamental theory of software testing. This is obviously not difficult either, one just needs to do some reading beforehand.
So my first interview wasn’t very difficult compared to some I underwent later, but I was also a little bit lucky (yes, luck is essential!) as I met very nice people in the interviews who maybe saw my potential and were keen to hire me. But what counted most and still does for the vast majority of the junior QAs out there and their first interviews is: Enthusiasm, willingness to learn new things and ability to use their critical thinking.
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?
Before the covid crisis, it was harder than it is now and sometimes it did take a fair amount of time before we found the right candidate for a QA position, yes. Especially when we were hiring for a more senior profile. Truly experienced QAs are naturally more scarce on the job market and perhaps a little bit pickier. It is not so difficult to hire for more junior roles, especially now when the number of candidates has gone up a little bit.
But even with junior profiles, it is always very important for the candidate that they come prepared for the interview. They need to do their ‘homework’ and show the qualities that I have mentioned above. So to answer your question – it is not so hard to hire good QAs if you are a good company. That being said, companies nowadays need to try just as hard as the candidates and be attractive to them.
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?
There are many qualities that make a good software tester, but personally, I value thoroughness the most. Good testers are those who always need to take a step deeper than everyone else in the organization. They make sure that they did not miss something important, for instance, a bug that could be a source of big problems for the users in production which would require immediate fixing. So they need to go into detail and ask themselves questions that no one else dared to ask. So I guess, courage would be the second most desirable quality right after thoroughness 🙂
Do you have any experience with hiring a QA Engineer/Software Tester with a non-technical background?
Yes, and since the job of a software engineer can be largely technical, it is important that these candidates show a good level of willingness to learn new things. No matter how exactly, but they do need to find a way to show it. They can take on an online course, for instance, and talk about it in the interview. There are many free courses out there nowadays and some of them are so good that one does not need to have any technical background whatsoever, even the absolute beginners will understand it.
Without this extra effort, it is extremely hard to be considered for a technical position, in my opinion. It is understandable from the point of view of the tech companies as the stuff they work on every day is getting more and more complex and technical.
Have you ever hired a person who took a coding bootcamp or some kind of quick course but did not have a degree in computer science? If so, was there much difference between people with a degree and a course in technical skills?
Yes, our company recently hired two candidates who underwent a coding boot camp lately. Both of them were girls, by the way, and by saying that, I would generally like to dismiss the popular stereotype of the IT jobs being mainly for boys. That is not true – gender has nothing to do with it, or at least it does not have to.
The coding camps helped them to get the jobs a lot since they already had a good grasp of what coding is about. They knew some basic terminology, which they will hear and need to use in their jobs on a daily basis from now on. Such junior candidates with experience only from coding boot camps or courses are often very motivated which obviously can help them to become more successful than their technically more skilled colleagues in the future. But it all depends.
Since you have been working in the industry for some time, do you believe that there could be any pros to having a more versatile work experience when starting as a QA Engineer/Software Tester?
While technical skills and experience are still valued the most, almost every other type of experience can count as well, to be true. If one previously worked in a call center for instance, well, that could mean that they can speak to people rather well. That is also the kind of skill that can help them to advance their careers rather quickly.
Despite the fact that the jobs in IT are mostly technical these days, one cannot simply live without communicating with other people. We do that a lot (still not quite enough, though!), and we will need to continue doing it. So yes, soft skills still count, sometimes even more than we are able to admit.
Is there an easy way to recognize whether a person without a tech background will have a hard time to learn technical skills? Could perseverance, grit and resourcefulness (like being able to find the answer on the Internet) help even out the lack of a tech degree?
Yes, totally. Attitude is very important, so I can imagine that a technically skilled candidate who is not so open to new things and technologies can be less preferred in some cases than a candidate who doesn’t have as much experience but shows the capability to learn; for instance by being able to answer the same technical question at the second round of the interview which they were not able to answer in the first round. It shows they are curious, willing to learn, and succeed the next time around. If a candidate fears some particular technology or just technical stuff in general, it can be easily recognized in the interview. But it requires some experience on the end of the interviewer as well.
Do you feel like having a testing certification helps to become a successful QA Engineer/Software Tester with or without a tech background? If so which one?
I personally have the ISTQB certification and I think it can help. Although from my personal experience the companies look much less at the CVs and certifications attached to them than they did in the past. Nowadays, they prefer to look at the candidate as a whole, as a person with all their personal abilities and yes, their flaws. Which is something that is better done in personal interviews. They need to see the candidate, hear them and speak to them. Get to know them a little bit. However, if a candidate shows a good knowledge of QA principles and this is backed up by a certificate, then sure, even better.
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?
To be honest, there are a variety of things that can be said in an interview that can give the interviewers a bad impression in some way. However, it largely depends on the interviewer and their view of things.
Personally, if I had to recommend one thing, then avoiding anything that might give the company an impression that the candidate is not so much into technology is a good idea. Why would they try to get hired by a tech company in the first place? It is fair for the candidate to expect that the job is going to be technical in some aspects and embrace it beforehand. It is not necessary to be a tech guru. But in the heart, there needs to be a passion for it.
Is there anything else you would like to add that could help prospective QA candidates without tech background when looking for a software testing job?
Don’t be afraid to fail. We all have tried many times and almost as many times have failed. The more successful person, the more failures they have experienced in their past. As through failures we learn and therefore become more skilled and experienced.
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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