Today, I had the chance to interview Michael Olawepo, a QA Lead at C2RO in Canada and formerly in the Czech Republic. Michael has a tech degree and has worked on multiple tech positions throughout his career including, among others, QA Engineer, Software Engineer, Product Owner, CTO. As a QA Lead, he hires QA Engineers/Software Testers. So he is a perfect person to ask 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 Michael, 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 right after you finished your degree. Is that right? Do you still remember your first QA Engineer interview?
Well, I can remember and I will say it was one of the interviews that I was extremely unprepared for.
I am not saying, a QA engineer doesn’t require technical skills but the level might vary from product to product and organization to organization. The discipline has also evolved over time, due to the fast-changing nature of the whole industry. So in my opinion it is a very cross functional role. Whatever background you have will always prove useful on the right product and organization.
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 Canada to find good quality QA Engineers/Software Testers? And if so why?
First, at my current company, I have not hired any QA members yet. But in the past, I have hired a remote team from different geographical locations. The skillset to look for is not dependent on the location but a sweet spot between explicit (formal) and tacit (inner wisdom/intuition) knowledge.
I moved to Canada around the beginning of the pandemics, I do not have much of an opinion on the market yet. But there are definitely vibrant engineering communities here from different countries and backgrounds. Whether it is hard or easy hiring good QA talents is a very general question. Canada is diverse and hiring good QA engineers or building a team should not be an issue.
You worked as a QA Engineer and Software Engineer in the Czech Republic before moving to Canada. Do you see any differences between QA Engineer/Software Tester candidates in Canada and the Czech Republic?
Not at all, irrespective of your location the job is very much the same across the industry.
What kind of personality traits are you looking for in a QA Engineer/Software Tester usually? What personality types make a good QA Engineer/Software Tester in your opinion?
Communicative, inquisitive, and most importantly prepared to transition from philomath (lover of learning) to polymath (possessing knowledge across multiple disciplines) on any given product irrespective of the organization.
Do you have a good experience with QA Engineers/Software Tester applicants with non-technical background? For example in my experience, my broader background allows me to look at the product more holistically as a QA (from UX, legal, and business perspective to name a few). Are there any pros and cons to having a more versatile work experience in your opinion?
Yes, I have seen extremely great engineers without a formal engineering background. I believe people with non technical background always bring something unique to the mix. At the end their competency and skill set they bring to the table is all that matters.
Is there a big difference in technical skills between QA Engineer/Software Tester with technical and non-technical (coding bootcamp/testing course/no course) background?
Yes, there are skill differences. In fact, some organizations stress roles such as QA Developer vs Manual QA. The former is expected to code and do some amount of the development task and the later is more heavy on processes and ability to follow existing or create blueprints and tests. In the modern engineering world a competitive QA Engineer position should roll both into one.
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? For example in my case if I write an automation test live at the interview the interviewer can see how I approach the problem rather just seeing if I was able to solve the problem completely.
There are no foolproof interviews but hands-on exercises are a good way to screen candidates. For QA Engineers, there is more focus on
- troubleshooting applications
- basic coding exercises
- designing test cases and a basic understanding of architecture and tools.
Exercises can be live tests or homework depending on what you are looking for.
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 have any testing Certification. But it definitely helps to get one for aspiring QA Engineers.
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 personally don’t see anything wrong with wanting to be a QA Engineer to prepare to become a developer. So my answer will be NO.
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?
Testing is not an easy discipline. I worked for a manager a long time ago and he used to say “If you need an easy job, go and make burgers.” Well, I made burgers before. It’s not exactly an easy job either. My take is that QA has a low entry barrier into software engineering. However, you have to be ready to transform and up your skills to be competitive in the industry.
- If you do not have a technical background, be ready to get technical for the long run.
- Stay up to date with engineering/architecture patterns, tools in the industry.
- Try to know and if possible get a broader understanding of the product you want to test, at least as much as the people who wrote the code.
To speak to the title of your interview, in most cases you do not need a tech degree to be a successful QA Engineer/Software Tester or even Software Engineer for that matter. But you need to be ready to transition into one!
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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