I changed my career to tech without a tech degree. Thankfully, I did not have a problem finding a QA Engineer job. Then I heard that it can be hard to find a good QA Engineer/Software Tester candidate.
That made me wonder why.
Could the lack of tech degree be the reason? To find out I started interviewing various QA Leads from various countries about this.
So let’s find out what my next interviewee thinks…
Vladimir Dolejs, a QA Lead from Barclays in the Czech Republic, agreed to tell me his experience and opinion on the subject. Vladimir has a tech background and worked as an IT Engineer as well as QA Manager in multiple companies. He hires QA Engineers/Software Testers so he can give us a good opinion on the matter.
Hello Vladimir, thank you for accepting to do an interview with me! Your answers will help my readers when deciding if they should become Software Testers/QA Engineers without a tech background. You have a tech degree and you worked as an IT Engineer. Why did you switch into the QA Manager position? What do you like about QA? Was it hard to get a QA Manager position?
Thanks Helena. I will be happy to share my experience and hope that it will help your readers.
Changing position to QA Manager was quite a natural process. I have been in the same position in the company for a long time. I slowly began to look for new challenges. Coincidentally my line manager left and I decided to apply for his position. I saw this as an opportunity to better influence the testing process and to put improvements into practice.
Getting a position was not so difficult, but it was also a lucky coincidence.
As a QA Manager you take part in hiring new QA Engineers/Software Testers. In your opinion, is it hard to find good quality QA Engineers/Software Testers in the Czech Republic? And if so why is that?
Yes, it is very demanding. One of the reasons is certainly the great demand on the market for experienced professionals. I am currently looking for automated testing positions. Here is an extra problem – developers don’t want to do this kind of job and manual testers do not have enough necessary skills.
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?
A good tester must be both detail-oriented as well as being able to see the bigger picture. He/She must be able to take responsibility to get things done. Of course, communicativeness helps a lot as well orientation to customers and also something like common sense. Good tester must be self-confident and must be able to actively share ideas.
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 as a Software Tester in your opinion?
Yes, having a versatile background is good. For example, business owners and users of software/app/systems can be good testers. So pro is definitely the deep knowledge of the tested system and knowledge of how the system should work and should/can be changed. Those users also have deep knowledge of associated processes and their nuances, which is not so easily noticed by QA testers.
However, I believe that it is good to at least take some testing methodology training: how to test effectively, how to report bugs, how to use testing tools…
Is there a big difference in technical skills between QA Engineer/Software Tester with the technical and non-technical background?
It depends on the specific person. They can have a technical background, but only theoretical knowledge with no interest to keep the knowledge up to date and without the desire to apply it in practice. On the other hand, there can be a person without a technical background, but following actual trends, self-learning necessary skills, and applying the skills in personal projects.
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?
I am able to check actual technical skills and to check the motivation and soft skills of candidates. Based on that I can estimate how the candidate will be able to respond to future challenges.
Do you feel like having a testing course, coding bootcamp, or a testing certification helps to become a successful QA Engineer/Software Tester when not having a tech (bachelor in computer science) background? If so do you find some courses, bootcamps, certifications to be better than the others?
I have good experience with PluralSight courses. But there are many subscription-based services, where you are able to find good content for almost every area you are interested in. I would recommend studying at least these areas:
Software methodologies – Agile, Testing methodologies and techniques,
SQL basics, one programming language – Java, Python, Javascript;
some open source libraries used in testing – Selenium, Rest Assured, Jasmine…
Certifications can be good motivation for learning and they also give some idea to employers that the candidate is expanding his knowledge and was able to pass some kind of exam.
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?
Yes, you mentioned it. When I am looking for a QA Engineer for automation, I don’t want to hear that the candidate is too junior for a developer position. So they want to try test automation first and after gaining some experience apply for the developer position again.
Is there anything else you would like to add that could help prospective QA/Software Testing candidates without tech background when looking for a software testing job?
Follow actual trends, continuously expand your knowledge, apply it in practice and don’t be afraid to accept new challenges.
Thank you so much for making time to answer these questions. I believe that your input will bring clarity to a lot of people. Especially those who are thinking of changing their career into tech as a QA Engineer/Software Tester!!!
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