As Software testers, we keep performing testing activities in various phases of a project. When it comes to testing our own skills, we may not end up choosing an appropriate approach. I am talking about how the interview rounds go and how to face them. The whole article is a very general discussion about the challenges that a tester has to face in an interview.

Let’s start with preparing a CV for software testing job profile.

How to prepare a good CV?
By the term ‘Good’ I mean a CV that describes best about your skills, your expertise, your strengths etc. It’s better not to use a same CV for different types of job profiles. Making slight changes will help to get a call. For e.g. you can highlight the skill set that you posses for the required job like any automation tool or experience in other related automation tools. You can also add about the basic knowledge of any technologies that you posses. This may be an added advantage.

Preparation before the job interview:

Before attending the interview, check the job profile in detail. Understand if the requirement is purely in manual testing, Automation testing or on both. Check if your job profile experience match with what is expected.
The interviewer will mostly stick to questions around the given job profile and what you have mentioned in your CV.  Make sure you can answer questions confidently which are based on your CV. It depends on how the discussion goes between the candidate and the interviewer, which leads to discussion in other areas.

Appear confidently at the time of interview:

In most cases, the interview starts with a brief up about the candidate. One can answer to this question by following a sequence like starting with your Name, what qualifications do you posses, how you started your career as a software tester etc. Some interviewers do not like to hear about personal details like family. So do not proceed with these details unless the interviewer asks for it.

While answering any question tell what you know. Do not try to explain about ideal cases. Interviewers are interested in practical approach, rather than ideal cases. Tell the interviewer how you will go about solving the problems or about your way of tackling things. Do not talk anything negative about any person especially about developers/programmers. If you do so, then it shows that you are not mature enough. Now a days in most of the interviews, scenarios are cited rather than direct question and answer. If the scenario is new to you, take few seconds to think on it and then answer. Do not hurry up things.

The way you present in interviews is very important. Right attitude is very important too. Many managers can judge it easily, if you have really worked on projects or it’s just a fake experience. The confidence level with which you answer makes a strong impression. For any question if you are not sure about the correct answer, just make an attempt. Do not just give up. You can also talk about things that you explored in free time or with your interest. This shows that you take initiative and are a continuous learner as well.

As many of us must have experienced that the interviewers keep asking about the processes that you have followed or are familiar with. One does not need to worry if they have never followed any processes. Following the processes is up to the company and a tester cannot do much regarding that. But of course one can follow some processes for his/her own task (I mean the modules that you own or are in charge of etc). This will not only help to manage things but also inspires other to follow some processes. Any process, which has proven some good results, can be followed. So, instead of blaming others for not following any processes, one can take an initiative to do it. Do not forget that Initiative is one of the qualities that a tester should possess.

One more important point: It’s not necessary that the person who is taking your interview is a person from QA background. A person from developing background can also take software testing job interviews. What I mean to say is the person need not have actually worked on the QA processes. In such case it becomes very important to answer the questions very carefully. It may sound illogical when a person from non-QA background interviews a tester but remember it will be a very good experience as you will get to know how testing is perceived by others.

Over to You:
What’s your experience about software testing interviews? If you want to share some do’s and don’ts please make comments below so that other testers can get benefit from your experience. And finally ‘all the best’ for your testing career!