If you are thinking about recruiting software testers, then this page may serve as a great place to get your ideas going.
The Masterclass
Dan Ashby presented a Masterclass on how he recruits software testers that's well worth a watch.
Questions To Ask
If you are a bit unsure about how to get the conversation started when trying to interview testers then perhaps try some of these out.
- Why test? (What’s the purpose?)
- Are you a member of The Software Testing Club?
- What are your favourite websites to visit?
- Ask about their favourite or most satisfying bug ever found
- What is your biggest weakness?
- What is your biggest strength?
- How have you improved your skills in the past week? Month? Year?
- What are your top three technical skills?
- Talk about the previous product you worked on. Your experience and how it was tested.
- What is the last book or article you have read on testing?
- What was the last event or conference you went to?
- Give a presentation (with adequate warning of time) to the project team.
- How would you test <this>?
- How would you test a time machine?
- Why do you like being a tester?
- Why don’t you want to be a developer?
- What do you know about the company you are applying to?
- How do you help your colleagues perform their job better?
- What do you think is the best way to make Developer and QA relationship healthy?
- Testing can get sometimes repetitive. How do you keep your team motivated?
- When you don’t have much time, how do you plan and prioritise?
- How do you estimate the testing effort?
- What are your criteria to stop testing?
- When would you use exploratory testing?
- When would you use scripted testing?
- When is a product ready to be released?
- What is a difference between a bug and a defect?
- What are your favourite websites to visit?
- Why do you like being a tester?
- How do you know when to stop testing?
- What was the most interesting bug you ever found?
- How do you learn?
- Would you release a product that included a bug?
Useful Recruitment Resources
We've gathered some useful links from the interwebs that may also provide you with some ideas and inspiration.
- To The Hiring Managers And Recruiters Of Software Testers - Rosie Sherry
- An Awesome Test For Testers. Take The Challenge Now. By Santosh Tuppad
- Please Hire Me – TestCast Podcast
- Agile Tester – Interview Questions – QAStuff
- Writing a Job Description for a Tester – Part I and Part II by Thomas Ponnet
- A discussion on Thomas Ponnet’s Job Description
- Parimala Shankaraiah on hiring testers.
- Markus Gärtner on Answers to Interview Questions
- STC Forum post: of Interview Questions
- STC Forum post: What makes a good employee?
- STC Forum post: Cheesy Interview Question
- Recruiting Software Testers (PDF) by Cem Kaner
- Tips For Interviewing Junior Software Testers - by Cassandra H. Leung
- Top Tips for your CV – by Rob Lambert
- How To Recruit A Tester – by Phil Kirkham
- Show Stopper – I’m Recruiting At The Moment…
- Infographic: Software Testing Recruitment
- Resume and Phone Interview Protips – by g33klady
- Persona-Based Interviewing – by Stephen Janaway
- Hiring Professional Testers- my notes and thoughts – by Kim Knup
More to add?
Are there any resources we’ve missed? Do you know of any recruitment resources we should add to this list? Share your findings on The Club and we’ll review it to be added to this list.
