First, a few words about the authors:
- Evgeny Karpovich, head of QA at Neotech Belarus, speaker of industry conferences, trainer, founder of the largest community of testers in Belarus InQA .
- Roman Zhikharev, Head of G-Core Labs Game Testing Center in Perm, author of the book on building a career, "Millionth Summary" .
In the article we will discuss the situation with staff and vacancies in Minsk, but most of this information is applicable to the features of job search in Russia and Ukraine.
Roman: Recently, the trend towards the selection of candidates for soft skills and subsequent technical training has become increasingly relevant. Companies cannot find the right specialists in the market, and when investing in training they want to be sure that the employee will work for the company for a long time and fit into the team.
Eugene: Yes, I also prefer to take a less savvy technical specialist and hold out on him than to hire a middle, which will destroy the team. As a rule, a good result is impossible without teamwork.
Roman: Tell me what is happening on the labor market in Belarus. How many people go to testing? What qualifications are they?
Eugene: I teach testing, I know the founders of educational companies. Therefore, I know a little bit of numbers. After the completion of the courses, about 500 specialists enter the labor market every month (based on the number and size of training groups). Most of these people do not need anyone, because their qualifications do not reach the required minimum and there are not so many vacancies for June. To get a job, you need to stand out against the background of hundreds of the same course graduates.
Roman: In my book, I also say that when evaluating candidates there is some tacit scoring: you can gain or lose points for certain features mentioned in the resume. How can a tester stand out from the crowd without experience?
Eugene: The simplest thing: a diploma from a good technical university (BSUIR or some BSU faculties in our case), knowledge of English and a couple of programming languages. But such people are dismantled during their studies at the university.
Another option is knowledge of a specific field, for example, medical. These testers will come in handy in a healthcare project.
Roman: Yeah, we are also looking for candidates with gaming experience among the candidates. This saves a lot of time and effort to immerse the employee in the context of work.
Eugene: The third option is hard work and continuous independent learning. If you manage to reflect these qualities in a resume and demonstrate at an interview, then the chances of finding a job will also increase.
Roman: In theory, what do you usually ask at an interview?
Eugene: If we are talking about June, then this:
- types of testing;
- types of testing;
- test design techniques;
- structure test plan \ test case \ bug report;
- the difference between priority and severity;
- test this and that.
We ask whether a person understands or does not understand the question in general. Ideally, he would write something at the interview (just on a piece of paper) or tell how he would test it. At the interview it is important to show what you think.
For technical skills, gain gives possession of applied tools. Often I ask at the interview about this. As a rule, people hang after Jira.
Roman: What tools would you include on a technical minimum list?
Eugene: Postman , screenshot, application for recording videos, Selenium at the elementary level. Some unimaginable number of people cannot take screenshots normally. You ask the applicant to take a screenshot at the interview, and he reaches for the PrntScr key and then tries to somehow save what happened. Same thing with the video.
It is advisable to understand how browsers differ if you are testing on a web. Know the client-server architecture at a conceptual level. Understand status codes. If I ask what happens when a user enters the address of the site vk.com in the browser bar, what will be your answer?
Roman: The browser sends a request for resolving a domain to DNS, receives the IP address of the server, makes a request to it, receives an HTML page, and then, in order, requests all the resources related to it.
Eugene: That's right. But usually I hear something like “the request goes to VKontakte”.
You can add to the list of bug tracking systems, test case control systems ( TestRail ), debugging tools ( Fiddler , Charles , WireShark ), API development tools ( Swagger ).
Roman: In my experience, the motivation and prudent goal setting of a candidate also decides. The hiring manager wants to see a person who knows what he wants from work and this coincides with what the company can offer him.
Eugene: I ask the students of my courses “Why did you decide to go to testing and not to development?” If 2-3 people out of 15 answered that they like to break something or that they have such a head, I think that the group good one. The rest usually answer that a friend or relative advised them this way as the easiest entry into IT. “Go to the testers, you don’t have to do anything there. You’ll sit exactly on your ass and earn a lot. ” I am not kidding. This quote.
Or the candidate for the interview replies, “I’m going to the testers to become a developer later.” The hiring manager immediately thinks: “Suppose this person works for me for a year. This is approximately 2000 hours. And I need to invest 300-400 hours in his training. But what if he leaves early? ”It turns out that hiring him is not profitable.
June ++
Roman: What should a person learn in a year?
Eugene: If in general, then how is June different from the middle? June needs to be told what to do, how to do and check what he has done. Middle - what to do and see what he did. Senior - just say what to do. That is, in the first year, a person must, at a minimum, learn to work independently: choose the test design techniques, talk to the developer himself, find the requirements and be able to bring this to some kind of logical conclusion.
It is advisable to understand the development cycle and be able to integrate into it, understand CI \ CD. Well, of course, your subject area: gambling, healthcare, financial instruments - depending on which of these areas you work in. This helps write test cases. Plus, in the eyes of the new employer, he will already have a vision of the processes of another company.
Roman: What knowledge should the tester add in a year?
Eugene: First of all, the tester must understand why he is on the project, what benefits he brings, how he brings, what he needs to do faster. The task of the tester is not only the search for bugs, but also the acceleration of the release cycle. Test automation, deployment.
Roman: Let's finish back to the soft skills. What are the three most important in your opinion?
Eugene: I would single out the following: adequacy (not to spoil the atmosphere around you), the ability to express thoughts (describe bugs clearly) and erudition (you read something, you are interested in something).