Most of the people think that attending interviews does not need much preparation. Yes, they are correct, it really does not take much preparation to just attend the interview but in order to successfully clear an interview, lot of preparation is required. In fact preparation is required for all, irrespective of whatever number of years of experience you have.
Now, let’s see what are the things to be followed in order to increase the number of interview calls and increase the success rate in clearing Software testing interview(s).
Request you to “think through” as you read each of the points listed below and quickly make a note of the points that you would like to take care going forward.
1. Software Testing as your career:- To be a successful Software Test Engineer, it requires qualities like paying attention to details, Quest for Quality, perseverance, consistency, Good oral and written skills, good scripting skills. Most of the applicants treat Software Testing is a Stop gap arrangement till they find a role in Development or as Business Analyst etc., this should never be the approach. It is better not to take up Software Tester job unless candidate wants to consciously perceive his career in Software Testing. Incase candidate is not serious about taking up Software Testing a career then the chances of getting through the interview can be quite low, as the candidate will not put his/her 100% effort in preparing or presenting in the interview.
2. Make use of “Employee Referral”:- Employee Referrals are one of the most trusted methods of hiring in almost all of the companies. Companies trust employee referrals because they are one of the effective means to bring in brightest and talented people into the organization. As the saying goes, “Birds of the similar feather flock together”. So companies feel that through employee referral, they can get if not clones at least the like minded and talented people similar to the ones they already have hired for the organization. So companies prefer candidates coming in through “Employee Referral” OR “ AGENCY Referral” than through other channels. So it’s a win-win situation for you, your friend and company you are being referred to BY AGENCY !!!
So moral of this is, widen your friendship with agency network network, get to know more people, use websites like this, seek friendship and in the longer term you will have at least 1 friend in almost every agency or company. This increases the chances of you getting a job when you need.
3. Update your resume in Job portals:- Update your resume in some of the prominent Job portals like workopolis.ca monster.ca , etc., Most of the HRs and recruiters get the resumes from these portals. Make sure you Save / update your resume on regular basis, at least twice a week, as HRs or recruiters usually filter and pick up resumes based on the last updated timestamp.
4. Your resume should not pass wrong message:- Avoid making strong statements like “My aspiration is to work as Software Engineer for top MNCs” OR “Looking for automation project using QTP”. By doing so, some of the mid sized or small companies who can offer you a very good pay package will not shortlist you thinking that you may not be interested in their company or nature of work. Avoid making statements that indicate your inflexibility.
5. Let your resume do the selling for you:- Your resume should not be just a document that provides information about you and your past work experience. It should be a medium to sell your skills, your strengths and experience. HRs or interviewers usually screen resumes, prioritize before calling candidates for interview. HRs or Interviewers look for the below 3 important aspects in your resume.
- Business Operator (How good are you at your current work?): Type of testing you have carried out, domains you have worked and your responsibilities. Interviewers want to know if you Were to manage multiple roles as Software Test Engineer, Defect Co-coordinator, Test Data Analyst etc., As a Software Test engineer, you might already been playing multiple roles but its very important to show case it on your resume.
- Value Creation (What is the value add you brought in by your work?): Value you created for the existing or previous organizations. e.g.:- Make sure your resume lists the User guides you created, Software testing seminars that you attended, White papers or articles that you have written, your resume can even mention about the number of critical defects you logged, awards or appreciation received from client etc.,
- Self or people development (How you have developed yourself and other?): You will have to highlight on the skills or tools that you have learnt along with the work you have been doing, trainings that you have undergone, trainings or brown bag sessions that you conducted, certifications you obtained or event the certifications for which you are preparing for etc., Interviewers look for people who have the zeal to learn and add value to the project.
6. Certifications, double or triple chances of getting you job:- There are certifications on Software Testing like CSTE, ISTQB etc., these certifications will help to boost individual’s Software testing knowledge as well as they make resume more sellable. Companies prefer certified candidates because they have already proven their Software testing knowledge by passing certification exam, secondly it helps company to win more projects / project work from clients by show casing number of certified people the company has hired.
7. Go through your resume thoroughly before attending interview:- With increase in number of years of experience, it’s hard to remember what you did in the previous job(s) and you tend to forget minor details of your initial project(s). Most of the interviewers frame questions about 30% to 40% of the questions based on the candidate’s resume. So it’s very important that you have all the required information at the top of your mind and should not spend any time in recollecting facts during interview. If you spend too much of time in recollecting, interviewer may thing either you are not confident or you are a fake. Most of the people fail to clear interviews due to this reason.
8. Answer questions with examples:- Interviewer’s usually don’t like text book answers, they will expect that the candidates to answer based on their work experience or knowledge. In order to impress interviewer always explain him with one or more instances from your past experience. As an example, If interviewer asks you, “Can there be a High severity defect and low priority Defect?”, in this case state the answer as yes and provide details of the defect(s) that you had logged which classified as high severity and low priority defect. So, most of these common questions asked during interview would require preparation in order to answer them with citations from your past work experience.
9. Beware of Non-Technical questions:- Before starting off with technical questions, interviewers usually ask you non-technical questions that are of generic in nature. Questions like “Tell me about your self“, “Where do you see yourself in next 5 years?“, here interviewer is asking these questions to know about you and these are the questions where you can impress the interviewer. For e.g.:- When the interview is checking on your plans for next 5 years, he is not interested to know whether you are planning to becoming Team lead or become Test manager, he is more interested to know if you are planning to stick to the same company and the type of role you would like to perform. If you say I would want to see myself working on Test Estimations for multiple projects, Test Data Architecting and possibly designing automation framework etc., then interviewer will be impressed hearing the contributions you would want to make for the company.
10. Being a Fresher:- Incase you are a fresher and aspire to be in Software testing, then its better to take up training on Software Testing, automation, Read articles on Software Testing like the ones on this site, so that you are better equipped to face interview. or Talk to us
IF interested, please send an email expressing your interest in learning this sought after industry job oriented course
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