Back in 2015, we gave you a list of interview questions sourced from the best thinkers in the testing community to help you hire the best testers for your team. Many of those questions are just as relevant today, so we revisited the list to give you even more questions to pick from.
Before you get started, we have a few recommendations for approaching interviews as well. It’s important to understand what skill set your team needs so that you can ask specific technical questions that fit your industry and work environment.
You can also ask specific questions based on the content of a candidate’s resume to determine what level of mastery and involvement they had on any given project that they describe. This will help you ascertain if they executed tests that others created or if they were designing tests as well. Both the designer and doer add value to a team, but if you’re looking for one or the other during the hiring process, you must be clear about your goals. If you’re looking for where to get started in thinking about your teams’ needs, start here.
Split up your interview into stages so that you can enlist different members of your team to meet candidates as they progress through the process. Start with a standard HR screen, followed by a technical call, and then a conversation to assess the candidate for team fit. This approach helps strike a balance between specific, technical questions and thoughtful, open-ended options.
Every interview will evolve differently, so you may not get to every question you want to ask. We advise studying this list, establishing a core set of questions that you ask every candidate in order to better evaluate and compare them, and then having another list of favorite questions you can work into the conversation to keep it flowing.
When you begin your conversation, it’s important to establish a comfortable rapport but also to quickly learn about the candidate’s approach to testing problems. You want to ensure that this person’s ideals are aligned with the values of your team as well as establish a baseline for more detailed questions that will come later.
(Suggested by Dan Billing – @TheTestDoctor)
(Suggested by Kim Knup – @punkmik)
(Suggested by Katrina Clokie – @katrinaclokie)
(Suggested by Dan Billing – @TheTestDoctor)
In addition to specific questions tailored to your business, you also want to gain an understanding of where this candidate’s strengths lie. These questions surface information about how the candidate starts work on a new testing problem, approaches basic tasks for the job, and will fit in with your team’s existing processes.
(Suggested by Richard Bradshaw – @FriendlyTester)
If you’re looking for an automation tester, you’ll want to ask specific questions based on the current framework that your team has in place. Beyond the technical skills, establish that the candidate understands the goals and limitations for automation within your organization so that you can be confident this tester will add value to your team and speed up the process, instead of slowing it down.
(suggested by Richard Bradshaw – @FriendlyTester & Carlos Mueses)
(Suggested by Richard Bradshaw – @FriendlyTester)
(Suggested by Katrina Clokie – @katrinaclokie)
Technology is a continuously growing and evolving field. In an industry that is always changing, it is vital that testers be able to adapt to new conditions. Here are some questions to help find out more about the candidate’s capacity for learning and growing within their roles.
(Suggested by Katrina Clokie – @katrinaclokie)
(Suggested by Kim Knup – @punkmik)
(Suggested by Dan Billing – @TheTestDoctor)
You may have found the perfect tester, but are they the perfect tester for your team right now? You want to be sure that this individual has the right personality to work well with your current team. These questions are to help you understand how this candidate responds to challenges and diversity of people and ideas, as well as what they are looking for from leadership.
(Suggested by Karen N. Johnson – @karennjohnson)
(Suggested by Katrina Clokie – @katrinaclokie)
(Suggested by Kim Knup – @punkmik)
(from Kelli Newman Mason, 8 Interview Questions About Diversity and Inclusion Every Job Seeker Should Be Able to Answer)
(from Behavioral Questions to Ask in an Interview (And What to Look For))
(Suggested by Sejal Patel)
Sometimes you want to do more than just ask questions. You might instead try a short activity to see how the candidate responds. Here are a couple of options for something more interactive.
(Suggested by Karen N. Johnson – @karennjohnson)
Of course the best part about interviews with testers is talking to the testers! So above all, enjoy your conversations and go off script to share stories about favorite bugs. You’ve done your preparation, so you know who you’re looking for. This list, along with any other specific questions you have to evaluate your candidates, should set you on the right path. The only thing left to do is to prepare to onboard your new team member!
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