Between all the software testing Slack groups and other online communities, I’m a member of, not a day goes by that I don’t see some variation of:
I need some help putting my CV together, can someone give me a sample CV or suggestions of what I should put on a CV?
There can be many reasons why someone might ask this. Some may just want to update it as they’ve been on a lot of software testing related training courses recently. Others might be on the hunt for a new job and their CV is the sales pitch.
For me, it was because I had a very heavy science background and landed into testing while in the same company that I had been hired for my science background. I had no idea what a testers CV should look like and it was very different to my science one.
Today a recruiter friend (you know they aren’t all evil, there’s good ones who post really useful content) posted this:
Which reminded me of an idea I had quite a while ago. Could we crowdsource a sample Software Tester (or QA if you prefer that term) CV?
Are there particular areas you’ve seen mighty fine examples in e.g. did someone do a great job of explaining their skills briefly and accurately?
Have you examples of how to word “I’ve played around with automation and it’s seemed pretty successful so far”?
What skills do you think are relevant to put on a CV? More specifically what are the software testing skills and the more generic (or non-testing related) skills that make a good testers CV shine?
If we get enough replies, I will convert it to a PDF and upload it to the thread for everyone to share should they come across this question.