I like this response because I do think ‘feeling’ matters in hiring - we’re all going to work closely together. But I’m also wary of how subjective gut feelings can lead to unconscious bias, especially around ‘cultural fit.’
I’ve been trying to get better at translating those feelings into more concrete observations. Like instead of ‘they feel competent,’ trying to break down what specific things they said or did that made me think that. It’s not perfect, but it helps me check whether I’m responding to actual signals or just comfort/familiarity/something else.
It’s reassuring to know a “feeling” is still considered in the hiring process. After all, candidates can only prove themselves once they’re already on the job. Maybe there’s also a bit of luck on that part.
I’m curious to know how a resume stood out since you mentioned about sifting through 200+ resumes. There is a tendency that the best candidate (curious, loves testing, culture fit, etc.) is out there but their resume can somehow be overlooked. Do they have to mention those soft-skills in their resume? Or are the rigid requirements (like tools, exp) the only way ever to get through?
Hey there! Show us, please, your requirements and describe your expectations and main reasons why all previous candidates weren’t good enough. Maybe you’re unreasonable, maybe this is just the mess on the market, while it’s oversaturated with candidates, and you can say for sure that a huge percentage of them don’t fit most of the open positions on the market. Your expectations should also fit the actual tasks, environment, and budget, so sometimes you also need to adjust your expectations
100% agree. It is so important for a culture fit rather than trying to hire SOLELY on skills that can be skills they mimic’d fun some video or whatever.
Depends on your bar & expectations & where you live but do NOT lower your bar unless you are willing to coach and follow up on that person.
I too struggle with finding good testers. Hard skills I can teach so I ask those but those are not a must. What I tend to see in interviews is:
The ability to say " I don’t know, I would have to google that" instead of guesswork
The ability to not make assumptions & ask questions ( I have a few games for it.. but gosh, so many make assumptions instead of just asking questions)
Testing skills, I ask them to name some test cases for a specific form and most do 5-10 test cases while I keep stating I’m looking for creativity and a lot more. The maximum was 62 answers but really most people can’t even come up with 10+
The question is is something like: You’d have a webform with 1 field, max 30 characters and a mandatory field. And you keep repeating “what else?” after they named some test cases, until they really can’t anymore and here you’ll see how creative the person is and really show their testing skills. And sometimes people don’t even test the mandatory field or boundary tests … it’s nuts how many ‘fake’ testers there are who just followed a random bootcamp to get into IT. (no offence)
Those are often my standards. I help them throughout the process of the games also, just because it might be the stress of the interview, but most often they don’t know… such a shame!
It’s hard to find a person with passion for testing.
When reading your questions, I do not think your expectations are high, I ask a lot more difficult questions for hard skills & approaches but I don’t weigh in much on those since they can be taught. I do like your approach questions a lot and they seem pretty normal to ask too! I would for sure NOT lower your bar.
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Ten years ago, I interviewed a tester with more than 20 years’ experience. His CV was solid, with experience in all the sectors and technologies we were looking for.
However, his demeanour was as if his family had just died (I didn’t ask). The final straw came when I asked him to describe the best bug he ever found, and after some thought he said that nothing comes to mind. I pushed him on it but he just confirmed he couldn’t think of anything.
20 years’ experience without a single memorable bug! I suspect he had just spent 20 years grinding through thousands of tests in a test case management system like we’ve been discussing in another thread.
The scary thing is that all his previous employers clearly thought “Yes, this is the person we’re looking for”. And he went on to get a job elsewhere after our rejection.
but I don’t weigh in much on those since they can be taught. I do like your approach questions a lot and they seem pretty normal to ask too! I would for sure NOT lower your bar.
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