I was listening to Eamon Droko’s discussion about QA interviews on the Quality Talks Podcast and have been really curious about what folks’ experience with good QA interviews have been ever since.
What’s the best QA interview process you’ve gone through? Not just questions, but the entire loop. What made it great? Where and when was it (if you’re comfortable sharing)? I’m genuinely curious 
Hi @susanneabdelrahman 
,
I really liked @eamond15’s analogy for sitting exams in school, particularly maths exams where you don’t just get points for the answer, but also your workings. And in fact you would lose points just answering, as your methods for reaching the answer were equally (if not more) important.
That’s what I would call a good interview experience, where you have space to discuss what you would do but also, and crucially, why. It tells you so much more about a person, the way they approach problem solving and how you might work together. Rather than, can you write this automated test script live and under pressure with no help or discussion…
It’s hard to tell in 17 years and 5 times changing the company in Germany (and many more interviews).
I think I was most times hired, because I was perceived above average compared to other applicants by people who had little clue about testing.
The good thing is that the processes and questions weren’t too demanding for me. I could handle them comparable easy.
But I don’t like interviews at all. I feel uncomfortable with marketing myself.
I guess I would not go somewhere, where I have make an home assignment. I would not like a place which checks the applicants by that.
Good is different for everyone.
In one of my first interviews after time at university, the (single) interview I had was with three folks, one from HR and two department leads.
Near the end one of them asked (and I’m paraphrasing; it 20+ years ago’): “Everything’s great so far. Now disappoint one of us – in which department would you like to work?”
Why I like the question: It’s a question to make the candidate slightly uncomfortable without being ad hominem.
I answered that, given my current information, I’d like to join the development department (as a tester), as I thought it was closer to the product compared to consulting. I also mentioned that, if changing departments was possible, we could consider that.
I got an offer from them and accepted it.
Another sequence of questions I liked was – and that was 10+ years ago as well: “Git or Subversion?”, “vi or Emacs?” etc. Those spun up interesting discussions about why I chose one or the other, well except for the editor question, which I Answered with “Neihter, when I can use SublimeText”.
The one where I was not asked to write code during interview. I am not an on the spot person to write code but I know I am good at it and perform very well.
Funnily enough, I think the best interview experience I had was when I didn’t take the role. I met with 4 people separately: HR, Line Manager, Developers and Project Manager. They were such open discussions about what they needed and what I needed in the role with all these different perspectives. We ended the interview smiling, respecting each others views and I said at the end of the interview “I don’t think this for me and I don’t think I’m what you need”.
Best one was where I did a short training session an entire test team followed by two way QA sessions with that team making final hire decision between them.
I got see first hand what challenges they faces, their passion for testing and general good feel about the company.
Been there 10 years.
Been a while but before that had a few I really disliked, scripted interviews as I felt it would be a reflection of how they tested and felt about quality in general. I found exploratory two way interviews very good though and gave me a better sense about the match between I and their testing model.
I agree, love that framing.
That “now disappoint one of us” question is so interesting. I’m curious whether you think they were intentionally (and kind of brilliantly 
) trying to see how you’d handle an awkward moment, or were they just being awkward themselves?
And bold move from the other company to try and jump straight into #holywars in an interview 
Yes, same 
(Did you know there’s a 20 char minimum for replies? )
Gosh I love that. Getting that kind of mutual honesty in an interview is rare for all sorts of reasons. But it feels like a win (even when the role isnt )
Yes, that “above average to someone who didn’t know testing” thing. I’ve felt that for some interviews, too. Judging from their questions and reactions to my answers… sometimes baseline “good” stands out because they haven’t run into it often 
Oooh this sounds really fun!
I think they planned it, well, in case they would come to the conclusion that I was a good fit.
Yes, those ‘holy-wars questions’ were pretty cool too. It turned out to be one of the best projects & teams I ever worked with. Probably because they were willing and eager to deal with these topics.
In a way they didn’t: People in the team were using their preferred tools coordinating everything via text files. Some were using Emacs, others vi, I was on SublimeText, some on Textmate…
The interview process for my last full time job was the best. The team practiced ensemble (mob/software teaming) programming, which I love. They had me join an ensemble for a half day with a couple of different teams, doing real work. They paid me my contracting rate for this. So it was a win/win - we could see if we were comfortable working with each other. If both sides of the hiring process didn’t wan to go further, I’d been paid for my time and they hopefully got some value having me there. Though I obviously didn’t know the app, I still was able to ask questions that generated good conversations. I could make suggestions for tests to do.
My own teams always had the candidate pair or work in small ensembles with various team members doing real work. We didn’t think of paying them which is a shame because it was usually an all-day deal. We made sure in advance that they knew what would happen and hopefully could feel safe in that situation - which was a new experience for many. We didn’t expect the candidate to know our app, but it gave us a chance to see what questions they asked, how quickly they could pick up on new ideas and techniques, and they got a better idea of what it was like to work with us.
When I worked at Pivotal, every candidate got asked, “Star Wars or Star Trek?” 