In the introduction, I'll say a little about Dmitry Sviridov. He took our course in 2018, and his rating can be seen by everyone in the Hall of Fame. He is a capable student who decided to start his testing career at an advanced age. And he came to us from the aviation industry. But our industry is cosmo-galactic 😀. That's a clear personal growth. And we asked Dmitry, already an experienced testing Jedi, to share tips with those who are yet to become testers. Meet the working graduate.
Galaxy QA Academy: You'd like to ask many questions, but let's choose the most basic ones. Surely everyone is interested in which topic from the course has been most useful in work?
Dmitry: I use the information from levels 1-10 (Testing Theory*) constantly, to some extent. The topics from levels 3 (Test Cases*) and 6 (Jira) were most useful — without this, I wouldn't be able to do anything at all, needing to refer to them daily and often several times a day. The topics from levels 16, 17, 18 (Automation, Load Testing*) are a direction for further development. The other topics I haven't applied yet due to the specifics of the project and my responsibilities.
* - editor's notes
Galaxy QA Academy: What topics would you like to add to the course?
Dmitry: I've learned a lot after the course, some for self-development out of interest, some from the requirements of interviews. Let me list them all in order:
Microservices architecture, software for automation of deployment, scaling and management of containerized applications, Chaos engineering and testing — briefly, as an overview — purpose, application, main functions. There's a lot going on with microservices architecture now, so it will be useful to have a general idea.
HTTP needs a bit more attention. API, Postman can be added to the course with the most basics, you can give it for self-study. There are courses, in particular the Postman course https://www.getpostman.com/. On such a resource https://swapi.co/ you can practice, the topic of the resource is Star Wars :)
After completing level 8 and writing the exam, you can create a list of recommendations for self-study.
In addition to the above:
Non-relational databases — better mention them, for those who want to get acquainted with MongoDB there is a free introductory course https://university.mongodb.com/courses/M001/about
Learn any programming language in any convenient way, level — at least basic. Best options — Python, Java.
Get familiar with Linux, especially the console.
4. Git – general overview, can be found here https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-git
5. Selenium IDE - explore in more detail, as well as dive deeper into web selectors. This is a useful topic, as it's the most accessible way in all respects to get familiar with automated testing.
Galaxy QA Academy: What difficulties were there when looking for a job and how did you overcome them?
Dmitry: The biggest challenge is standing out in the crowd of applicants. There are few vacancies for inexperienced candidates, and not all companies always openly list them. When a company posts a Trainee/Junior QC vacancy on their website or on specialized job sites, the HR email can receive more than 10 resumes per day. It was necessary to find ways to stand out and catch the HR's attention. I searched for HR contacts on company websites and social networks (mostly LinkedIn), and wrote directly — they respond much more often than to emails with resumes.
Galaxy QA Academy: Share your experience, what test tasks did you encounter during interviews and how did you handle them?
Dmitry: Test assignments are a rhetorical question. Sometimes the tasks were far from beginner-friendly, and I even refused some. Those I did weren't always clearly formulated. Even after my clarifying questions, I often couldn't do what was expected of me, and in the end, I got rejected. I went through 15 interviews in different forms and 10 test assignments.
Galaxy QA Academy: What Do Employers Look For When Hiring QA?
Dmitry: Technical skills and personal skills are about equally important. If a beginner is technically well-prepared, but it's uncomfortable to work with them — they won't be hired. If a beginner is "a good fit," but knows little and after them you have to constantly finish and redo work — they won't be hired either. Usually, it all starts with professional skills. A well-executed test task is what catches attention — it's the pass to the interview, but everyone has their own requirements for its execution, which are not always fully communicated. Interviews are always planned around professional skills, but they still look more at personal qualities: what kind of person the candidate is, how interested they are in the test-engineer profession, their development plans, how easy it is to communicate with them, and whether you can find common ground.
Galaxy QA Academy: What helped you find a job exactly?
Dmitry: Understanding that finding a job isn't quick. Understanding that if you're told "no," it's not the end, it's experience. Searching through all available (legal) ways. Perseverance. And of course, luck — but that's a separate story.
Tips and recommendations for students of the course:
Get everything you can from this course, everything within your power. It's in your interest
English - aim for an intermediate level (read, write, listen/understand, speak), with English your chances really increase. You get more opportunities - foreign companies, remote work, and so on.
By the end of the course, start looking for vacancies, note which knowledge and skills are most often required from beginners, if possible, learn them on your own — plan this for yourself and learn, this is your skills, what will make you stand out from others.
Look for vacancies everywhere. Attend events for beginners, company open days, where you can meet HR and arrange an interview without sending your resume via email for a vacancy.
If you're given a testing task, do it, review your work, take a break, review it again, show it to an experienced person if possible for checking. Only then send it to the company.
6. If you're given a test task that's too complex and clearly not suitable for your knowledge and experience, think about whether you should do it, and ask for advice from experienced people. You'll spend 3-4 days of your life, while your task will be checked in the company in 5 minutes. Sometimes in such cases, the company is looking for "expensive for cheap".
7. If they offer you to work initially for "cookies" and "then we'll see your results and decide" — don't agree, even if you have something to live for. It's not about the money. It's about the company's attitude toward you, and it won't change later. Respect yourself.
Your resume should be in perfect, up-to-date condition by the end of the course. Your LinkedIn profile should be in a state that catches HR's attention. And you should post job vacancies on LinkedIn no fewer than on job sites.
After finishing the course, practice the knowledge you've gained, at least on the first 10 levels. Your skills are not yet well developed and may be quickly forgotten, and job searching may take time. Keep up the form, at least the one you have. Information about freelancing is available in the course.
After an interview or submitting a test assignment, try to get detailed and comprehensive feedback. Any interviews are also an experience — you need to work on your mistakes.
Companies often hire beginners for their courses with job placement. Keep an eye out for such companies. They already expect candidates to have subject knowledge upon entry. Knowledge from the course will be more than enough for many companies.
Galaxy QA Academy: Dmitry, huge thanks for your advice. We are sure it will help our students approach the job search much more professionally after the course. And most importantly — to know that success awaits everyone who puts in effort and perseverance!
#QAInterview #HowToFindQAJob #HowToGetHired #TipsFromExperiencedQA #QAAdvice