How do you recruit a tester?
Posted on March 6, 2008
Filed Under cognifide, testing | 1 Comment
We are currently recruiting for a tester at the moment and as ever, this is proving to be a very difficult role to fill. This is partly due to this mentality from development snobs that ‘Testers are Idiots‘. I’ve only every recruited a couple of good testers and quite a few bad ones. They’re a rare breed of technologists.
So what are the properties of a good tester? To be honest, I simply don’t know. However, the best testers I’ve come across are quirky. They do have an eye for detail. They are passionate about technology. They do develop software and build stuff. They do know how to program using C++, or Java, or .NET, or whatever. They are NOT just ’simple’ scripters. They do like to solve complex problems. They are NOT idiots.
But their focus is somewhere else. And this is part I don’t get. I love to build stuff using interesting tech for the sake of it. Just to see how it works. To experience it. To see how it feels in comparison to other stuff I know. That’s the sweet spot. In the end, what I build it is not as important as the tech that I used to create it with. Sure, I get the, that was a cool project and we hit all the milestones and deadlines. But what I’ll take away from the project is the journey, not the destination. And the tech is large part of the journey.
I need to ask that question of a few testers I know and see what they come back with. Maybe that would help. Are testers results-driven? Do they pride themselves in being instrumental in raising the quality of software? Do they like getting the most of teams? Working them and/or working in them? I don’t know.
Now if you’re a tester, not a developer in a testing role, but a tester, I would love you to comment on the above and put into words why you love testing?
Oh, and if you’re looking for a cool place to work, we’re recruiting…
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Hi.
Testers?
Testing is the hardest thing to do. Although people regard computer programmers as techie geeks, in fact most programmers are very creative people. Just as writers and poets have to learn a language to communicate so do programmers and through this they can “create” very imaginative prgrams.
Testers, sadly, must suppress this creative urge. They must be disciplined, methodical and thorough. They must behave like robots in order to see things as the computer sees them. Their outlet for creativity has to come outside of work.