I’ve talked about interviewing testers before and I’ve talked specifically about hiring test specialists. Here I’m going to try to be a bit more concise, yet also a bit more expansive, about exactly what I think it means to look for specialist testers.
Everyone who is human can, and does, test. So I’m not looking for “testers.” I’m looking for people who have chosen to specialize in testing or have a strong desire to specialize in testing.
I could talk to you here about writing good tests, choosing good automation tools, writing excellent bug reports, and so on. These are all good tactical-level aspects to consider. But they are profoundly uninteresting in that all the good testers already know this stuff. This is the stuff everyone talks about. Yet none of it is the hallmark of the specialist in and of itself. When looking at specialist testers, you have to realize those tactics are epiphenomenal. They are ways of doing; but for specialists, you want to suss ways of thinking.
harness the intuition
Specialist testers — like any specialist — rely on intuition that is guided by experience. Determining the presence and extent of that intuition is a key skill for you as someone who is seeking a specialist. You have to be able to spot this intuition which, of course, means you must possess it yourself. I can’t stress this part enough: people hiring specialists have to understand what makes someone a specialist.
generalist with specialist tendencies
As a specialist tester, you need a broad set of general skills combined with a deep core of specialist abilities. Working as part of a team to hire specialists, this means you should be able to articulate what those general skills are and what the specialist abilities are.
Certainly people on your team may attach differing level of importance to certain skills or abilities, but there should be broad agreement on what those skills and abilities actually are.
