QA Interview Post-mortem
A Reader Writes:
Here’s another rejection QA story to read. I was reading over what Jonathan said about his experience before my interview. I had the same test he did ( I know this because the questions he posted were on my test as well). Heres my idea of what there hiring strategy is for new QA testers.
They have about 3 or so hiring periods 1 day a week (1:00, 3:00, 5:00 etc..) They pick the best scores out of each group (even if you pass) they will pick the best 3-5 people out of 20 (or how many people are there) in each group. The test I took was kinda easy. Some of the questions I know I missed, but most I’m confident were correct.
Examples of the questions:
Whats wrong with this picture? (2 pictures are shown of exactly the same thing. It will say, find 4 things that dont match in each one". Its exactly what you used to do when you were a kid on the back of those Highlights magazines when you were in the waiting room to see the doctor.I still do them now )
Spelling (pretty obvious, what word(s) are spelt incorrectly etc..)
*ports Questions (what was the Winston Cup name changed to? Nextel. And I got the dreadlocks question correct thanks for Jonathan and the research I did before the test Ricky Williams)
When your time is up for test 1, they take you into, what I would call, The Game Cube Room and another test ensues. On this one they give you a bug with steps on how to create it, only there are to many steps given. You are to cross off the steps that arent needed etc Next they give you a bug with about 10 steps that arent in order. Your task is to rearrange them in chronological order. This seems easy, but for me it was the hardest part of the test. With the 20 minute time waining you have about 10 minutes left for this part. I felt rushed and I know I just wrote down steps without giving much thought. After that torture, you are to write down at least 2 bugs you find on your own (I found 1). By that time you are free to play and do whatever.
Then they call you out 1 by 1. From reading Jonathans post I was ready. If my name was called it means I dont get hired. Well sure enough they called my name . The whole experience reminded me of that scene in Men In Black where they have all the applicants sitting around a table looking serious and dressed well, but what they really want is something different. Only they didnt erase my memory when I left .
What it comes down to is not your application, but the tests they give. They might as well have you fill out your application when youre done with the tests. I guess I’m disappointed, but I never really got into sports games that much to begin with and I know I would have gone crazy trying to find bugs in games I didnt really enjoy. But it would have been a good experience none the less. Maybe I’ll apply again sometime. Hope this helps people out.
Updated on October 11th, 2013
Removed the link to the submitter’s email, I figure he doesn’t want to keep hearing from people through this page nor be exposed to more spam.