How To Hire a Graduate QA Engineer
Complete with job descriptions, skill profiles, and interview templates. Use this Graduate QA Engineer hiring guide to help you make the right decisions, fast.
Graduate QA Engineer Recruitment Guide
What does a Graduate QA Engineer do?
Graduate QA Engineers are in the formative stages of their career in software testing, in this role they will pick apart pieces of software and create tests in order to ensure software is performing optimally and prevent defects in code. As this is a graduate role, a large amount of shadowing of senior colleagues will take place in order to understand and learn how the industry performs this role.
Day to day tasks of a Graduate QA Engineer
- Use automation testing tools
- Analyze software designs
- Shadow senior resources in creating test plans
- Execute test plans to verify software functionality
- Liaise with developers around how software is supposed to function
- Document defects for fixing by developers
Graduate QA Engineer definition
Graduate QA engineers investigate pieces of software and analyze their requirements and ensure it is meeting functional and non-functional requirements through manual and automated tests. They will also undergo a period of training and upskilling so they’re able to know how to use industry standard tooling to complete their job to a high level.
HIRING PROCESS
Graduate QA Engineer Hiring Process
Build the Ideal Candidate Profile
Write A Job Description Based On Skills
Selecting The Ideal Candidate
Interview Top Performers
Making An Offer
Build the ideal candidate profile
Skills needed for a Graduate QA Engineer
In order to be a successful Graduate QA Engineer candidates need the following skillset: critical thinking and problem solving skills, fundamental understanding of quality insurance, good collaboration skills and a very good attention to detail.
- Learning Agility
- Motivation
- Quality Assurance
Pro Tip
For entry-level roles, you’re likely to receive a larger number of applications and in order to filter these applicants it’s good to understand their ability to problem solve and think critically as they will often be left alone to solve complex problems in their role.
WRITE A JOB DESCRIPTION BASED ON SKILLS
How to write a Graduate QA Engineer job description
Once you’ve determined the skills required for the role, you can write the job description to advertise for your position. Here’s what to include in your Graduate QA Engineer job description:
Job Title: What position are you hiring for?
Summary: What makes your company unique? What would it be like to work for you?
Responsibilities: An overview of the role’s day-to-day activities, and how the position contributes to the organization
Requirements: Skills a candidate must have to perform the job successfully
Benefits: Details of compensation, benefits, and any perks on offer
Pro Tip
In building your candidate profile, remember you’ve already identified what skills are needed to succeed in the role. Here’s where to list your “must-have” skills and maybe a couple of “nice-to-have” skills. For example, a Graduate QA Engineer should know how to write unit tests in popular frameworks like JUnit and PHPUnit.
SELECTING THE IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sample skill tests for a Graduate QA Engineer
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Question 1
Motivation
Question Type: Video
Please, record a short (up to 3 min) video and tell us about your previous experience:
– Your responsibilities;
– Your goals;
– Your decision to look for a new Company.
In case you are new at IT (and QA), tell us about the reasons why you’ve decided to change the sphere of your interests and if you have any special QA training passed.
Question 2
Quality Assurance
Question Type: Text
Please, create 3 short Test Cases to cover different types of Testing of an object on the photo
Question 3
Learning Agility
Question Type: Video
Explain how you continue your development outside of professional employment.
INTERVIEW TOP PERFORMERS
How to interview a Graduate QA Engineer
Once your Vervoe skills assessment has surfaced the most qualified people for your open role, you can focus on interviewing these candidates. The interview should focus on any skills that require development that were highlighted from the skills assessment.
Now you know that candidates can do the job, the interview becomes more of a relationship building exercise where you can get to know the candidate on a more personal level, understand their motivations, and how they would fit in with the team.
Making An Offer
How much does it cost to hire a Graduate QA Engineer?
In the United States the salary of a Graduate Quality Assurance Engineer is reported to be $52,325 by Indeed.com, whereas Glassdoor USA reports it as $56,857. The lowest paid Graduate Quality Assurance Engineers are paid $43,000, whereas the highest earners get up to $117,000 with the median of these salaries coming in at $68,250 according to Talent.com.
Graduate QA Engineer Salary United States
In the United States the median salary for a Graduate Quality Assurance Engineer is $56,857 USD. This salary will be heavily dependent on the skill of the employee and the type of work they will be working on.
Graduate QA Engineer Salary United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom a Graduate Quality Assurance Engineer can expect to have a salary around £27,017 GBP. There will be a few factors which affect this number, which include seniority, location of the organisation and the industry the organisation operates within.
Graduate QA Engineer Salary Australia
As a Graduate Quality Assurance Engineer the salary within Australia comes out to be $53,894 AUD a year. The factors which make this salary come down to a couple of main factors, location of the organisation and skill of the developer.
Source: PayScale.com