Hiring quality assurance specialists

Quality assurance (QA) specialists often play a fundamental role in developing and maintaining the standards of quality that a company strives to meet. This may require them to work closely with leaders across the business and to stay abreast of evolving regulatory requirements. This question can also help you determine how experienced a candidate is. Do they draw from theory or practice?

For a quality assurance specialist working in the software industry, auditing a website should be second nature. An answer here will help you determine whether or not your candidate has the right set of skills to carry out their core responsibilities — one of which will be planning and executing audits that accurately and efficiently evaluate website health.

Seasoned quality assurance specialists have hands-on experience using a wide range of testing-specific tools and methodologies. As a result, they know which tools they need to get the job done — and can clearly back up their choices with well-reasoned justifications. A quality assurance specialist is only as good as their sharpest tools!

Improving current methodology and procedural strategy is at the heart of any quality assurance role — and continuous improvement is the goal. A candidate should be able to logically evaluate and step over potential hurdles. Top quality assurance specialists will also demonstrate the levelheadedness that it takes to deal with complications in a professional manner.

Streamlining existing processes and increasing productivity is an essential responsibility of any QA role. If team members are always in a crunch to get things done, the quality of work will undoubtedly suffer. Your next QA hire must be an individual who understands how to increase efficiency, meet deadlines, and guarantee quality in the final product.

This is a chance for a candidate to show what they are capable of and demonstrate whether they have the right mindset to perform well in a quality assurance role. In a similar fashion to asking a candidate how they respond to setbacks, their reaction to success will clue you in on a few key aspects of their personality.

In addition to offering more insight into the candidate’s auditing process, this question also serves to evaluate a potential new hire’s problem-solving skills and their understanding of the full responsibility embedded within the QA role. Candidates should be able to highlight and explain the variables that contribute to the lifecycle of the auditing process.

Quality assurance is a fundamental piece of the project management puzzle. If your organization consists of a quality assurance role that is separate from that of the project manager, then coordination between the two is necessary to implement strategy and procedural changes that contribute to the success of your business.

This question can help you assess a candidate’s passion for the field as a whole, and the specific work your organization does. Quality assurance is all about paying attention to the details, so a candidate who is truly interested and engaged in their work is likely to do a careful and thorough job.