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JOB SEARCH SKILLS

Learn the art of job hunting through polishing your skills, understanding your market, improving sales ratios, finding open positions, talking to recruiters, and nailing interviews. Discover key strategies for success and growth in the job search journey.

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JOB SEARCH SKILLS

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  1. JOB SEARCH SKILLS WELCOME

  2. JOB SEARCH SKILLS Getting a job = selling your skills (and not just skills)

  3. JOB SEARCH SKILLS What is the value offered? • Short-term polishing (SQA Training, Test Automation) • Long-term foundation (maturity, documentation, quality) • 17 seconds rule (liking-not liking things)

  4. JOB SEARCH SKILLS What is our target market? • Who is your competition? • Not the entry level niche – we apply for 2+ year posts • 3-6 month contracts – simply the best to start with • Limited time frame for hiring consultants • Faster growing compensation • Faster building your professional network • More intensive professional growth • No long-term commitment on your side • Good chance to be offered permanent position right there

  5. Dynamic of sales Ratios to watch Troubleshooting How to find open positions Talking to recruiters Answering interview questions Asking interview questions WE WILL LEARN:

  6. Numbers and ratios 1000 Resumes send (exposures)  400 Contacts (calls/emails)  40 Resumes sent by recruiters to hiring managers  10 Face to face interviews  3 Job offers 1000  400  40  10  3 RATIOS IMPROVE OVER TIME

  7. Job seekers complain: • Nobody calls me • I have no interviews • I have no job offers WHAT IS THE REASON? CAN WE FIX THAT? HOW?

  8. We find jobs using: Internet (where?) Networking (be careful) Friends, family members, colleges, college mates Social networking web sites (MySpace, Friendster, etc.) Professional networking web sites (LinkedIn) Local SQA events (www.ssqa-sv.org)

  9. LinkedIn.com - 70% of open positions not advertised - Networking is how we want to find future jobs - LinkedIn – tool for maintaining contacts • Open an account • Read LinkedIn help on how to use the service • Create detailed profile • Apply for Portnov group membership • Invite classmates to join your network • Invite your friends, college mates • Join QA-related groups

  10. RESUME SENDING RULES Craigslist, Dice, Monster, CareerBuilder Keywords: QA, SQA, Test, Quality Post resume on job search engines Update posted resumes every day Keyword code when post resumes Up to 50 resumes sent every day 50% match – good enough to apply

  11. COMPONENTS OF SUCCESS Motivation Focus Environment Schedule

  12. RULES OF SALE People buy to improve their situation People buy emotionally and later justify the purchase intellectually Sell from the position of strength Find the pain in the past or the future

  13. LIFE PATH CONCEPT How do you see yourself in 1-3-5 years from now? Tell me about yourself Why should we hire you?

  14. WHY ASK QUESTIONS? Demonstrate your qualifications Eliminate their unwanted questions Learn the buyer - identify the pain Having Big Picture conversation rather then talking about small detail

  15. QUESTIONS - COMPANY How old is your company? How big is your company? How many products do you have on the market? What is your competition?

  16. QUESTIONS - PRODUCT Would you please tell me more about the product What is the current version of the product to be tested? What are the competing products? What makes your product competitive? What are major functional areas? When are you planning the next release

  17. QUESTIONS - TEAM How big your QA Team? Do you have further hiring plans? What are the responsibilities/areas of expertise of other team members?

  18. QUESTIONS - POSITION What are the responsibilities of the person you are about to hire? What is your definition of an ideal candidate for the position? What do you expect from the new hire after 2 weeks (3 month) of employment?

  19. QUESTIONS - SQA Learning the product Test documentation/planning Test automation Relations with development Typical problems they are facing

  20. QA INTERVIEW QUESTIONS How do you know if the bug found is hardware or software bug? Give me an example of a problem you found in your last test assignment and how you identified if it was a software or hardware bug? How much PC hardware and system configuration have you done? Do you like it?

  21. QA INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Which do you like better, coding or testing? Why? Do you prefer white box or black box testing?

  22. QA INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Do you think it is possible to get all the bugs out of application before shipping it? What do you think the objectives of Software QA Department of a software company are?

  23. QA INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Write a sample bug report in such a way that the developer would both understand it fully and be able to reproduce it easily Regression testing: what would you do to make sure The bug was fixed? Nothing else in the same area was broken

  24. QA INTERVIEW QUESTIONS • Provide sample list of criteria for QA to certify software product • Why are test cases important for QA to maintain? • You have reported a problem to development and they say it is not reproducible and request to close it. What is the right thing to do?

  25. Tell me about the company X • How old • how many people work there • product line • who it competes against • is it public or privately owned • is it profitable or not yet, startup • story attached if any • Plans: original and how they changed • building • benefits • work environment, culture

  26. Tell me about the application • Created for what kind of users and needs • Major features and functional areas (shopping cart, catalog, search, registration, etc.) • Competing products and what makes our product different • Customer base • Market share • Dynamics of growth (sales, customer base, releases, features, hiring)

  27. What was your role? • As the only tester on that project I was responsible for the entire scope of SQA activities • As a member of 5 people QA team I was primarily focusing on ... (regression testing, test automation, testing the database…)

  28. What do you like about QA? • I like to see how the application changes as a result of bug I reported. It gives me a very good feeling of being a real contributor. • I really enjoy the level of appreciation I have from developers and other QA team members. • I think I can realize myself professionally in that area. • My previous background makes a good combination with my QA skills. • I really have passion for quality since I remember myself.

  29. How do you see yourself in 5 years? • Making difference in Software Testing • To get there I need to work on good projects, next to good professionals • Besides that I want to specialize (chose the niche) in whatever they are (give reasons)

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