In the IT industry, testers are a crucial to delivering a high quality product. A product which is badly tested can throw a company on top of the charts to rock bottom or even cause a business loss to the tune of millions of dollars.
A big challenge for IT companies across the world is to find good testers who would fulfill the expectations set, by understanding the business requirements and bring their practical knowledge into the logical world.
Till some time ago, whenever I interviewed a fresher, I was always doubtful about my pick. Though the theoretical answers given by the candidate were correct, I was not sure if he/she would go on to become a good tester. Textual knowledge can be gained from anywhere and nothing is unattainable till we have Google by our side.
This made me wonder about the questions that I was asking these interviewees. Would these questions lead me to a smart tester or a robot who would work like a donkey in a single direction as told?
This is when I decided to change the interview process. Not only was I focusing on technical queries, I now started to actively seek an insight into the candidate's day- to-day behaviour. Is he a keen observer? Does he really have an idea about his surroundings? Does he feel curious about whatever he is involved in?
One of my favourite interview questions is, “List down some observations that you made when you were sitting in the reception area of our organization when you came for the interview?" (Must admit I don’t ask it anymore since people are more aware of this question!)
Coming back to the point, the answers to these questions would give me a fair sense of the candidate's grasping power. According to my experience over the years, the most important attributes for a tester is a curious attitude, observation and grasping power, all of which can place him in the league of the best testers out there, especially when the attributes are trained in the right channel. Testing is not a sci-fi movie such as Matrix or Interstellar, which needs to be seen 10 times to understand it fully :)
Not to say that training is not important. Everything cannot be taught through courses. Seniors play an essential role in the learning process. Juniors look upto them for guidance, pretty much the same way we looked at our parents when we were kids.
We cannot throw them amid a sea of different applications and tell them to find their own way out of it. Lest they be unsuccessful and drown in the depth of inferiority complex (or he is shown the door!). No, this is not what we should do!
Freshers are like kids who need to be held by their hands and taken to the shallow waters before turning to the deeper side. They don't have any experience about working in a real world, so it also becomes easier to mould them to work independently without being monitored or guided.
My conclusion after my years of experience is that no teammate is bad enough to be shown the way to the exit. If a person is well educated and has made his/her way through the interview process, he can become a good tester with proper training and guidance.
The answer to my own question? Yes, testing is something which indeed can be learnt!