Where to get testers? Search and Recruitment Principles

    Hey.

    At the Test Labs 2009 conference in September, guess what_year I made a report on “Where to get testers, buy or cook.” It is based on my experience recruiting people for a tester position. The action takes place in Ukraine, in Kharkov. Kharkov is a city of students, but it’s worse with good specialists.

    If you look at the slidecast, you will see graphic pictures based on my observations. In the text below, only a bare theory.

    I am sure that the same thing, practically word for word, can be transferred to a set of absolutely any IT-specialists.

    A great response at the conference was caused by the story about the training program that I, while still working in the Knicks, led for students.

    Link to the slidecast itself: http://www.slideshare.net/jnechaeva/ss-2239705Well, but the text itself, here it is:

    Every test manager from time to time has to hire new people to his team. Depending on the situation, people may be needed urgently or not urgently, several or one, certain people with a strictly defined circle of skills, or just a good person who can be taught to do what is needed in this project.

    I think that each of you was faced with a situation where it is not possible to find the right person for the right time for the right money. There can be many reasons for this. Session - and capable students do not go for interviews. Or Google opened a branch in your city, and all the good specialists are already there, and you can’t lure them from there with money, company status, or interesting projects. Or Slava Pankratov entered the market and is gaining apprenticeships, and even Google already has problems with recruiting :)
    We have nowhere to go - people are needed.

    Success depends on the company's strategy in recruiting employees, on its flexibility and adaptability, as well as on understanding the market situation, comparing it with the needs and capabilities of the company.

    How can you recruit people:

    - Invite ready-made specialists with the necessary knowledge;
    - To recruit capable guys with no experience in testing and to train them not only in the specifics of the project, but also in “testing” testing;
    - Always have a pool of resources from which you can fetch the right people at the right time and quickly put them into work;
    - Create an external training system.

    Yes, and, of course, it’s not right to just follow the once chosen strategy regardless of the situation on the market and what kind of specialists, in what time frame, in what budget we need .

    Method 1. Recruitment of specialists with experience in testing:

    - We formulate sufficient conditions - the skills, abilities, knowledge, experience that we need from the candidate, and how much we are willing to pay for it;
    - We open a vacancy;
    - We select a suitable specialist.

    Advantages of the method:

    - Such a specialist does not need to be trained in testing: those disciplines, the knowledge of which you required from him when hiring;
    - The introduced experience will be useful to the project and the company: it provides an infusion of fresh knowledge and facilitates the exchange of experience with existing specialists;
    - Winning in time: it is enough to teach a new person only the specifics of the project.

    You are more likely to get a gain in speed and quality of work compared to a specialist without experience .

    Cons of the method:

    - The cost of such a specialist: you need to think about whether the gain is justified by the speed of introduction to the work and further work, for which you will have to pay more;
    - The human factor: in the case of hiring a specialist on the basis of only his technical skills, regardless of his communicative qualities and the specifics of an already established team, there may be problems with pouring him into your team.

    The methodology for recruiting ready-made specialists is justified if you need an immediately (!) Specialist with a certain set of knowledge and skills and you are ready to pay for it .

    Method 2. Recruitment of people without experience in testing and training them in production:

    - We formulate the necessary knowledge and skills that we need from the future tester: it can be a foreign language, knowledge of protocols, the ability to administer the environment or anything else specific to this project.
    - We are opening a vacancy: it is better to use universities, because a vacancy “tester without work experience” on a job site will not lead to anything good.
    - We select a suitable candidate: we pay attention to learning ability and desire to study.

    Advantages of the method:

    - We ourselves teach the guys what we need;
    - At first, the salary of such an employee is less: it is important to achieve an adequate level of payment by the time a person becomes a specialist;
    - The desire for learning and the lack of “stardom”: the likelihood of a situation “I already know everything and I have nothing more to learn” is minimal provided that the right person is chosen;

    Before you is a blank sheet that you can teach the way you want and what you want. Relatively inexpensive. .

    Cons of the method:

    - A large stream of interviews;
    - Ability to grow a very narrow specialist;
    - It takes extra time to train a student in testing: such an employee will not immediately enter the project;
    - Opportunity to miss with “learner” and capable.

    Thus, this method justifies itself if you cannot afford to pay a large salary to a ready-made specialist, if you do not burn the input of a resource to a project, that is, you can afford to spend time training it if you NEED such guys, clean and flexible . This may depend on the specifics of the project and the specifics of the team. .

    Method 3. Create a pool of testers, whence when you open a burning job, the right person is taken immediately:

    - We predict the expansion of projects quantitatively and qualitatively;
    - Slowly recruiting specialists in advance;
    - We introduce them to projects as needed.

    Advantages of the method:
    - Reducing dependence on market fluctuations;
    - Availability of specialists at any time;
    - Predictability of specialists in technical skills and human qualities;
    - Reducing the risks associated with the departure of employees.

    Cons of the method:

    - Expensive: only a large company can afford it;
    - There is a risk of not justifying predictions: you can’t rely on backup completely, you may not find the right specialist, you may not find the right amount, etc .;
    - People can “turn sour”: backup must be properly organized so as not to become a bench.

    If you are a large enough company and you can afford to always keep people in reserve, if you have a constant and predictable increase in projects and a constant and, I emphasize once again, predictable need for people, and you can organize this backup so that people do not feel in stock then it suits you. .

    Method 4. Organization of backups outside the company - an external training system:

    - We study the proposal: we look at universities and students;
    - We study demand: we look inside ourselves, we understand what kind of specialists we need in the future, what we need to teach them;
    - We create a training program;
    - We start the program, train the guys, skim the cream, that is, we invite the guys to work as necessary.

    That is, it is such an assimilation of everything together. We recruit capable guys, train them at our own expense, and at the output we get a pool of ready-made specialists, whom we can always hire to work for ourselves.

    Advantages of the method:

    - We train "for ourselves", but quite widely;
    - Predictability of children in terms of learning ability and desire to work;
    - Predictability of children in terms of abilities and inclinations;
    - During the training, the guys become loyal to your company;

    Pay attention - these are ready-made specialists! Yes, without experience, but with theoretical knowledge, a wide profile, flexible, we observe them during training, that is, they will not present us with surprises such as an inability to learn.

    - Image component: a company organizing its own training system is perceived as a stable, serious company with far-reaching plans;
    - A colossal and very useful experience for the company and specialists who are relevant to this.

    Cons of the method:

    - Resource-intensive organization of the process: agreements with universities, developing the program itself, maintaining and supporting the learning process;
    - Leaders of such training should be teachers in the soul, and not just technical specialists;
    - The risk of training for other companies: during the training you need to interest the guys in work in your company;
    - The risk of a person’s lack of knowledge in other industries that he needs to work in your company: you can be saved here by selection at the start of the program.

    If you can afford it, this is a very good activity, very useful and very interesting. The main thing is to decide on goals and needs.

    There is no right answer at all times "how to hire testers better and more efficiently." Before deciding where and how we will look for a person, we need to sit down and think: WHY?

    What kind of person do we need, in what time frame, in what budget, what should he give to our company, and what can we give him, what is the current situation on the labor market and where is the easiest way to meet the right person.

    An approach to recruiting people is a very important moment in the strategy of any company, because projects are made primarily by people, not technology. Therefore, the approach to recruiting people needs to be paid special attention.

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