TL;DR
This post is report on Testival #34 meetup.
Sponsor of this meetup was again Degordian as Degordian provided meetup space, food and drinks! Many thanks to Degordian folks. There were 20 attendants, not all of them software testers by profession. As main talk was How to hire software tester in Degordian, there were several human resource professionals at the meetup.
For note taking method, I used Cornell method.
Page is divided into three parts: cue, notes (biggest one) and summary. In notes you put your notes, in cue, aligned with notes you put cue that should remind you (memory shortcut) about detailed notes. At the bottom, you put summary what you learned on that notebook page. Trick is that you cover notes part and you just use your cues. Example on the left side of the picture. Shapes represent candidate results, with circle as shape that we want. In cue I wrote: Which candidate?
Main talk was Candidate selection process in Degordian that was presented by Aleksandra and Marko.
Aleksandra is psychologist by profession, and she is responsible person to set and tailor this process. Marko is software tester that created selection part related to software testing skills.
In this process you can be candidate or employer. Selection process is part of company brand (which is true, take Google or Amazon as example). This process has budget and duration.
I learned that beer should be poured from left tap.
It also should be defined which jobs will candidate do. With those input parameters, process defines selection methods. You seek best candidate, not ideal candidate for that job.
Number of candidates that applied for job reveals how good is that ad. Many candidates means that ad was too broad, and no candidates means that is too strict. Process is always refactored, based on previous results. It consists of two parts, technical (at the end) and part that tries to reveal is candidate good fit for the job and environment. For example, you do not want to hire a hero.
We got some advices where NOT to put job ad, because number of applying candidates are high, and most of them are not satisfying basic job requirements.
It is also useful to create database of candidates that almost made it. You can contact them for future positions.
There is an issue of people how are good at their job, but they currently not seeking new opportunities. They should answer that they are interested in the future to work for this company and employer should let them know if it is ok to contact them in the future.
As part of process refactor, workshops should be set in order that all people involved in candidate selection process are on the “same page”. At those workshops, candidate questioning is also practiced.
Marko presented software testing assignment, a “web shop form” with known issues. Every issues has its weight number. Issue description also makes the count. There was one issue that is hard to reproduce because it manifests as random crash.
There was a comment about candidate privacy. At one big event, HR gave a presentation. While searching for presentation in files, audience could see on big screen a folder with candidate applications. Trich was that documents were named after the candidates 🙂
Job ad is not the only tool. You can host meetup, give presentation at the meetup, use facebook ads and attend job fairs at the the universities.
Aleksandra asked for the presentation feedback. Fact that half of the talk was conversation is proof that this topic and presentation was well accepted.
Zeljko mentioned his experience with giving presentation. He often does not present prepared material, he just lets conversation to flow in the audience direction.
We had three lighting talks.
Marko Elezovic from Oradian presented property based testing in Scala.
Vilim Stubican from Degordian presented his experience with Why? question that he has been using since his childhood. The question is how many why’s we should use?
Zeljko Filipin from Wikimedia presented git bisect option.
