Get a QA Internship - How hard can it be?

We conducted interviews recently with some QA Internship candidates. Having gone through the details stated in the CVs and then conducting face-to-face interviews to assess their capabilities, I feel that those candidates could use some guidance.

Apparently, such guidances are in abundance if you care to take a search. The point is, most of those are based on the experience of either European or US contexts, whereas in Sri Lanka the situation could significantly differ.

So, how hard can it be? not much! IF - of course - you would invest some time to improve yourself on following key points:

1. Your CV is your persona

The CV is the first agent that tells your potential employers about yourself. It should be capable of landing you an opportunity to get an interview where you could show your true colors. Some researches say it takes about 5 seconds for reviewers to take a glance on a CV and decide whether to check its details. 

So do your research on how to prepare a good CV that could make the reviewers want to have an interview with you.

2. Don't lie on your CV

You could be tempted to list down all the theoretical subject knowledge items in your CV. Same goes for the latest technical concepts. But the critical question is, what is your level of understanding about those skills, technologies and theories you mention in that document. More often than not, you are selected for an interview based on those items (given you do not have prior working experience) 

The interviewers you meet at the first interview are typically those that have many years of actual work experience of those theories, technical aspects and they actually have similar or more advanced set of skills that are time tested in practical work. If you have lied about such things, you are just one or two questions away from getting caught red-handed. Then it's just a waste of time for both you and the interviewers

3. Know the basics

If you want to take up an internship in QA field, you are expected to possess at least the basic knowledge about the common things such as defects, defect life-cycle, test cases, test types, testing methods, SDLC models etc. Knowledge on basic data base management concepts, and programming would be an added advantage.

Of course the interviewers will not seek for detailed theoretical knowledge nor the hands-on practical expertise. But you can not get selected with no basic understanding of what you are going to do either.

4. Do not lie at the interview

If you do not know the answer to something the interviewers ask, it is OK to say that you don't know that. As I mentioned earlier also, your interviewers will know right away if and when you do so. They may still pretend to accept that answer and move forward with other questions, but you have already lost points.

5. Smile and be confident

I mean, come on - you want to be a knowledge-worker isn't it? You have learned the things from your coursework. You may also have practical know-how on some areas. That's your selling point. So be confident on what you know and what you can do. Those are the points that could land you on the job.

Being a candidate for an internship, the most important aspects expected from you are confidence on your knowledge and skills with more importantly - positive attitudes towards learning and improving yourself.