Everything you need to know before an interview for a QA position at Wix Engineering
This year has been unlike any others. The pandemic has changed our daily routines and the way we work. Most of the tech companies went to remote mode which also brought some new challenges of hiring and on-boarding remotely. How to choose future employees or company, when you cannot actually see the office life or meet potential new colleagues face-to-face?
In this post, I will share a few tips which could help you to prepare for your next online interview and also it should help you to understand what we are looking for in a QA engineer. Please note that the process might differ depending on the position and on this post I will share our point of view from Wix Engineering, Vilnius perspective.
Preparation
We always appreciate people who prepare for the interview. And trust me, you as a candidate can feel much more comfortable with knowing at least a bit about the company, product and culture.
Try to locate as much information as you can. It will not only give you some “extra points” but it will give you a direction of how you can show yourself better. Interview processes at Wix are based on getting to know the candidates — sometimes we have a clear position we are interviewing for but in most cases we have several openings in different teams so we are trying to find the best match during our interview process.
We are interviewing not only for specific teams or projects but to the guild itself what can lead to team/product changes in upcoming few years (you can find more information about the Guilds below). We make our call after you meet our engineers and managers and only then we know where you will bring your strongest sides with giving the biggest impact.
I encourage you to go over detailed steps of our hiring process and core values in my colleague Donatas blog post. Our process for hiring QA is very similar: you will have up to 4 interviews where the full process consists of a couple of technical interviews, meeting with HR and meeting with your potential team/manager.
In any of these steps feel free to ask any questions about day to day tasks, meetings, releases, team processes, testing in production environments, etc. Mention your preferences or challenges you’re looking for so it can be addressed by the time you will join your team. Be open, honest and don’t be shy to show yourself.
Online interview
The place where you will go through the interviewing process matters. Try to choose a quiet room with proper lighting. Since the interviewer can’t meet you face to face it is important that you would feel comfortable in the room and that interviewers would be able to see your face (not only the eyes, part of the face, or the wall).
Try to find a comfortable place where you could focus without distractions on the questions and technical tasks. If you can’t properly see or hear the interviewers don’t hesitate to ask to put the headphones or change the lighting / camera view. Interruptions are part of our life especially now, so don’t worry if kids, dogs or something appears on the screen. Make a joke around it and move on. :)
Check your technical equipment. To minimize technical hiccups do a video test before the interview. Even better if you would try to use an application on which the interview will be held. Make sure your signal strength is adequate and the camera with microphone both work so the interviewer can easily see and hear you.
During the technical interview you can be asked to share your screen so try to check out this feature so you would feel comfortable by the time of the actual interview. Make sure your shared content is professional and you won’t show any confidential or sensitive information.
Technical part
You can expect to have up to two technical interviews where in the first interview you will meet two Wix Engineers and in the second interview you would meet one of our QA guild managers. The goal for us is to get to know you, give an introduction about our company (the way we work) and learn about your technical skills and experience.
As for the technical skills part, you will get a technical task which will be connected to one of our products. We will challenge you to think about testing strategy and how we can assure quality in provided scope. For us it is important that you not only share how to test specific elements, but you know how WEB works under the hood by understanding client side architecture and server calls.
Take into account that there’s no one right answer, we care about digging deep into the topic (prioritizing and organizing testing activities as well), attention to details and how clear you can explain yourself. We enjoy encouraging each other to learn about different approaches, so you will be invited for an open discussion on topics like: QA concepts in software, tools & languages you’re familiar with and the ways you keep your engineering skills and knowledge up-to-date.
As a QA engineer you can mention a lot of things around software development, so share what you know. Remember, we’re not only evaluating technical skills, but also we are looking into your abilities to think creatively, adapt solutions and find ways to solve problems.
If you are applying for a position with tests automation we will provide a technical task in which we may ask you to write some code on the fly, describe scenarios for automation, ask your opinion on a familiar framework or test automation concepts. The topic of the questions depends on your background. We expect you to come up with solutions yourself instead of using a library or copy/pasted code. The purpose is to see your approach to the given problem and how you get things done: your choice of language or tools, the way you follow best practices and organize the code.
Role & Guild
Guild is the place where we share knowledge between different teams in the same area (QA, Front-end, Back-end, product, UX, etc.). It is agreed that people at Wix are spending 20% of the working time for the guild where you can grow professionally, get additional challenges or roles (f.e. become an expert in a specific area (performance, accessibility, SEO testing, automation, etc.)) Also you can spend guild time by working on the latest technologies or learning new methodologies.
Aleksandra Pervuvina, my QA colleague from Dnipro in her blog post gives a detailed overview of the things that we do in our guild. I encourage you to check it out!
We’re truly interested in how aligning your personal strengths with your experience allows you to be accomplished and valued. Not only are we looking at how you can contribute today, but also how you can develop into a variety of roles: technical, guild master, expert, lead, etc.
Have you ever grown juniors, team or you took additional responsibilities on your own initiatives? Speak about it! Being prepared to discuss how you are using your communication and decision making skills for sure can add you some “extra points”. Tell us about how you work individually and in the team, show how you can help and grow others.
Summary
I hope that this post has given you a better understanding of our hiring process and what could help you to prepare for the interview. Feel free and comfortable to ask questions during and after the interview. Ask all questions you are interested in — about the company, teams, work, culture that it would help you to decide whether the job will be enjoyable for you. Also feel confident to tell about some side noise, poor video quality or if you couldn’t fully hear or understand questions.
Wix was built around the idea that everyone has the right to be successful and grow online. That’s the same culture we bring to work: everyone has the ability, right, and equal opportunity to grow, succeed, be meaningful and make an impact.
