I rejected a candidate last month.
He had 6 years experience.
I rejected him not because he was bad. Because he optimized for the wrong things.
The interview went like this:
Me: “Tell me about a time you prevented a disaster. Not found a bug – But prevented a disaster.”
He: “…….”
Me: “What is the riskiest part of your product right now?”
He: “I need to check with my manager.”
Me: “Why should your company keep you?”
He: “Last year reported maximum number of bugs. I am an expert in Selenium and Java. I am experienced in Rest Assured.”
He has 6 years experience. Selenium expert. Working knowledge of Palywright, Postman, JMeter,Rest Assured. Skilled in Java and Python. Great.
But he could not answer basic questions about impact.
In the same week, I interviewed someone with 5 years experience.
I asked his:
Me: “How did your work impact your team or company?”
He: “Our payment flow during festival season. I tested it under peak load, found the breaking point at 50000 concurrent users. Convinced the team to add rate limiting before next festival. App didn’t crash. We had highest number of order placements.”
That is the kind of candidate I was looking for.
Here’s the problem with most 5-6 year testers:
They optimize for:
1. More tools
2. More certifications
3. More test cases
4. Looking busy
They should optimize for:
1. Understanding business risk
2. Preventing expensive failures
3. Making hard decisions
4. Building judgment
The 5-year mark is a filter.
It separates you from others who just add years to experience – only if you add value.
Tools change. Business judgment doesn’t.
Certifications expire. Impact doesn’t.
If you are 5 years and still optimizing for tools – you’re building the wrong career.
Ask a simple question:
What is the last decision you made that your manager couldn’t have made for you?
If you can’t answer it – you are already replaceable.
Do you agree? Or disagree ?