Do not prepare for interviews.
Prepare for the job. Prepare the value you will add. If you are still preparing for interviews in 2026, you are already behind.
Here is why:
AI can coach anyone on interview questions now. Online courses teach you tools in 30 days. Anyone can be trained to "answer well."
But here is what twenty years in the testing industry has taught me: interviewers don't hire you for good answers. They hire for your proof of impact and potential.
They want to see what you have actually delivered. What have you improved? What have you learned and applied? What value did you add?
That's what stands out.
That’s what hiring managers like me expect.
The Smartest Preparation Starts Before You Need a Job
Most testers apply for roles first. Then they try to fit themselves into the requirements.
Actually, it’s backwards.
Self-awareness:
Before you apply for a position, do a personal SWOT analysis.
Know your actual strengths - not the ones you think employers want to hear. Understand your genuine weaknesses. Identify opportunities in your field. Recognize career risks.
Last year, a mentee came to me desperate for interview prep.
I asked him a question:
"What are you actually good at?"
He fumbled. He couldn’t answer clearly. I suggested he do self SWOT analysis. He didn’t know what a SWOT analysis was. We spent three hours on his SWOT.
He worked on his weaknesses. He leveraged his strengths. Two months later, he walked into interviews with a clarity that earned him three offers.
When you know yourself, you communicate with confidence. No overselling. No underselling. Just authenticity. And interviewers can sense it immediately.
Your Impact Data :
You need to gather the data.
The data about how you impacted your company. Don't just list what you did. Instead, quantify the business impact. Hiring managers do not want: “I improved test coverage.” They want to hear something like: "I increased coverage from 45% to 87%, catching three critical bugs. These issues would have cost $50K each to roll back.” Stories backed by data.
Context + action + metrics + business impact.
Every project you do, document it.
Make note of these:
- What problem existed?
- What did you do?
- What measurable result did you achieve?
- What did this enable for the business?
Be prepared with this data.
The Research:
When you apply to a company, you need to do research.
Study their products/project, as well as their tech stack. Read their engineering blog. Understand their market challenges. What problems are they trying to solve?
Know who the hiring manager is. Search them on LinkedIn. Then engage thoughtfully. Comment on their posts with genuine insights. No praise. No desperate “I see you are hiring” messages. Study what they are interested in. What do they value?
Show you understand their world before you ask to enter it.
This preparation is not for an interview. This is for impact. That is the difference!
Interviews Are Conversations. Not Performances
Context beats scripts. Every time.
I still remember one interview. It was an eye-opener for me.
That candidate was nervous. Stumbled over a question. Then she looked me in the eye and said, "I am sorry. I disagree with your approach to regression testing. Here's why." No rehearsal. No theory. Just conviction.
She was hired.
Let me compare that to someone I interviewed last month.
Perfect stories. Flawless delivery. Then I asked how they would handle a high-severity production bug. Silence.
She answered something. It was straight from a popular mock-interview video. I asked a follow-up. She couldn't recollect the script. She wasn't thinking
She was not hired.
After interviewing and hiring 100+ testers, I see this constantly.
They come prepared. That preparation is based purely on mock interviews and ‘Important Interview questions’ PDF shared in LinkedIn. As if they are appearing for school examinations.
Your career is your preparation. The interview just reveals it.
Build Skills for Impact. Not for Interviews
A mentee once asked me:
"I have an interview in three weeks, should I learn Docker?"
My answer : “No. Learn Docker because containerization is changing how we test. Learn it deeply. Apply it. Break things. Fix them. Write about it. Later, when someone asks about containerization, you are not memorizing tutorials. You are sharing your experience. Interviewers feel the difference.”
GenAI is your partner.
It is your trainer too. Use it intelligently. Ask it : "What are the gaps in my testing approach?." Don't use it to generate interview questions and answers.
If you are chasing the skill for an interview, you are already behind.
But start now for the job after this one. Every tester I have mentored who transformed their career prepared for knowledge first. Interviews followed naturally.
What Actually Gets You Rejected
After two decades and 100+ interviews, I have noticed something interesting.
Most of the rejections are not because of technical skills.
Rejections are because:
Over-rehearsed answers:
When someone takes off with a perfect story, I interrupt. "Now tell me what actually happened, messy parts included."
The ones who can think or answer based on their experience or learning, they are preferred. The ones who ‘forget’ the rehearsed answers, get rejected.
No self-awareness:
I always ask: "What's a significant mistake you made this year?"
If you claim that you have not made any mistake, then we are done.
I prefer someone who says, "I automated everything without understanding business needs first. Wasted three months." That's growth.
No real questions:
Generic questions about "culture" tell me you are not prepared.
But if someone asks "What's the biggest testing problem you are trying to solve now?”, I prefer them. One candidate asked that. We talked for an hour. He got an offer.
"I don't know."
I have seen a number of candidates beating around the bush. They try to bluff, make-up things. They would go on my rejected list.
You may not have the answer to every question. That’s fair.
When you do not know the answer, you may say: "I haven't worked with that, but here's how I would learn it. Or I would approach it like this…”.
Start Now. Not When You Need a Job
I know what you are thinking. This sounds hard. It is.
This approach requires confidence you might not have yet.
But here is what twenty years has taught me: confidence doesn't come from memorizing answers. It comes from building expertise so deep and documenting impact so clearly that discussing your work feels natural.
Start today.
Pick one area where testing is evolving.
AI-assisted testing. Observability. Shift-left security. Whatever speaks to you. Go deep. Apply it to real problems. Measure the results. Write about your experiments on LinkedIn. Share your failures alongside your wins.
Try new approaches in your current role. Suggest process improvements. Ask for challenging responsibilities. Document the impact of everything you do.
Note this: when you are so good at what you do, interviews become easy conversations. You are not just preparing for job offers. You are building the brand and expertise that will outlast any single job.
Twenty years from now, you won't remember the interviews.
You will remember what you built. What you learned. The impact you made.
The best time to start was five years ago.
The second best time is right now. This moment.
What are you going to do with it?
About author:
I have 20 years of experience in software testing and have helped organizations deliver quality products to their users.
As an AI enthusiast, I have developed AI agents and continue to explore the field with passion.
I have mentored many testers, supporting their growth and helping them advance in their careers. I also write about software testing, strategy, professional growth, and career guidance on different platforms.
In my free time, I enjoy reading short stories and non-fiction books. I also love playing the flute and am learning it step by step!
