QA/testing CVs should focus on risk reduction, quality outcomes, and reliable automation (not just “tested manually”).
This guide is a role-specific companion to the general CV structure: IT CV template (Romania).
TL;DR
- Put these early: coverage of critical flows, fewer regressions, stable tests.
- Be explicit: manual QA vs automation vs SDET (and where you’re strongest).
- Avoid “found bugs”. Show what risk you reduced and how.
Quick checklist
- Clear headline: “QA Engineer”, “Test Automation Engineer”, “SDET”.
- 3–6 strong bullets: test strategy, automation, CI integration, flakiness reduction.
- Mention what types of testing you did (unit/integration/E2E) and on what areas.
Recommended structure (QA/SDET)
- Header (clean links; GitHub helps if you have automation projects)
- Summary (2–4 lines: strengths + focus)
- Experience (quality outcomes)
- Selected projects (optional)
- Skills (testing types, tooling, CI)
- Education/certifications (short)
What a good QA bullet looks like
A strong bullet includes: (1) the risk, (2) what you changed in strategy/suite, (3) what improved.
Examples:
- “Introduced smoke tests for critical flows and ran them on every deploy, reducing regressions reaching production.”
- “Stabilized E2E tests by improving selectors and test data setup, increasing trust in CI.”
Bullet library (QA/SDET)
Strategy & coverage
- “Defined a regression strategy for critical flows, reducing release risk.”
- “Prioritized and maintained test cases for key journeys, reducing pre-release validation time.”
- “Built a browser/device compatibility matrix, reducing production UI issues.”
- “Improved bug reporting quality (repro steps, logs, severity), speeding up triage.”
Automation & CI
- “Built E2E automation for key journeys and integrated it into CI.”
- “Reduced E2E flakiness by stabilizing selectors and test data setup.”
- “Added automated reporting (screenshots/logs) for faster debugging in pipelines.”
- “Optimized test runtime via parallelization and better environment setup.”
Quality engineering (SDET-style)
- “Improved testability by collaborating with devs on hooks/logging/feature flags.”
- “Introduced contract tests for API integrations, reducing compatibility bugs.”
- “Improved observability for debugging (correlation IDs, logs), speeding up triage.”
Ownership & impact
- “Reduced production bugs by adding coverage to high-risk areas and enforcing gates in CI.”
- “Created a consistent triage/severity process, improving response time and focus.”
- “Mentored teammates on testing patterns and best practices, improving quality across the team.”
Sub-role examples
Manual QA (product quality)
- “Built clear, prioritized test suites for key flows and improved exploratory testing coverage.”
- “Standardized acceptance criteria checks with product/design, reducing last-minute rework.”
Automation engineer
- “Built and maintained stable E2E suites for critical flows and reduced flakiness over time.”
- “Improved test data management to make runs reproducible and faster to debug.”
SDET
- “Helped teams adopt a test pyramid approach (unit/integration/E2E) with pragmatic quality gates.”
- “Improved reliability by adding contract tests and better observability for failures.”
Common mistakes
- Generic bullets (“tested features”) without impact.
- “Automation” without specifying what (E2E vs API vs integration) and where.
- No mention of stability/flakiness and how you handle it.
- Unclear split between manual QA, automation, and SDET responsibilities.
Useful keywords (use only what you actually did)
- unit/integration/E2E, regression, smoke
- Playwright/Cypress/Selenium
- CI integration, test reporting
- flakiness, stability, test data management
QA CV template (copy/paste)
FAQ
How do I show impact without metrics?
Use operational outcomes: fewer regressions, faster feedback, easier triage, more stable automation, clearer release confidence.
Is it bad to list many tools?
It’s better to list fewer tools tied to real deliveries. Tool lists without outcomes get ignored.
