You’re the last line of defense between unsuspecting customers and the coding errors and bugs that drive them crazy. You’re an unsung hero of game and software development, but with a role that’s so behind-the-scenes, how can you show off your achievements and get hired?

It requires clearly demonstrating the core skills that makes a great QA analyst: attention to detail, great communication, and a passion for improving games and software. Fortunately, this guide has plenty of tips and examples to show you how to do exactly that and much more.

What this guide will teach you:

• How to use resume examples to get started
• What it takes to get past ATS
• How to appeal to recruiters
• The best formatting for a QA analyst resume
• How to make your achievements stand out
• What to include in your education section
• Certifications that make an impact
• How and why to start with an objective or summary
• How to target your resume for specific roles

Quality assurance analyst resume template examples

Before you write the first word of your resume, we recommend having a look at some high quality examples. The reason? Most of us don’t look at or think about our resumes very often, so we tend to go on autopilot when we’re updating them. But resumes are evolving faster than you think and it pays to get yours right.

So have a look at these hand-picked quality assurance analyst resume examples and take notes about what stands out to you. What do you like and not like about them? Use these notes as a starting point for your own resume (if you’re creating one from scratch, this helps avoid starting with a blank page).

[Examples]

How to write a quality assurance analyst resume that will get you hired

As a quality assurance analyst, you’re always thinking about the end user. You need to mimic the way they interact with products to find the issues they might encounter. For your resume, you’ll need to employ those same skills to optimize for the two key audiences you need to appeal to.

The good news is that most of the applicants you’ll be competing against won’t think about these audiences for a second, so you’re getting ahead of them by optimizing your resume from the start. But who should your resume be for?

How to get your resume past ATS?

The first hurdle your resume will likely need to overcome is actually a computer algorithm. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are AI-driven programs designed to analyze and sort large numbers of resumes quickly to save human recruiters the time. They’re quickly becoming ubiquitous amongst larger companies even as they remain obscure to most job seekers.

The problem is that these programs are far from perfect and many seemingly innocent mistakes on your end could result in your resume getting rejected. Fortunately, there are three simple things you can do to vastly increase the chance your resume gets accepted by ATS.

1. Only submit your resume in a file format ATS are designed to read. This means using .pdf, .doc, or .docx.
2. Using a resume builder to ensure your files are optimized for ATS. Not all .pdfs are created equal in the eyes of ATS. The way the data inside the file is structured can have a huge impact on how easily ATS can read it. Your best chance to ensure your resume is easily read is to use a resume builder specifically designed to produce ATS-friendly files.
3. Get smart about how you use keywords. ATS generally work by being given a set of skills and experience to look for in resumes. To get accepted, your resume needs to meet these criteria. You can boost the chances of this happening by studying the job ad, listing the skills and experience it asks for, and ensuring as many of them are on your resume as possible. Phrasing those skills and experience the same way they’re written in the job ad will further decrease the chances ATS misunderstands what you’ve written.

What recruiters will look for?

Once your resume has sailed past ATS, it still needs to get a thumbs up from a recruiter. That’s why creating your resume without thinking about the recruiter at every step is like doing quality control without ever thinking about the end-user. But what are recruiters looking for from your resume?

Luckily for you, the answer is right there in the job ad. The same optimizations you made for ATS will help a lot with appealing to recruiters because they will be working from the same set of requirements. But there’s more you need to do. Ensuring your resume is easy to read with well-structured information that communicates the main things the recruiter needs to know efficiently is key.

Use that list of requirements from the job ad you created for ATS and read your resume imagining yourself as a recruiter. How easy is it to check off things on the list? If you can, get a trusted friend or colleague to read through your resume the same way to ensure you identify every possible place where you can improve.

How to format your resume

Formatting is one of those subtle resume elements most applicants don’t think about, but it makes a big difference for recruiters. If they have to dig through your resume to find a critical piece of information, they’re not forming a good first impression of you as a candidate. Smart formatting makes it easier for them to say “yes!” to you as a candidate.

But what does smart formatting look like? To start, it follows the rule that more information should go towards the top. Ask yourself what 3-5 key pieces of information you want a recruiter to know about you and make sure those are communicated within 30 seconds or so of them reading your resume.

For your work experience, the same rule applies. List your past jobs in reverse chronological order, with the most recent one going towards the top. All of this ensures a recruiter won’t stop reading before they get to a skill or achievement which might change their mind.

How long should a quality assurance analyst resume be?

The rule here is the same rule that you’ll find for good code: as short as possible while maintaining quality. An overly long resume full of fluff is sure to annoy the recruiter who’s forced to read through it (or, more likely gives up after 30 seconds without seeing anything compelling). 1-2 pages is ideal, with a single page being preferable if you don’t have much experience.

The best trick to shorten your resume is to look through each piece of information and section and ask yourself “is this making my resume better?” If the answer is no, then simply remove it.

Which sections should you include?

While including all of these sections will certainly make your resume too long, these are the top ones you should consider for a quality assurance analyst resume.

• Resume objective or summary
• Work experience
• Achievements
• Projects
• Education
• Certifications
• Hard skills
• Soft Skills

How to highlight your achievements

Whether you’re talking about specific job achievements as a quality assurance analyst or relevant achievements outside of your career, showing achievements is one of the best ways to stand out from the competition. The trick is to do it right. Let’s look at some examples to see what your achievements should and should not look like.

Recognized for achieving high marks on quality assurance scorecards

This achievement mostly just raises questions: who recognized you? What is a “high mark?” and what was the impact of this achievement? By not leading with specifics, this achievement takes something which would otherwise sound very impressive and leaves it falling flat.

Recognized for achieving the highest average quality assurance scorecard marks (98.2%) on the 40 person QA team at Atlanta Microsystems.

By adding in details like the size of the team, which company this happened at, and the specific quality score you obtained, this achievement is far more concrete and impactful. Instead of finishing that achievement with questions, a recruiter will read it and make a positive note about you as a candidate.

How to list your education

Education is one of those things that most of us include on our resume simply out of habit. We throw in all of our degrees and even GPAs. The thing is, most employers don’t care, especially if you graduated more than a few years ago. This is why the critical question for your education section is the same one we mentioned earlier, is this adding value?

Let’s examine two examples to understand this better.

MFA in Sculpture

UC Davis

2008-2012

-Summer internship in Florence studying late Renaissance sculpture

-3.6 average GPA

This example has nothing to do with being a quality assurance analyst. The GPA and summer internship are also not connected enough with the job this person is applying for to be worth mentioning. Worst of all, this experience was around a decade ago, making it particularly not worth mentioning. But what kind of education would be worth including on a quality assurance analyst resume?

BA in Computer Science

University of Idaho

2015-2019

-Thesis was on SQL database management

-Worked with the university admissions department to test student onboarding software

This education example shows what is worth mentioning (and what’s not). The degree is both relevant and recent. The thesis and admissions work are mentioned because they’re connected with the QA work this person is applying for. Their GPA, clubs, and other activities are left off because they’re not relevant.

An exception could be if you, for example, you’re applying at a video game development company and you organized a gaming club at the university. Mentioning non-work activities which can connect you with the culture or mission of the company is definitely a good idea even if they aren’t directly connected to the work you’ll be doing.

How to list any additional details, like certifications and training

Because there aren’t any university degrees in quality control, certifications and trainings are the best way to demonstrate your skills outside of your work experience. They are particularly useful if you don’t have much or any experience in quality control but want to stand toe-to-toe with other applicants who might have some.

You can list these certifications or trainings in their own section, or mention in your resume objective or summary (more on how to write those below). If you only have one certification, for example, it’s best to simply mention it at the top of your resume in this way.

The best quality assurance analyst certifications to include

• Certified Associate In Software Testing (CAST)
• International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB) Foundation Level
• Certified Software Test Engineer (CSTE)
• ISTQB Advanced Level Test Analyst
• ISTQB Advanced Level Test Manager
• ISTQB Expert Level Test Manager
• ISTQB Agile Tester Certification
• International Institute for Software Testing (IIST) Certified Agile Software Test Professional Practitioner Level (CASTP-P)
• IIST Certified Agile Software Test Professional Master Level (CASTP-M)

What are the technical and interpersonal skills needed for a QA analyst role?

In short, a great QA analyst needs a combination of the hard technical skills to evaluate code and the soft skills to be diligent about how they do it. The specific technical skills required will vary widely depending on the technologies being used, so always refer to the job description to know which skills you’ll want to emphasize. If you don’t have experience with a required technical product, consider getting a certification in it.

You’ll also be expected to work well on teams. You can be an amazing quality assurance analyst but if your colleagues don’t enjoy working with you, there’s going to be problems. So, consider how your personality comes across on your resume and try including examples of you working effectively on teams.

Hard skills to consider including

• SQL
• Java
• Scrum
• Micro Focus LoadRunner
• Python
• Cucumber Pro
• Oracle
• JUnit
• Soap UI Pro
• Data modeling and visualization
• XSD

Soft skills to consider including

• Time management
• Working on a team
• Attention to detail
• Analysis
• Written and oral communication
• Working under pressure
• Research
• Adaptability

Why your resume should start with an objective or summary

We’ve talked a lot about the importance of controlling when a recruiter sees specific information on your resume. When your goal is to give them a few key reasons to hire you right from the start, the best way to do that is with a resume objective or summary.

Both of these are short sentence(s) at the start of your resume which roughly explain who you are and what you’re aiming to achieve. They may additionally list your core qualifications, the top reasons to hire you, or something that isn’t easily explained elsewhere like a gap in your work history or your reasons for changing careers.

In any case, these sections are the best way to form a strong first impression and get ahead of questions which may come up based on later information in your resume.

How to write a resume objective

A resume objective needs to be concise and information dense. Generally, this will be a single sentence focusing on quickly explaining who you are and why you’re applying. Let’s see two contrasting examples to get a better feel for what this should look like in practice.

I’m an experienced quality assurance analyst looking to advance my career at your company.

This objective example makes a lot of mistakes. Beyond the basic writing in the first person (your entire resume should be in the third person), it’s vague, generic, and makes it sound like you aren’t interested in providing any value to the company, but only to yourself. In other words, it doesn’t make you sound like a good employee. Let’s look at an improved version.

CASTP-P certified quality assurance analyst with 7 years experience implementing agile principles to improve software quality looking to implement these principles at Olympic Software.

While this is a longer than average resume objective, it makes up for that length with the quality of information it contains. Right away you get a clear sense that this person is an experienced professional who doesn’t want to just do the bare minimum at this prospective job. In addition, by mentioning the company, this candidate signals to the recruiter that they took the time to customize their resume (more on why that’s important below).

The result is a resume objective that makes a strong first impression instead of one that elicits a shrug.

How to write a resume summary

A resume summary will generally be longer than an objective, but that’s not an excuse to ramble. It should still be concise and focused on conveying a few key pieces of information. Now let’s see this in action.

Quality assurance analys with ample experience working with a variety of tech stacks in both software and video game development. Particularly adept at finding errors in code and communicating those errors to colleagues. Ready to start work at any time and happy to answer any further questions.

First and foremost, spelling mistakes are always a problem on a resume but that’s especially the case for a quality assurance analyst. You’ll be expected to have excellent attention to detail in your work so be absolutely sure the resume you turn in is flawless. Get a friend or a professional to help you edit and review it if necessary.

Beyond that, this example gets a few things right like mentioning the kind of experience the person has while failing overall by being too vague and including irrelevant information. For example, a recruiter knows that they can contact you with further questions and would assume you can start work at any time unless you said otherwise. Thus, this summary wastes precious space conveying information which doesn’t add any value.

Recent Computer Science graduate looking to apply experience in SQL projects and handling customers at Inova Call Centers to improve database management at Orion Telesystems. Currently in the process of obtaining a CAST certification.

Ideally a resume summary should make a concise case for why a company should hire you and this example does just that. It skips information like the university where the person graduated (that’s easily accessible in the education section and isn’t as relevant) to focus on what skills this person has, what skills they’ve actively developing, and how they’d like to apply them at the company where they’re hoping to work.

The effect is that this candidate sounds young, but professional, ambitious, and dedicated, all great qualities for an entry level quality assurance analyst.

How to target your resume for each application

One of the single most important things you can do to increase your chance of getting hired as a quality assurance analyst is to create a custom resume for each job. This instantly communicates to the recruiter that you took the time, you care, and you’re not the kind of person who cuts corners. Considering how important these qualities are for QA, you can’t afford to miss any chance to demonstrate them.

Fortunately, the techniques you’ve already used to get past ATS and appeal to recruiters will communicate this well. By ensuring your resume matches the skills and experience the job description calls for, you’re targeting your resume well. However, it also doesn’t hurt to mention the company where you’re applying in the objective or description as we’ve done in some of the examples above.

How to make your resume stand out

Besides all of the more subtle ways we’ve discussed for making your resume stand out, the last element to mention is design. Most resumes are somewhere on the spectrum between ugly and boring. For recruiters who have to look at them all day, one with clean and modern design which makes the information on it easier to digest will always stand out. But you’re not a designer, so how can you get design like that? Simple, use a resume builder.

Why using a resume builder simplifies the process

With so many small details you need to get right to create the best possible quality assurance analyst resume, you need all the help you can get. That’s why using a quality resume builder is such a no-brainer. By giving you easy access to standout design, ensuring your resume files will be ATS-optimized, and simplifying the entire process (no tearing your hair out trying to get the formatting of that Word document just right) a builder simply lets you focus on creating better resumes.

Resumebuild.com offers all of this and more with design templates and a powerful but intuitive builder which lets you simply get started instead of waiting to master some new piece of software. You deserve a better job and a better job requires a better resume, so get started today.