How to Write a Quality Assurance Resume (Step-by-Step with Examples)

As with any resume, the goal of a quality assurance resume is to persuade a hiring manager that you’re the perfect candidate for an open position. Your resume should show that you deserve an interview and why you’re an ideal fit for a company. It should clearly outline your responsibilities, experience, accomplishments, and qualifications in quality assurance. Whether you are highly qualified, new to the field, or changing career paths, you can use your resume to highlight all your strong points to a hiring manager. 

Step 1: Select a QA resume template.

Your resume layout may impact what the reader sees and what stands out the most. Ideally, the format is a single page that uses professional fonts and is scannable, with a clean and simple design that highlights your best points. You can find many free and paid quality assurance specialist resume templates online. For example, you can browse free resume templates in the online document editor, Google Docs.

The layout you choose depends on your level of experience and what you have to offer. Chronological resumes are great for showing career progression. If you have less experience or are changing careers, you may opt for a functional resume. This resume format highlights your skills over your professional experience in quality assurance. You can find a flexible middle ground with a combination resume that showcases both. Whichever you choose, make sure each section is defined and clear. Keep in mind that you want to showcase your strongest points.

Read more: Types of Resumes: Choosing the Right Format For Your Needs

Step 2: Add your basic resume essentials. 

You can begin with your basic contact information. Your address, name, email address, and phone number should be clearly printed and easy to find. You can also provide links to your professional social media profiles, such as LinkedIn.

Education

Next, you can fill in your education. These entries should be listed in reverse chronological order. The name of your degree, your graduation year, and the name of the school you graduated from should always be included. You may also want to mention any relevant coursework or extracurricular activities.

Step 3: Feature relevant certifications or training.

If you have special training, make sure your resume includes a section for you to showcase it. When adding a Professional Certificate or coursework to your resume, make sure to include the following:

• The full name of the certification

• The organization or university that issued it

• The date you earned your certificate

Professional Certificates can be a great way to highlight your credentials to prospective employers, especially if you don't have a degree in a related field.

Read more: How to List Certifications on Your Resume: Guide + Examples

Professional certificates for QA professionals

If you still need certificates or coursework for your resume, check out the list of relevant options for QA professionals below.

• Clinical Trials Data Management and Quality Assurance from John Hopkins University

• Information Systems Auditing, Controls, and Assurance from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

• Software Testing and Automation Specialization from the University of Minnesota

Step 4: Create your quality assurance resume skills section.

To make sure you have a great QA resume, do some research to understand what you’ll be doing in a quality assurance role and what companies are looking for. Even if you know the field well, research will ensure that you're using the correct phrases and industry keywords in your resume to help tailor it to the position. Make sure you include a combination of technical skills and workplace skills (or soft skills). 

Quality assurance vs. quality control

Quality assurance professionals work to develop a set of manufacturing processes and procedures to test products before production or release. It’s important not to confuse quality assurance with quality control in your resume. Quality control is the inspection of the final product rather than the processes leading to that point.

Use QA job listings to guide your skills section.

One of the most reliable ways to ensure that you’ve tailored your QA resume is to read through current and past job descriptions. Check what skills and experience employers are asking for and what the roles involve. Use your findings to determine what you should include in your resume. For example, if they ask for someone who has attention to detail, make sure that is somewhere on your resume. Don't forget to check job postings for related job titles. Relevant examples include:

• Quality assurance (QA) technician

• QA compliance manager

• QA specialist

• QA internal auditor

• QMS/QA specialist

• Quality systems coordinator

• Quality assurance associate

Use keywords to describe relevant skills.

Using keywords to describe your skill set is a very important part of writing an effective resume. Not only do you want to include everything that’s relevant, but resumes are usually screened by applicant tracking software (ATS). This is to weed out applicants who don’t meet the essential criteria. You will be assessed on how well your resume matches these standards by the keywords you include.

Try going through job descriptions of the roles you’re interested in and making a list of important keywords that you might include in your resume. Use multiple sources to identify the keywords that are used the most and disregard the ones that aren’t used as often.

Keywords in listings for QA jobs

An example list of the keywords used for a QA role may look like this:

• Quality measurements

• Quality assurance standards

• QA

• Safety standards

• Functional testing

• Attention to detail

• Routine inspection

• Quality tests

• Audit reports

• Automated testing

• Automated frameworks

• Regulatory standards

Read more: Resume Keywords: How to Find the Right Words to Beat the ATS

5. Create a cover letter to submit with job applications.

Once your resume is ready, the last important step is to include a tailored QA cover letter. Your cover letter lets you address all the essential QA criteria of the role that isn’t on your resume. Make a note of everything the hiring manager is looking for, and include examples of your experience in your letter. To make your cover letter personalized, research the company you're applying to first. This can help you understand what they're looking for in a candidate and demonstrate how your experience and values fit with their mission.

QA resume samples

The next few sections contain sample QA resume sections. You can use them to brainstorm your own. 

Skills section example

Skills:

• Familiarity with Agile methodologies

• Strong knowledge of the software development life cycle (SDLC)

• Experience working with various QA tools and technologies (Selenium Webdriver, Jira, etc.)

• Test planning, development, and execution skills

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

• Extensive knowledge of manual and automated testing methods

• High-level analytical and problem-solving capabilities

• Persistent attention to detail

Achievements section example

To strengthen your resume, clearly highlight any relevant achievements. Examples include:

• Successfully developed 100+ test cases, including 50 security test plans for 10 different function product areas.

• Increased company efficiency by 30 percent by reducing data to key insights through drafting testing reports.

• Used Java and Python to write testing automation code for a key product, resulting in a 10 percent increase in productivity.

• Developed client proposals, outlining the scope of the project and timelines for all new clients.

• Mentored new members of the quality assurance team, supporting them in their new roles and offering monthly settling-in meetings.

• Received an award for employee of the month for excellent team contribution.

Enhance your quality assurance resume with Coursera 

You can earn credentials to make your resume more competitive online. For example, you can earn a certificate in Reviews & Metrics for Software Improvements from the University of Alberta.