Journey of a QA Freelancer at UTest

Journey of a MOM From a Developer -> Housewife -> QA Freelancer at uTest

Hello Everyone,

Thanks Arun for giving me chance to write about ME, My Journey and Freelancing work.

Before getting started with my Journey, check my uTest Freelancing profile here: https://www.utest.com/articles/spotlight-u-meet-utester-riddhi

The word ‘JOURNEY’ itself says a lot!! I know each one of us have our own journey and I believe there is no destination. As journey keeps going then only we keep learning! Each person’s Journey is sum of Ups, Downs, Depression, Doubts, Frustration and Insane Persistence.

I recently had conversation with a friend and he said to me one perfect line for me :“Each one should have a story/journey to describe so that we can stand in crowd and motivate ourselves as well as others!” And then suddenly the idea came in my mind to write about myself. 

Brief Introduction About ME

My professional journey started in 2004 as a Software Developer (About which I was always passionate since I was in Grade 12th). I decided to take a break in 2009 year end due to family responsibilities and certain health issues. I did freelancing article writing for almost a year on different topics and then in 2011 I took complete Break. After that My world changed around kid and Husband and I become complete Housewife. Initial 3-4 years I enjoyed it fully and become very busy around kid, so that I didn’t get even chance to think about ME and my passion.

My Decision about re-starting my Career
As my child started growing again the phase came that I started missing my Professional life, my passion, my dreams!! I again started looking out for  long term ‘Work From Home‘ or ‘Freelancing’ options in 2015. But this time it was not at all easy to get work as lots of changes. Somehow I managed to get one nice project within short time due to my professional experience. Than another challenge was to revise my technical skills and learn new skills as per requirement in the project.

I started learning again but this time it was very challenging as I was not at all getting enough time (I hardly used to get 1-2 hrs per day)  because my child was not interested in sleeping much during day time and even sometimes during night time too  ? Somehow I started working on project. But as you all know when you are into coding and designing & developing any new project from the scratch, 2 hrs a day is not at all enough. I tried to manage like this almost for 2 months and prepare some design but then I felt I was not able to give even 60% (Forget about 100%) to project and then had to take decision of leaving the project.

Its my personal advise to all the freelancers ‘If you can not give 6-7 hours a day to your projects then please don’t accept the project or else leave the project in the early stage itself, so that client will not have much difficulties in finding new person! If we are informing our client after 5-6 months work then it will be really bad impression on client. So Try to avoid this kind of situation.”

I left the project within short time and felt frustrated and tired but my hunger for the work started increasing. I got comments from certain people that I left the job that’s the most bad decision of my life. But I used to ignore those comments , as I know my priorities. I never wanted to regret it and feel down about myself. Instead I started spending time in reading on different topics including Current Affairs, Technical/Non-technical updates, Current market situation, etc. I also started playing outdoor games like TT, Badminton, Vollyball, etc to keep myself physically & mentally fit.  It helped me a lot to keep me motivated and boost my confidence on each & every day.

How I came across Huge Crowd Sourcing Platform uTest.com

What is uTest? How it helps freelancers and QA community around the world?

In the month of Oct-2016 one of my friend suggested me to register for www.uTest.com – A huge crowd sourcing platform which provides wide variety of projects on Different Testing Types like Manual Functional Testing, Load Testing, Localization Testing, Security Testing and Usability Testing. My friend strongly recommended me to join this website and add all different devices on the platform. Here Devices means – Different Laptops with different OS Versions either Windows, Mac or Linux OS, Mobile Devices either Android or iOS, Different Smart TVs,  and many other things. Once you sign up you will get an idea of How and what devices are required to Add.

Initially few months I Spent  in learning about the #uTest platform and Manual Testing Concepts. Being a developer I was not much aware about Different Testing Types, Terminology. Moreover after almost 7 years break I almost lost Technical touch. So, Daily I was used to spend 3-4 hours time as my child was grown up and started going to school by that time. Gradually I started getting more interest and within 1.5 months I passed Test taken by uTest. Then I started getting paid projects too. Initially for 4-5 months i was getting very less paid projects, but still I was happy and with each project learning new setups.

Luckily I got a chance to participate in #uMeet in Feb-2017 (Meeting of all #uTesters in India) organized in Bengaluru (Karnataka). There I met many freelancers as well as people who were working day time in office and night time freelancing. I learnt many things during those meeting. You guys can have a look it here…

https://www.utest.com/articles/umeet-india-2017-an-event-to-be-cherished-foreverhttps://www.utest.com/articles/umeet-india-2017-virtual-tour

From that day on-wards my interest increased and I decided to be more active on community. I started asking each and every doubt on #uTest Forums, Which I came across while learning new skills. I must say People are so helpful on this lovely community that I was used to get most of the answers within short time by any uTesters around the world. This helped me to boost my confidence and increasing my network around the world. I am sure if you are planning to join uTest, it will help you to grow your freelancing career. 

You can have a look at following links for getting more idea about #uTest – A huge Crowd-Sourcing Platform.

https://www.utest.com/welcome

Also, watch the video of uTest below:

My Secret Tips for Freelancers : Have More patience!! As in the freelancing field you will not earn the money for the efforts you have given, but you can earn for the work which you have really done!! The advantage of freelancing is you can do your work any time and anywhere either from Home or even sometimes when you are travelling! You can keep adding different skills to your profile, to get new opportunities.

‘Sharing is Caring’   – It really helped me a lot to learn Many new concepts in the QA Field!! Since last few months I started learning Automation as well which is taking me close to my passion (Coding).

My Advise to everyone and particularly to MOMs – Who has taken long break

If you are a MOM and taken a long break, please don’t feel down about your capabilities. If you really want to learn something, no one can stop you in going ahead. You can start again your journey. Remember few points :

• > Never give up on your dreams
• > Choose your hobby and passion
• > Make a list of ‘To Do Things’
• > Push yourself up each and every day.  
• > Maintain Perfect Morning Schedule
• > Spend more time in learning new skills
• > Give 30-45 minutes time for Walking/Running/Exercise/Yoga, which really helps a lot in boosting your confidence and getting some right direction towards your goal. 
• > Increase your Professional Network
• > Don’t worry even if you get failed at first, take it as a challenge and just move on
• > Remember this line “Success is normally found in a pile of mistakes and failures”

I am telling all this based on my personal Experience. Instead of wasting your precious time in worrying, spend time on your passion, on yourself!! Instead of not trying and regretting later, why not to try now?

I am really thankful to my husband who is always guiding me in facing challenges.

With this I have completed my so far journey in this article.

You Can reach me at : [email protected]

My Linked in Profile :
https://www.linkedin.com/in/riddhi-shah-56581723/

My uTest Id : @rids_shah, You can follow me on the uTest platform.

You can ask any queries related to Freelancing, QA Field and Career guidance.

I will surely try to guide you in all possible ways.