Time

This job has two starting options. You can choose one style and stick with it, or we can switch it up. The important thing is to have consistent QA available to handle our almost weekly build release across various platforms and projects.

The first option is having a fixed shift every week, with these hours committed to whatever testing tasks are available and prioritized. For example, 4 hours on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday every week. Or 8 hours back-to-back on Sunday and Monday. We’ll work it out, and these times can be adjusted to fit your life.

Having a fixed shift achieves two things: you’ll have a minimum number of hours to earn weekly, and we’ll have consistent QA available to test our builds. If we have more tests and you have the time, you can always take them on. This allows for extra hours and improves our overall output.

The second option is more like a freelance arrangement with a shorter notice to commit testing hours. The team will book your hours a few days in advance (a week if we can predict). We’ll try to prepare a beta build before the promised day, and you’ll commit certain hours that day or the next to test it. Usually, there will be a close follow-up after the initial submission and test in case of quick fixes or short release timelines.

Even if we only follow the second option, there should still be a minimum number of hours to commit weekly. If there are no new features or bug fixes to verify, there’s always regression testing, test case updates, and exploratory testing.

These options aren’t meant to be rigid. We can swap them around if the situation calls for it. They’re here to act as guidelines for how testing works at Else Studio.

Pay

We’ll start with RM15 per hour for manual testing and RM20 per hour for paperwork (test case generation/modification, bug report enhancement, etc.). You’ll track the hours and bill me at the end of each month. I’m anticipating a 2:1 ratio of manual work to paperwork.

Work

Here are the kinds of testing you’ll perform:

• Manual QA on beta/pre-release builds to ensure feature development or bug fixes are complete.
• Regression testing on existing critical functions and writing/updating test cases for them.
• Periodic exploratory testing on the whole build for better coverage.
• Preparing test cases for feature development or bug fixes before or during development.
• The platforms: Android apps, iOS apps, desktop browsers, and mobile browsers.

At Else Studio, we spend most of our time in an online team collaboration tool called Basecamp. Almost 99% of our communication is through text, images, and recorded videos of app/web usage. I write a lot, our clients write a lot, and I expect you to write just as much to effectively communicate your work, progress, and questions.

If you like reading and writing longer-form text as the primary work communication, you’ll like it here. We don’t do daily, weekly, or even monthly video calls just to sync up. There are no scrum team meetings for every feature. You’ll be presented with a starting written post, with discussions about features/bugs, GUI mockups, or bug reporting videos. From there, you’ll work out the test cases and figure out what needs to be tested, verified, or further inquired about to complete the quality assurance process.

The upside is asynchronous communication happening at everyone’s convenience. You can check messages later and come back with a question or solution.

Team

We’re still a pretty small software team. You’ll be our only QA when you join. But I have plan to improve our QA capacity, might even get two.

When Can You Start?

Anytime.

How to Apply?

Prepare an email with the following:

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Do you like any of this? Why or why not?
3. Share one or two stories from your journey as a tester.
4. What mobile devices and computers (Windows/Mac/Linux) do you have access to?

Send it to kuan@hey.com. I’ll get back to you quickly. Expect a few email exchanges before we start the first project.