A Day in the Life of a TestLion: Nelery Rästas, Freelancer Sourcing Manager

Carina Kärt Mattikas , Employer Brand Manager based in Tallinn, Estonia.

May 16th, 2022

A Day in the Life of a TestLion is a blog series where we ask TestLions from different teams and positions to give a walk-through of their usual day at work powering networked testing to enable human possibilities.

This time, our headliner is Nelery Rästas, Freelancer Sourcing Manager in Copenhagen.

Starting the day with a roar

I usually start my day around 9.30 am, but that fluctuates depending on how late I was working the day earlier or if I have any meetings booked for the morning. I usually jump right to work so my breakfast tends to happen closer to lunchtime. 

I always start my day off by going over my to-do list to have clear goals in mind. Some time ago I started writing down my tasks in a notebook and I found that physically writing them down helped me have more clarity about the daily focus areas.

Hunting down the challenges

I work in the Network Team as a Freelancer Sourcing Manager, so my job is to manage the process of matching our freelancers to projects, recruiting new freelance QA professionals, and providing input for potential client accounts. The daily challenge is finding testers with the exact profile we’re looking for — electric vehicle owners, people based in a specific city/country, having access to a rare device, etc. The variety of requests we receive keeps the job interesting; there is never a dull moment or a day that doesn’t bring something unique.

The true feeling of success in my work comes from finding testers that match a very specific set of requirements. This is always the most nerve-racking as our success as a service provider depends on delivering expected results. 

Connecting with the Pride

We have two meetings per month — one for fun and one for work. We also do team evenings as often as possible. For example, our teammate and fellow Freelancer Enablement Specialist Nabeel taught us all how to make biryani, giving us a chance to cook a delicious meal and spend time with the team. On another occasion, we had a fun evening guessing facts about all of the team members. That was a very entertaining way of getting to know each other. 

I also like that it is highly encouraged to have cross-team meetings, learn about other teams’ processes and strive to collaborate on challenges. I have only taken part in two virtual LionFests and I’m so excited to meet the whole company in August for our first in-person, company-wide gathering since 2020. There are so many people I’ve worked with and known for quite some time, but have only seen their faces in Zoom so that’s going to be fun!

Winding down & finding balance

I take care of more urgent tasks in the morning, such as posting ads, replying to emails/messages, going over the ad results, updating the services team about the progress on tester recruitment, etc. I leave the creative tasks for the evening as I like to take time getting into the right mindset to come up with new processes, brainstorm new ad ideas and so forth. 

During my off-hours, I spend time with my friends and partner, explore Copenhagen, and sometimes take photos for the brands I work with on my personal social media account. What I love about freelancing and social media promotion is that it provides a creative outlet and also a great way to unwind from the usual daily work activities.

When it comes to Copenhagen, my favorite thing is probably going to the park, mostly because they are so idyllic here. Now that it’s warm again and greenery has returned, it’s just the best thing to take some time off by lying on the grass and listening to a podcast, audiobook or just the general buzz. This, accompanied by an overpriced iced matcha latte from Torvehallerne, the local market, and I’m happy. Since I’m an expat here, it’s like being on one long vacation in a very beautiful country and I absolutely love it!