In Meet a Tester, we feature QA experts from our network who share their love for quality and Testlio. Borhan is a mobile app developer and tester from Bangladesh.

Tell us a bit about yourself

I’m from Bangladesh, one of the top 10 most populous countries in the world. Bengali is my native language and I speak English as a second language.

What is your educational background? 

I received my Higher Secondary Certificate (A-level) in 2009. After that, I got admitted to the Department of Physics at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, a renowned university in Bangladesh. However, although I love physics, I realized very quickly it wouldn’t take me far in terms of career or job satisfaction. But despite my wishes and reasonings, my parents wouldn’t let me drop out of the curriculum – as traditional Bengali parents, obtaining a degree was a must for their son. So I couldn’t easily withdraw from the university because of all the emotional pressure and my financial dependency on them. After struggling for almost 7 years, I was finally able to quit university and pursue my interest in technology and computer science – largely thanks to Testlio.

How did you end up testing for Testlio? 

While still at the university, I got an opportunity to help a local company develop their first karaoke app on Android. When the contract was over, they offered me a full-time job in Dhaka (the capital city). I was hesitant at first because it was still not enough to give me the complete financial freedom I needed to quit university and move out of town. I needed an additional source of income.

One day while browsing Reddit, I saw an advertisement calling for native Bengali speakers to help with a paid QA project. There was something different about this ad, otherwise, I would have completely ignored it. I clicked on it, filled out the evaluation form, and completely forgot about it. A couple of weeks later, I got an email inviting me to join the project. Three months after joining Testlio, I was finally able to move to Dhaka. Now, as an app developer and software tester, I’m able to fully support myself.

What are your specialties?

I started my app development journey with Android. Now I’m developing both Android and iOS apps. I’ve also done some web dev work. I never knew that software testing could be a viable career before joining Testlio but, thankfully, my experience in app development comes in very handy to find and reproduce critical bugs.

How does Testlio’s pay compare to other crowdtesting platforms?

After my introduction to Testlio and software testing, I did some research to see how other platforms compare. I found out that Testlio’s approach to paying testers for their actual work time was somewhat rare. At Testlio, you’re compensated for your efforts and time spent on tasks – this definitely keeps testers motivated.

How do you manage the balance between testing and personal life?

I do not have a lot of difficulties in balancing work and personal life. I experiment with various task management tools to efficiently manage my work obligations (currently working from home), testing, cooking (my hobby), personal projects (always 1 or 2 lined up), and feed my addiction to YouTube. I use cooking, YouTube, and Pomodoro breaks throughout the day so that I don’t feel stressed about my work. In addition to that, I always make time to talk to my family (I live away from home) and hang out with my friends (or help them with various IT support requests 😛).
Furthermore, I always try to get plenty of sleep. The only thing I have to ‘sacrifice’ is social media – I do not have any social media apps installed on my phone.

What motivates you professionally?

Having creative freedom and the opportunity to learn new things is really motivating to me. I enjoy working on projects that really help people and try to make the world a better place.

What’s an interesting fact about yourself?

I love cooking. It relaxes my mind, motivates me, allows me to learn about various cuisine around the world, and of course provides me with nutrition. Just as with great bug reports, I like recipes that feature clear steps because then they are easily reproducible.
I am also really enthusiastic about the open-source movement. I always try to find an open-source alternative for the software I need, and contribute with bug reports or pull requests. I try to make my projects open-source whenever possible as well.

What are some of your favorite apps?

Some of the apps I enjoy using are:

• Tasker (automates your life and rarely has bugs)
• Signal Messaging app (the security and usability of the app is outstanding)
• Clockify (time tracker)
• Google Remote Desktop
• RTX Voice (almost magic like noise suppression)
• FolderSync Pro (automates syncing files on Android)
• Google Keep
• Google Photos
• Stellarium (Skywatching)

How would you convince a friend to join Testlio?

I would talk about the flexibility and not having to worry about bidding for work like at other freelance marketplaces. But most of all, I would talk about the network – everyone is so friendly and helpful within the community. Some of my friends have already joined the platform!