Meet a Tester: Marah Josepha Miltony Martšuk , Managing Editor, Testlio February 4th, 2020 In Meet a Tester, we feature QA experts from our community who share their love for quality and Testlio. Marah is a sassy, funny and passionate software tester from Saudi Arabia. Where are you from? I’m from Syria but I live in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as my parents moved here for work before I was born. My native language is Arabic. What is your educational background? I have a bachelor’s degree in Information Systems. It was a relatively new study field in the town I lived in. I was the very second batch that graduated from it. How did you end up testing for Testlio? I found Testlio through an online ad. Probably the best ad I’ve ever seen because Testlio changed one of the worst memories of my life into the best. Buckle up, ‘cause this is now one of my favorite stories to tell. A few months before I joined Testlio, I had a job interview. The employer explained what the job was about. It was simple, nothing crazy. I was supposed to start working the very next day and so I prepared myself for it. The next day comes by and to my shock, the employer changed what the job role was about and put me on the spot – let’s just say there was this app that I wasn’t familiar with and it didn’t go well. Needless to say, it only took a couple of hours before I got fired! It was very humiliating, especially as it was in front of the other employees! I wished the ground would swallow me up and make me disappear. So every time this particular app gets mentioned, I get vivid flashbacks of when I got fired. Anyway, I sucked it up and started working on other projects and searched for jobs online. That’s when I read about someone talking about working as a tester. I didn’t really have a clear idea of what the job was about but it sounded interesting. I signed up on a crowd testing platform, got accepted, borrowed my brother’s phone, and started testing. After a month or so of testing, I saw the ad about Testlio. I didn’t take it seriously at first but signed up anyway, did my test assignments, and got accepted. Then lo and behold, my very first project was joining a team to work on the very app that got me fired! I was shocked. I had to work on the app that I never liked, barely used and that made my stomach drop at the mere mention of it. Well fast forward to the present, I love the app, I love the community, and I love QA testing! So thank you, Testlio. I now have a very cool story to tell my grandchildren. What is it that you like about Testlio? I really like the testing community here. The people are very nice and trusting. They go out of their way to give positive and constructive feedback. Since I’m rather new to testing, the feedback helps me build my confidence, figure out what I’m good at and what needs to improve in my work. And because the people here are very supportive, I find myself spending hours preparing and giving extra care to my work hoping it can reflect positively on Testlio. Ironically, I never thought phones were important. All of my projects, chats, and hobbies were done on PC so I never bothered with upgrading my phone. But ever since I started testing, that mindset has changed and now I can’t be seen without my phone at all. So now that I think about it, this QA testing thing sure has changed my life for the better! How do you manage the balance between testing and personal life? Since we’re usually informed on what day and time the testing will be, I can organize myself accordingly and set some time aside for testing and my other projects. What motivates you professionally? Learning and improving really motivates me to keep giving it my all. I also enjoy seeing my hard work pay off. Earning money from this is motivating as well. What’s an interesting fact about yourself? I’ve been drawing as a hobby for as long as I can remember. I signed a contract with an online publishing company to draw and write my comics. I’ve also gotten into animation lately and have been working on a personal project that I hope I’ll get to share soon : ) Marah’s artwork How would you convince a friend to join Testlio? Because a picture is worth a thousand words, I believe this would do the trick 😊 Marah with her little brother Want to join Testlio a a freelance tester? Sign up here.