How to Get Paid as a Software Tester
Looking to get into software testing? Crowdsourced testing is not only an accessible way to break into the software industry, it’s at the cutting-edge of the field and offers a number of fantastic opportunities for individuals. If you’re looking to make the jump, it pays to do your research.
Traditional 9-to-5 office-based testing jobs are very different to crowdsourced testing’s ad-hoc, decentralised, remote nature. As such, the payment methods for these two very different roles also differ.
In this blog, we’ll break down how you’ll see your work with crowdsprint recognised and compensated, helping you better understand the terms we use when searching for testers for a project. Read on to learn more.
Different reward models
Depending on the needs of the client and the specific nature of the software or website being tested, you’ll be paid in a number of different ways. While we do offer pay-per-hour for testers working a specific amount of time on a project, it’s not always the most suitable option. Different projects require different methods of testing or prioritise varying aspects of the testing process, and the variety of payment models we utilise reflects this diversity. Common to every model is that all payment is only made where the tester has earned the minimum value for disbursement, and transactions are processed between the 5th and 10th working day of each month via PayPal.
Many of our testing models pay people for providing documentation relating to the user experience or evidence of a bug in the software or website. For many of our projects, payment is made according to the number of narrative videos – footage of you navigating a website or app with commentary – or test cases – documentation measuring the actual outcome of a set of instructions against the expected outcomes – submitted by the tester. Testers can also be paid a fixed amount for the number of user feedback surveys they complete.
Often our projects pay a bounty for the number of defects found, devices tested or suggestions made. Pay-per-defect is simple – every defect found by the testing pool is validated and ranked by severity, then the testers who found the defect are paid an amount relating to their severity.
Pay-per-device incentivises people with multiple devices to test out a program as much as they can in as many ways as they can, rewarding them for testing on an iPhone and an iPad, for example.
Pay-per-suggestion rewards testers for helping to make the website or app better by providing the developer with potential ways to enhance the user experience. These suggestions are then ranked in the pay-per-defect model with a variable amount paid out at each level.
Boundless opportunities
On top of this, many projects incentivise our testers by offering additional rewards for being one of the top three testers of the cycle, or the best tester on a given platform. These awards are a great way to pick up as much as an extra $100 for doing a job you’re already getting paid for.
Many people around the world are already discovering how lucrative crowdsourced testing can be. You don’t need a software background to benefit – recently, five non-technical users received $100 each for submitting 10 minutes of unedited video of them using a website, which helped complete a usability study for a client.
For more information on earning money as a crowdsourced tester, speak to crowdsprint today.
