Can anyone offer advice on becoming a Beta Tester?

BajanTrident · December 2014

Im looking for a new side job I can undertake to supplement my 9-5 income and was wondering if being a Beta tester can work for me. But I have no idea where to start. can anyone offer any assistance?

Hahnsoo1 · December 2014

A Beta Tester? For what?

badpoet · December 2014

Beta testers are usually not paid for taking part in the test. It's usually seen as payment enough that you get to play the game early.

Game tester (the people who work for the company and play the games to try to break them) is a paid position, but I hear it's an awful job.

Kick_04 · December 2014

There is betabound that I use to be fairly active in it, where you do beta testing based off your skills and what you currently own.

Depending on your participation in the beta testing, they might compensate you slightly. Not a guarantee however.

I beta tested a navigation system for android phones, all I got was the app for free once it was released to public instead of paying a couple dollars for it. Another time I beta tested a game, got a $25 amazon gift card.

a5ehren · December 2014

If you're talking about game QA, that's a 9-5 job (well, 9-9 more like) that pays for shit. Being some random person testing games (and modern "betas" are just demos anyway) isn't going to get you any money.

Enc · December 2014

You probably want to go here: http://trenchescomic.com/comic/

And read every one of the "Tales from the Trenches" posts to get an understanding of what this field is like. It will do more for understanding what you are asking than any real amount of advice.

In short: its a job where you do unfun, repetitive tasks that ruins your appreciation of games, givens you no job security (much less benefits), barely a living wage (if you are lucky), and typically is completely futile as half the time your reports are ignored and the other half of the time you are rewarded for your efforts with summary termination.

JohnnyCache · December 2014

if you want to get paid, you're actually looking at being a "Software QA" or an alpha tester. Beta testing is usually farmed out to the public in lieu of the demos of yore...or it just ... happens during the first year the servers are up...

CroakerBC · December 2014

If you're talking about games QA, then you're probably out of luck. As everyone's mentioned above, firstly, that's typically a 9-5 gig, and secondly, the pay and conditions are...notorious, in the industry.

Corporate QA (that is, for non-game related software)is, generally speaking, much better paid, and the conditions are a lot better. But again, it's a full time job, and not something you can just throw on for an afternoon.

There are a few places that will offer up testing gigs on a per-project basis (UTest is probabky the best known example), which typically comes with a nominal pro-rata for the project, and additional pay per defect found, submitted and confirmed by the client. This sounds more like what you're looking for. Certainly it's something you can do as an income supplement. That said, the pay won't ever be fantastic, and the competition to find and log defects quickly, before someone else gets that bug bounty, can be brutal. It's also not game testing - usually some variant of a business app. It's still good experience if you're looking to get into the industry, or as an adjunct to another job, mind you. But not exactly a bed of roses.

BajanTrident · December 2014

Thanks for all the feedback. You all have given me much to go on and a direction. Ill check out Utest and see if I can make that work for me. Thanks alot

minirhyder · December 2014

You can do playtesting and/or focus groups.
You go in, play a game as someone watches you do it, and then answer some questions.

Focus groups don't even have to pertain to games, they happen all the time in all sorts of industries. Expect to get paid $20-50 per 1 hour session.

Enc · December 2014

Focus groups also typically require you get to know a company or contact that arranges them, and the pay can vary a ton. My sister did that gig for a few years on the side. Sometimes she's get $100 to use a vacuum for a weekend and report her findings. Sometimes she'd get 10 bucks for three hours of boring advertisements. Typically she could nail one about once a month, and that was with her being a pretty close friend of someone at an agency that arranged groups, so it was never a steady job. But it was a nice way to grab an extra buck now and again.

BajanTrident · December 2014

I reside in the caribbean, so focus groups arent aplenty here. I was hoping an online game/App/Software tester would net something like $10-$25 us dollars an hour. But i guess thats too good to be true

CelestialBadger · December 2014

BajanTrident wrote: »

I reside in the caribbean, so focus groups arent aplenty here. I was hoping an online game/App/Software tester would net something like $10-$25 us dollars an hour. But i guess thats too good to be true

If you want to make that much online, learn to code.

Enc · December 2014

Yeah, if you could get $25 an hour to beta test half the country would be lining up for that gig.

BajanTrident · December 2014

CelestialBadger wrote: »

BajanTrident wrote: »

I reside in the caribbean, so focus groups arent aplenty here. I was hoping an online game/App/Software tester would net something like $10-$25 us dollars an hour. But i guess thats too good to be true

If you want to make that much online, learn to code.

And after coding, do what exactly?

Thor1590 · December 2014

Like...anything. Make websites, software QA, make software for airplanes, work on in-house programs for corporations. That's sort of like asking "What exactly do I do with math?" It's...kind of a big question.

Enc · December 2014

Well, there is also the associated question with "learn coding, everything fixes itself and you make big bucks while working from home from anywhere" which is "how."

It's a loaded assumption and one that assumes that there will always be a massive demand for coding, that coding jobs will remain primarily remote access, and that the training and educational investment will actually pay off in the near future with immediate employment, all of which are questionable. The market varies from region to region and most tech companies we work with at our college refuse to hire anyone who isn't willing to work in office for a minimum of a year. So your miles may vary.

BajanTrident · December 2014

Enc wrote: »

Well, there is also the associated question with "learn coding, everything fixes itself and you make big bucks while working from home from anywhere" which is "how."

It's a loaded assumption and one that assumes that there will always be a massive demand for coding, that coding jobs will remain primarily remote access, and that the training and educational investment will actually pay off in the near future with immediate employment, all of which are questionable. The market varies from region to region and most tech companies we work with at our college refuse to hire anyone who isn't willing to work in office for a minimum of a year. So your miles may vary.

I guess i would have to do some research into what coding jobs are available and what is in demand in my region.

Thank you all once again.

CelestialBadger · December 2014

In terms of remote development tasks that will hire a newbie developer, think simple websites. Note that it'll take a few years to get to the newbie stage. But there are definitely a lot of people out there doing this stuff freelance. Some one out there has to make all those crappy restaurant websites.

As to what is in demand in your region, I thought you wanted to work remotely? If you want a job in your region, you are asking a whole different question.

Enc · December 2014

Your experiences may be vastly different, but our career center for our computer science students has pretty firm data showing real, consistent employment as remote only is essentially a 10+ years in the industry sort of deal. As an entry level, just out of school workforce most positions advertised as remote/work from home are either scams, horribly underpaying for the amount of work done, or occasional contract-based gems with competitive portfolio requirements.

CelestialBadger · December 2014

I'm not really saying it's a one-way-ticket to fame and fortune. In fact, I wouldn't recommend it.

Yes, good remote working jobs require you to be a programmer with great qualifications and a great track record.

But this guy wants to make money fast while working from home with no qualifications. Unrealistic, yeah, 100%. If he's good at selling himself and can make websites he might be able to get $10 an hour making crappy websites for small businesses. Maybe. That's all I can think of.

BajanTrident · December 2014

I had unrealistic expectations so thats why i said 10-25 bucks an hour. Maybe more like $3.50-$6 an hour is more realistic

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