John Kotzian

Of the thousands of testers who have joined the uTest community, few have climbed the ranks faster than John Kotzian.

Having spent the first ten years of his testing career in the QA department of Borders Books, John eventually found himself out of the job – and in need of some part-time work. After being introduced to uTest via testing writer Matt Huesser, John quickly signed up, despite admitting that he had “no idea what to expect.”

With no track-record (and no tester rating), how was he able to become a top tester so soon? Simple, he said: By communicating with uTest’s community managers, asking lots of questions and testing every available project.

“I took on every project that was available to build up my rating and my standing with the PMs,” he said. “This was now my only source of income so it was important to me that it continued. Soon I was being offered private cycles and if a PM needed help all they had to do was ask and I would jump on their project if I was available.”

Although John is still technically on the job hunt, the money he is making from uTest has enabled him to be extremely selective.

You can read more about John’s uTest experience in this interview.