Ambika's Blog

An adventurous journey!

2010-11-28T16:29:00.000+05:30

Was going through some old emails from my inbox the other day, and suddenly looked over “My last working day” mails. Yes, they were replies to my last working day mail from my colleagues. I had a look at the mail’s date. Whoa! That was almost an year old. That means, I will be celebrating the first anniversary as a Work at home mom :) Yippee!!
Its almost an year and it still feels like yesterday that I left office. The memories are very fresh. My colleagues, my work, my clients,(Yes, I do miss them!) everyone, and everything is as fresh as it happened yesterday.
Hmmm… So how was my one year at home been? A lot of people kept asking me just after I quit about how I feel being at home. If I have to answer it now, I would say ADVENTUROUS !!
Experienced a lot of new things, learnt so much and many a times did crazy things! Of course, the year had few bad situations too. I screamed, messed up things, got frustrated like hell! But, enjoyed these too!
If I look back at my one year of “being at home” it really feels wonderful. I am doing so many things which I was not able to do earlier. I am not only spending more time with my daughter, but my mom also gets to spend more time with her daughter(Well, that’s me if you didn’t understand!!) :) I need not wait till a weekend to do any household work. My home is cleaner than ever! I do not have to ask my friends to meet on weekends. We can meet anytime!!
I was really nervous before I quit as to how will I get adjusted to “being at home”. But, I must say I got adjusted quickly here ;) So many things have kept me busy all through out. And, I am busier now than ever!! It all depends on how you take things. I am no philosopher nor a great person to say that I have done something very great. But, I am definitely proud of myself that I have travelled the journey from “Working Mom” to “Work At Home” mom very smoothly :)

No shortcuts please!

2010-11-14T00:55:00.003+05:30

It was recently when I had started with my freelancing job. I had registered with almost 5-6 of the freelance sites. I was desperately searching for work and used to finish my weekly quota of job applications in just 2-3 days! I would apply in all categories- Testing, data entry, article writing, forum posting and what not!! Once I saw a job posting which said- “Great opportunity for newbies! Apply if you can post on forums, 2-3 posts per day.” Immediately applied as I knew that posting 2-3 topics per day is a cake walk. Got the response in few hours. I was so happy. After all, I had got my first response to a job application!
I didn’t waste time and quickly followed the instructions given by the employer. I was in so hurry for doing the job that I didn’t notice the employer’s name, nor his credential verifications., nor his location And, you know what were the instructions given?

Go to the URL. Some site url he had given.
Send me the login name and I will let you know the further instructions

I followed the instructions given. I waited for almost 2 weeks. The employer never got back to me. And, why will he? Because his work was done. His mission was accomplished! Yes. But how? Neither did I do any work, nor I posted anything on any forums. Then how? I re-checked the URL he gave, I understood that there is something wrong. Now come on, who will pay you just for clicking on a link or registering on a site?? No one has so much bank balance that he will pay you just for clicking links. The link he sent me had a reference id, and it had his name in it. I understood now. Here, he was getting referral points/money when someone joins a site using his reference id. Phew! I almost felt like an idiot who had helped him earn money by making me a fool!

I don’t know how much he earned. because of me. But think, how many such applicants would have applied and followed the instructions and fell under this trap? And, on how many sites he would have registered himself and took advantage of people in need of work?

An important lesson learnt! Never trust people who are ready to give out easy money to you. Beware of ads like “Make money by clicking ads”, “Make money by easy data entry”. This is out of my personal experience- Sites which begin their text with “Make easy money” or “Make money easily” are definitely the fake ones! They either dupe you by not paying for your work, or they in turn ask you to pay to use their services! Also, never click on links that you get in mails which say- “I earned 300$ per day. Do you want to earn it?” These kind of things will definitely land you in trouble.

So, an advice to all the newbies- Please do not fell trap to these kind of crooks. There are lot more genuine jobs available for you. You just need to keep your eyes open and have patience.

Know your limitations...

2010-10-26T23:53:00.003+05:30

How long did it take for you to get your first job as a freelancer? It took me 3 months :) Yes! 3 long months of search, search and more search gave me a job with a site! So, why did it take so long for me? Was I applying for wrong jobs? May be.. Was I applying in a wrong way? May be.. Were my skills falling short? Well, I don’t think it’s the last option! I was definitely not technically incompetent!! After my expert analysis, I found somethings about this :) Its only that the way I applied the jobs was wrong. Here, only your technical skills do not matter. There are a lot of other factors as well. Like the budget/price you quote, the number of hours in which you can complete, and the way you communicate.

Sometimes, it may happen that you have a perfect experience but still you do not get the job just because some one else has quoted a quicker work delivery date than you. Yes, it happens here. After all, the employer is not always looking for a hard worker, he is also looking for a smart worker! Well. we cannot have control on others and of course the employers, but we can definitely have a control on ourselves!

Based on my experience with these sites, I have listed few points which can be taken care of while applying jobs:

Type of Job: Always know what kind of job you are applying. Never just apply for the sake of applying. You may be wasting the job application quota that you have for the week. And, hence may miss on some serious opportunities. Be clear on what type of job you can do in this week. Lets say if you have only 2 hours per day that you can allot, or you are in no mood to do the testing job then you can apply for the data entry or other kind of jobs that you are comfortable with! The bottom line is- Know what YOU want to do!
Job Description: Read the job descriptions very carefully. This will not only tell you clearly about the job but also some other info like this- Some employers quote a expected fixed price as 300$ in the budget field, but, in the description they say “ we will pay only up to 50$”. Now, imagine without reading the description if you apply for the job! It will but obviously get declined as the employer will straight away know that you haven’t read the description right! Or sometimes, they are looking for a specific skill or expertise and they mention it somewhere in between the paragraphs and you miss it. Some employers even ask you to apply with a specific heading which is kind of a filter for them for type of jobs. If you miss this, your application will go no where!
Know your limitations: The most important point here. Know what you cannot do. Confused? Yes, we obviously know what we all can do. But, knowing your limitations and constraints are also important. For example, an employer wants 7 hours per day of work and you can put in only 4 hours. He has clearly stated that in the description. Either do not apply for the job, or state the actual number of hours that you can work. If you apply with a hope that even though you lie to him and you can adjust later, believe me it won’t work. This will only leave you with a bad feedback. And, we know how much feedback is necessary on these sites!
Communication: Never give out your email ids, Skype ids while applying for jobs unless asked specifically. This is against all the site’s policies and this may also result in cancellation of all your accounts.
Your application: Never write paragraphs about yourself in the job application. Mention in brief about your work info and may be attach your profile with the application. Or, if your profile is there on the site, ask the employer to refer the site’s profile description. Always ask questions about the job. Now, this doesn’t mean ask something that the employer has already stated in description! Ask something else like- What is the duration of the project, or if he is looking for any other skill etc. This will have an impression on the employer that you are actually interested in the job and you have read all about the job.
Work Policies: Once an employer from a popular freelance site had taken my interview for testing position. I even had cleared an interview. But, when it came to my hiring process, he offered me a job outside the site. Since he had to pay the site its fees if he hires me. He offered me a long time opportunity but with a very less pay. Many employers often do this since there are a lot of new joiners who would want to at least start the work some how. But, they don’t know that jobs like these will not fetch you anything. Neither money nor the feedback required on the site!

Well, those were some of my personal experiences so far.. I am not a very experience freelancer. Its been a very little time that I was onto this job. But, as they say "learn from your mistakes", I thought why not teach everyone from my mistakes!!

Management Skills- Use it here :)

2010-10-19T15:35:00.005+05:30

“Wow Ambika! This is great. Now you will be able to look after your daughter and continue your work also!”

“You must be having a great time at home now!”

“You lucky gal!”

Those were some of the responses of my friends when they came to know that I have been working from home for a while now… There is a general assumption in people about us that working from home women are the luckiest! They get all the luxuries of being a home maker and a professional too. Well, if you are also among one of those then let me tell you- “Working from home is the most difficult thing on earth!!”

There is no manager to give you the tasks for the week; there is no specific client for the whole day; there are no strict timings for your work; and, above all, you have a house (and a kid) manage!! All these things will not definitely have a sync and most of the times you will land in a mess if you want to do everything at a time J (I have had experienced It most of the time!!) You start your day perfectly; put your clothes in the washing machine; send your kids off to school; finish up other tasks and finally you have your own time to start your work… But, Alas! Your child is back from school early today, or your washing machine doesn’t work suddenly, or worst- there is no electricity!! These are only a few instances which I have actually experienced J .

Of course we can do little about these. What I mean is there are lot more challenges that a work from home mom faces in her daily routine! You have got to have the best management skills to be able to cope with all this!!

Working at home requires a lot of discipline and commitment towards the work and definitely lots and lots of “Patience” J

Apart from home, at your virtual work place also, there are quite a lot of challenges that you would face- Most of the times you cannot see the client; you are not sure whether the payment will be made! There is no team member to help you here when needed urgently; you don’t know if you should trust the other person you are working with. Most of the times, you might be working on many different projects which makes organizing much more difficult.

Well, it’s not that I am discouraging from working from home. Believe me I never will!! But, I just want to share few tips here which have helped me till now. They might help you as well in organizing your work at home.

It’s not about a single day, not about how perfectly you plan or how good you are in your work. It’s just how good your day turns out to be J .The most important thing which I have learnt all these months is having “Patience”. I know for people who spend most of the day at home and that too with small kids, and on top of that if you ask to have patience- It’s IMPOSSIBLE!!!! But, there is no other way J

Not that I am the perfect home maker now or I am very good at my work. But, it is always easy to give suggestions and help people J so, an easy advice from me is to all the home makers and work at home moms-

1. Plan your day in advance. Like what are you going to do tomorrow? These might as well be like sending mails or preparing reports or even what dish to prepare for dinner!
2. Do not get irritated if your plan is spoiled J Start again. We have a whole day with us!
3. When you are doing your work, avoid distractions. What I mean here is you can avoid twitter, Facebook and other “interesting” stuff for the time being.
4. Try not to do multi tasking. I know we are good at it J but, if you can finish one thing at a time, it would cost you lesser time! What we often do is try finishing as many things as possible and this actually spoils everything!
5. Maintain separate data for separate clients if you are working on different projects. Try being very organized here. Often we might end in confusions here. Write down if you don’t remember which client is for which project!

These helped me till now and hope it helps you too. Never allow anything affect your morale. There will be lots of bad things happening all through the day, but keep that spirit going. And, remember one thing- “You are the best, so do what you can do best- Manage!!”

How do the freelancing sites actually work?

2010-10-13T17:52:00.003+05:30

Now that we know which sites to start our freelancing with... But, how do we actually start working? Do we first search for project or complete the profile? How do we build our portfolio? These might be the next few questions that you might get. Of course, by looking into these sites, you can have all the info. But, they have so much of stuff in them- their working, their projects, their payment styles, their profile builders, their work management, policies and what not!! Which info to look at first? Well, I am here to tell you then!

All these sites like ODesk, Elance, Freelancer, LimeExchange(Except UTest and Pay4Bugs) work in a similar way as any of your normal job portals like Naukri or Monster sites. They all have the list of registered Employers and contractors.They have the projects posted by employers which are searchable by us. The only difference here is the contractors- We in this case ‘BID’ for the projects. Employers post projects with their requirements, expected delivery date, maximum budget, no. of hours per day expected and the total description of the project work. And, then we search and bid on the projects. The lowest bidder wins the project. That was for the overall summary of how they work. But, to give you a step by step answer to the questions, here’s the complete list:

Register/Build Profile:

As a contractor, your first step would be to register with the site. They should know who you are! This would include a email, phone and pay account verification (This no, varies with sites). Please do not hesitate to verify the phone numbers and pay account as these are important. At least, the pay account has to be verified! And, do not give wrong/fake account; you will NOT receive your pay guys!!

And, then build a good profile on it. Different sites provide different options for building the profile. The most important point is the “Title” of your profile. This would describe in a single line about you and your expertise- For ex, “Senior QA Engineer/Brain bench certified, ISTQB Certified” etc. The profile page also has the description about your work, your hourly pay rate, Skills, Certifications and your educational qualifications etc. One thing I would also suggest is do not write a very long description about your work. Be precise, and if possible write in points about your areas of expertise. For ex, if you are a tester, the profile should be something like this:

Testing Handled:

-----------------------

Localization Testing
Games Testing
Application compatibility Testing
Client-Server application Testing
Cross Browser Compatibility
Functionality
Website Usability
Regression Scenarios
Exploratory Testing.

Search & Bid for projects:

This, is the most important thing here. Because, you are the ones who will search for projects and bid on them. Here, bidding on a project means; bidding for completing the project at a low cost and on a earlier date than others. So, only your experience on the site or your profile is not enough for you to win a project. The money matters here!

As I told in my earlier post, there are projects posted on different categories. The search can also be done on specific categories also if you wish. If you like a project or you think you can work on it, just APPLY!! Do not think if you will get it or not.. That’s the headache of the employer!! He will decide and if he doesn’t think so he will quietly reject your application. But, this does not mean that you bid on each and every project in your category even if it’s not related to your skill. To avoid these types of things, the sites have a weekly application quota or the weekly limit set for you. This is the number of job applications that you may give in each week. It varies from site to site and also they have their own constraints on this number also. For ex, in ODesk, if you pass some tests, or if your rating is more than 4 the quota increases. In Elance, this is called connects.

While bidding or applying for a job, you will bid with your hourly rate, your description of your skills, the proposed delivery date, and questions about work to employer if any. You can also attach a resume with the application.

Increase your skill set:

The sites Elance and ODesk also have their own list of assessments in various categories. I could not find these type of assessments on LimeExchange and Freelancer. However, in Freelancer, we have to pay for taking the tests. I would suggest you to try the assessments in ODesk and Elance as they are for free J . Take these tests based on your work area. For ex, they have the U.S. English Basic test which may be taken by anyone; Or, the English words, grammar tests which can be taken if you are interested to do Data Entry work; The Software testing test and many more like this. If you pass these, the ratings are displayed on your profile. So, if the employer is searching for contractors, he might as well see these ratings on your page. These ratings will also help you in increasing your job application limit.

Payment Methods:

These sites commonly pay through PayPal, Payoneer Debit cards, and some direct withdrawal methods. Best to use is PayPal.

When you actually get a project, and start working on it, there are many terms and processes that will gradually be unfolded. Like, in ODesk, they follow a very nice approach to track your work hours. This is done with the help of ODesk Team application. Here, it tracks your work by taking screenshots of your desktop and you through your webcam so that you don’t bluff that you worked for 10 hours when you actually did for 5 :p This application will also help you interact with other team members in your project. It is kind of a chat application basically.

Freelancing is a big world.. There are hundreds of opportunities waiting for you if you really wanna work hard. But, always remember- there is no shortcut to earn money friends! You have to work your way out and earn it!!

First step towards a Freelancing career

2010-10-08T22:45:00.003+05:30

I left my job to be with my daughter at home as she was just 2. But, quitting my full time job did not stop me from leaving my passion- Testing! The first thought that I would not be working anymore gave me fears. But, I decided that I will not leave my work even though I leave my office! But, then I didn’t know from where to start. I used to do a lot of search on Google and visit testing forums, spoke to friends but nothing seemed to work out. I used to Google with the key word- “Work from Home” and there I got millions of pages with the title “Earn up to 300$ per day! Earn upto 200$ per hour”. There was no one who can help me to find ways through these vast search results of Googling. It was almost 3-4 hours of searching everyday for about 3-4 months that I found that there were actually sites dedicated to Freelancers and they cater to any area in the industry. It took me almost 6 months to be an expert in Freelance job search! I had to struggle for so long just because I did not find any site, any blog which would help me out with all the ways of “How to start as a Freelancer” So, I thought why not write it down myself?

So, when you think of Work from Home, the first question that comes to your mind is- Can we get a freelance job in our area of expertise? Is the pay equivalent to that we were getting when we were fully employed? Can we trust the employers?

And, the answer is- YES: We have millions of job opportunities available for people who want to work from their homes without even investing a single penny. YES- We can rely on the employers for work and of course the payment. And, the best part- There are hundreds of jobs available for you to choose from and that too in your own area of expertise.

I have listed below few sites and the description of how the freelance sites actually work and what is their process. They have been reviewed from the point of view of a Freelancer. There might be hundreds of other sites which are present, but these ones are those which I have been working with for some time now. And, I can guarantee that these are neither FAKE ones nor they are the”Make Money in 10 days!” type of sites. Before starting your journey as a freelancer, the most important thing to remember is ‘There is no shortcut to make money online’. You cannot get more than the effort that you spend on. Please do not go with the fraud sites which say that you can earn money in 1 day or just by clicking links or by referring people. They will just land you in trouble and you might as well end up losing some money.

Below are the sites which can be your starting step towards freelancing.

1. ODesk- www.odesk.com

I would rate this with 5 *s. A good freelancing site with very user friendly approach. They have a well structured approach right from the way the projects are categorized or the way the employee profile structure is built. The main plus point of this site is the user interface when the employee applies for a project. The page is structured in a proper way from the top where we enter the Rate/hour to uploading your profile. They have their own employee work tracking software called the ODesk application which when installed tracks your time when you are working on a project so that the same can be billed to the client. In this way the employees can connect with their contractors and their colleagues who are working on the same project.

The employers are verified properly for their contact no’s and their payment conditions. If an employee did not verify his payment credentials, it is clearly indicated near the name of the employee. The payment is done through Escrow so there is full guarantee for your payment once you finish the work. There is also an Employee to Contractor feedback once you finish working on a project. There are wide ranges of areas where projects are posted from Data Entry to Programming to writing to testing. ODesk has it all!

2. Elance-www.elance.com

Elance is the next best in its class. Similar work process as that of ODesk. This also has a similar profile creation page. Both Elance and ODesk have their own skills assessment tests where you can take tests in many different areas like Windows administration, English tests, language tests, Testing, and also translation tests to name a few. But, one thing I observed is that both have almost same kind of questions in their tests. I had taken the U.S. Basic English test and both the tests had the same questions! May be developed by the same company!

But, one drawback of Elance is the job application page is not as user friendly as ODesk. Otherwise, in terms of employer verifications or project categories, both are equal.

I will rate Elance 4*s

3. UTest- www.utest.com

This is my favorite! UTest is only for testers. The projects posted are only for testing. And, UTest works in a complete different way than the rest of the sites. There are no biddings, no resumes to be uploaded and no different categories. You have to create a profile with your available Machines (With OS, browser and antivirus) details and cell phone model details. The projects are posted on the site and you can see them if the requirement suits your profile. Here profile is your machine details and your ratings. This follows pay per bug model. Pay differs with the type and severity of bug you log. For ex, a High priority Technical bug may be paid $20 and a GUI bug is paid $5. There are also various competitions called Bug Battle which are held quarterly and the winner is selected as ‘Highest no. of bugs logged or quality bugs logged’

This is a great site for all those who are looking for testing projects. But, one thing we have to keep in mind here is time and good quality testing. The test cycles get locked as soon as their budget or time expires. So, as soon as the project is active (an auto generated mail comes to your inbox when a project is active for you) we have to start testing. There are various testing projects that are posted here- For ex- Web based applications, security applications, desktop applications and many more.

There are also blogs and forums for UTest where you can interact with fellow utesters and share knowledge. I will rate UTest 5*s again.

4. Pay4bugs- www.pay4bugs.com

Pay4Bugs is a similar site to UTest where there is a pay per bug model. This is not as popular as UTest and also does not have good budgeted projects. But, good for people who are not able to find too many projects there on UTest. The no. of people on Pay4Bugs is less so there are more chances of your bug getting approved!

Projects are good and an averagely designed site structure.

I will rate Pay4Bugs 3.5 *s

5. Freelancer- www.freelancer.com

The main drawback of this site is the design of the site. There is no way we can build a profile. Employer can only see our skills when we write while posting a project. Project categories are good. But, I could see many bogus projects also placed on Freelancer like pay per clicks etc. Freelancer does not validate the employer thoroughly. You get too many project notifications if you subscribe to!

6. LimeExchange- www.limeexchange.com

Similar site on the lines of ODesk and Elance. Has project categories, profile builder. I could not see many projects for testing, but yes there were many projects for developers and data entry work. Not very user friendly and easy to use. Rating- 2.5*s

7. Guru- www.guru.com

Not very user friendly and easy to use. Project categories are good. I did not get any projects myself here, so not sure about the payments. Otherwise, I would rate it about 2.5 *s

My last day @office...

2010-01-23T16:09:00.022+05:30

It was finally here.. The day I was most happy about or I should say I was most confused about. It was my last working day in the office. I was only hoping it would never come all through my notice period.. but it CAME..I had no words, I was not able to understand if I was happy or sad or what! I was completely numb frankly! After all I was not going to be back here now. In fact, not working at all..

Almost 6 years of work, fun, friends and now I would have to leave all this behind. I was waiting for all the formalities to be done, and glancing at the campus for the very last time. The trees, the people, the garden; where we used to have tea/coffee during the breaks; the sitting area where we had dozens of discussions, fights, talks with my friends; the balcony, where I used to spend most of the time during my breaks talking to my husband before marriage! All this were no more mine. I would no more see them..

My 6 years of hard work and loyalty being handed over to me in just a piece of paper which was barely 2 paragraphs!!

I am sure everyone would have been through this at least once in their lives; One job which they do not do for money, not for position, but just for their own SATISFACTION. This was mine.. I wanted to be here just for the sake of myself and not for anyone else in the world. This meant a source of completeness to me. Something, because of which I had a reason to be self-respected, independent and happy about.
All of my batch-mates had left the company in 2 or 3 yrs for a higher salary or designation. Not that I didn't wanted all of these, but its just that staying here made me feel so happy that all those things didn't matter. Of course first I had my dad and then my husband for my financials so I dint have to worry about anything else ;)
Another most important thing which fascinated me here was the RED TAG which they gave when an employee completed 5 years(It was a different colored ID card which employee wore after completing 5 yrs; they had different colors for milestones, 5,10)
It was my dream to wear the red tag and walk in the campus with pride.. And, yes, I DID IT!!! I had actually completed 5 years there.

But as they say, everything has an end. Even this had an end.. I can't say a bad or a sad end. But, something which was very very dear to me was being taken off..Or rather I was giving it away.. The final day had arrived...It was the last time I was sitting on my chair; last time I was locking my desk; last time I was shutting down my system; last time I was peeping out of my cubicle to call my friend over coffee; last time seeing the entire floor where I had known almost all people; And, the last time I was wearing my RED TAG :(

I almost had tears in my eyes when I was giving it away. My heart said don't give it!! when the security guard was taking the tag from me.. And now, I was wearing a VISITOR pass!

Bye Bye Wipro ! I will definitely see you again sometime .. till then keep that red tag there for me :)