How long have you been working for RareJob Philippines, Inc.?

I started working with RareJob in 2017, so I have been with the company for 5 years now. I started as a coach focusing on premium lessons before becoming a QA Specialist.

What made you choose RareJob as your company?

It’s funny how I aimed to be part of RareJob! The main reason was just that I wanted to be part of a company that honors the Philippine holidays because, at that time, I had already been working for 5 years, but never got to enjoy any of them. Haha! Aside from that, I wanted to go back to the ESL Industry at that time so my friend referred me here. I think that was one of the best decisions I’ve made!

As a Quality Assurance Specialist, how has the experience been so far?

My experience has been great! Of course, it isn’t always rainbows and unicorns, but everything I have gone through and the opportunities that opened up for me molded me into the better person I am today.

Being in QA, what effects does the work from home setup have on your tasks and responsibilities?

When I started working from home, I had to make certain adjustments to ensure that I remain productive and the deliverables are still met. Back in the office, this was easy since the environment helped me a lot in doing so, but when WFH started, I encountered a few challenges along the way. The major challenge I encounter almost every day would be the noise from the neighborhood. I have struggled with this a lot, especially during the first year of working from home, but then I realized that though outside noise is out of my control, I can always make some adjustments to ensure that I still get to have a productive day. When the noise outside becomes unbearable, I either transfer to a different room here at home or go out to work at a café that’s conducive to working.

Personally, despite the minor inconveniences of WFH, I would still choose this over working at the office because with this current work setup, I get to spend lunchtime with my mom, play with my dog in the middle of the day, and make the most out of my time.

Share with us what a typical day is like in QA.

I am not a morning person so I usually start working at 9:30 AM.

As a QA, my usual day includes conducting performance evaluations, attending consultation meetings, and answering queries from the teams within the department. Part of my tasks is also to provide support to other team’s targets to ensure that we, as a department, achieve our goals.

Our team is very busy, but I love that I have a lot of control over my time now unlike before when I used to follow a work shift. This has actually enabled me to be more responsible with how I manage my time and energy wisely.

What do you think are the highlights of your job, as well as the most important aspects?

For me, the most important aspect of my job is to ensure clear communication at all times. I believe that ensuring the quality of work is always a two-way street: we can achieve the quality of work we are aiming for when everyone works for it smartly and whole-heartedly. Based on my experience, this could be achieved when everything – goals, plans, timeline, expectations, confusions, and clarifications – are communicated clearly. Ensuring clear communication is vital especially in our team because we collaborate with every team in our department.

From your experience, what skills are essential to have when working in Quality Assurance, and how were you able to develop them?

Based on my experience, the primary skill that one needs to possess as a QA is adaptability. Changes happen A LOT in this organization and most of the time, our department is highly affected by those changes. Since we collaborate with everyone, we must need to ensure that we can ride the waves. Next would be maximizing the knowledge that one already has and the willingness to learn new things. Learning a new skill is a big challenge, but I learned over the years that as long as you are willing to learn and take a step towards it, you’re already halfway through overcoming that challenge.

While working remotely, what are some things that you do to keep yourself from being burnt out?

To maintain work-life balance, I make sure that I spend time doing non-work related things that I like. This includes meeting my friends, going on a quick weekend road trip with my siblings and pamangkins, walking my dog Liit after a long day of work, and spending time alone grocery shopping, lol!

I also make sure that despite my busy schedule, I attend the weekly meetings I have with my church group every Thursday evening. Taking good care of ourselves holistically is very important and must be prioritized because, at the end of the day, we are our greatest asset – we will not be able to deliver if we aren’t doing well. After all, we cannot pour from an empty cup, right? 😊

For those who are interested in being in Quality Assurance, in the ESL field or otherwise, what advise can you provide for them to better understand this role, and how they can be successful in it?

Aside from the skills I mentioned earlier, as a QA whether in the ESL field or in other industries, I believe that knowing WHY YOU DO WHAT YOU DO is very important. As QAs, we need to understand the reason behind what we do because the understanding that we have is the same understanding that we will transfer to the ones we work with. In addition, how we understand our role is crucial to the outputs we produce. If we want to produce quality outputs, we must first have a good understanding of what a quality output looks like.

In my job, specifically, if I want to make sure that tutors provide quality lessons to the students, I need to ensure quality coaching is provided to them. Hence, I need to ensure that tutors receive quality coaching from the coaches, and it all boils down to me knowing what quality coaching looks and feels like. To quote Stephen Covey from his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, Begin with the End in Mind – Define clear measures of success and a plan to achieve them. If you believe that you have the capacity to understand what you do and why you are doing it, that you can be adaptable, be open to changes and challenges, and are willing to learn, then you have what it takes to be in the QA Industry, or to be RareJob’s next QA, for that matter!