tester

game tester

quality assurance manager

quality assurance tester

sales assistant

Pole To Win International

What is the best part of working at the company?
The teams were great, in general. Team members would be willing to help when needed

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
- When you begin the language quality assurance position, it's the lack of work stability. The contracts are on call and when you get on a project you don't know how long it'll run until they send you the schedule every Friday evening, so you can't even plan for next week well in advanced.
- The other part is not having healthcare benefits when on call contract. Getting the permanent contract varies per person, could be after 1 year or after 3.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Overall, in the studios itself, it was relaxing, and fun even to work with the teams in general.
However, the higher ups in the company try to give off a culture of caring for the employee, and although they improved benefits for the employees (due to the studio head manager pushing a lot for those), they don't seem to actually care. For example, the company decided to back out of a visa sponsorship for an employee one month before their visa expired, and said that it was due to lack of ensuring work for that employee.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
If you are in their office, then you come in at 8am, leave your phone in the locker outside of the office (their own policy, they said it's for the NDAs), sit and play the video game, report any bugs and investigate specific bugs. Leave at 4:30pm
As a Senior, you also help with organizing team members and any task asked for by the lead. You also help other team members if they are having technical issues as well as if they have any questions/comments
If you are at the client's office, the schedule differs a little depending on which studio you are at, but the tasks are the same.

If you are lucky to be put on a project with one of the competent leads, this job can be very enjoyable. The pace is usually very fast and the level of concentration required is high, but working in a friendly and helpful team makes it all easier. While on a project, there is always something to do and time goes by very quickly.

For me, the linguistic aspect was the most interesting one, but I was also happy to discover the video game industry and test different types of games, some of them being very fun or even cute. What I mostly learned was proritizing between different tasks that had to be carried out on a regular testing day.

The reason I left was the lack of flexibility at the management level and the overall treatment testers receive. This type of companies believe LQA testers are replacable, so anything can be demanded from them - an inhumane schedule, working with a toxic team lead, tasks that are not a part of their job, etc. They have a list of rules that you have to sign and there is no room for negotiation. But when it comes to testers' flexibility, it has to be 100%! And all this for almost minimum wage.

What I found extremely annoying on a regular basis was dealing with HR. They usually did not reply to first emails and answer reminders after at least a week later. No criticism is ever acknowledged - it is constantly claimed that the company does everything for their employees. NOT TRUE. The basic message you get from them is "If you are not happy here, go somewhere else".


What is the best part of working at the company?
Experience. Meeting new people. Being part of a AAA game title. Being in the credits.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Upper management. Lack of training in any and all fields. The growing dependencies on AI. KPI.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Stressful. For some it's not enough work where you have no contracts for up to 6 months, for leads you are spearheading many projects at the same time some months. There is no proper organization here. Upper Management doesn't have passion for this industry. Workers are paid next to nothing.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Get in, greet the coworkers as a clock-in (while clocking in Merinio), fear for my life in the kitchen (not a joke), sit at my desk and prepare the Morning Register for the client. Prepare any documents that need filling for the team that day. Communicate with the client and my senior throughout the day to make sure the client's needs are met. Then at the near end of the day I either delegate the DSR to the Senior or I write it myself. Then say goodbye in chat to the coworkers and the client as a clock-out (and clock out of Merinio).

I believe the company has so much potential. 

For someone with no previous experience who wants to break into the industry, companies like these are the best option, especially if you have no contacts within the industry to help you. The interview process is very easy, quick and they help you get settled in fairly well. I was very excited to work here, having worked in a completely different field before. 

You have to go through training for your position, thankfully it's paid, and they promise you work within a week of settling in. Sadly, you wait months to be called in only to be put as ''unscheduled'' week after week. It sucks to find a company that seems interesting like this one, that offers paid training, a higher than minimum wage pay (great for an entry-level job compared to other companies), yet not be given work for months on end. It's a shame. 
The training is thorough and informative tho. 

P.S. Some H.R. reps just don't respond to your emails at all, you have to beg other reps to give you any sort of follow up on whether you'll get work.

enjoyable part of the job: testing big games, sometimes your lead is actually cool and not a micro manager.

not enjoyable part: working 48 hours a week and not having enough money to eat or pay rent. trying to bring up this issue to corporate or the CEO herself results in aggression and being told the company doesn't have the funds or its not important. yet, they keep investing in ideas that the employees have 0 faith in and know won't go anywhere, chasing greed.

do not work here if you want to survive and have a healthy work life balance and good physical and mental health.

Very low paying job that requires a lot of skills, you’re required to go to their office where you cannot use your phone or eat anything except during breaks. Job is extremely unstable with a very slim chance of getting a permanent position or a promotion to a senior tester/project coordinator (ie no career opportunities in sight), very very high turnover of all employees (From testers, to project coordinators, to managers, to HR. Even the studio head has been employed for less than a year) which makes for a very tense and uptight working environment.

The testers are great, they come from many different countries (especially localization testers) so the teams are diverse by default. 

Overall, job is fine if you want to make a few dollars temporarily, but not for starting a career or long term employment. You’ll be under-appreciated and overworked the entire time. 

Being on call can lead to being out of work for months on end. They keep hiring more and more ppl to just sit at home and wait every week to find out whether you will eat at the end of the month or not. Management is not focusing on employee retention because every person who leaves frees a spot for another one who can be paid less than one before. They started aggressively switching to in-office work from remote and demoting people who couldn’t go to the office taking away permanent roles. Very low starting pay for current market and economy. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The ability to have fun with new games way before their release dates.


What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Waiting for the next project schedule. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It's very multicultural as we have testers for a dozen different languages.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Sign in, acknowledging the day's tasks, multitask when applicable, consult the team on any findings, report it when approved.

If you know a thing or two about video games and happen to speak a foreign language, this beats McDonald's I suppose. Irregular hours, sometimes you'll spend weeks without being assigned to a project. They take data security seriously so you'll have to put your phone in the locker. Some days you have overwhelming amounts of work, other days you barely have anything to do other than stare at a screen and play Solitaire.

Very stimulating, good work relationships, everybody is treated respectfully. Downside is the contractual aspect, not sure when you are going to work or not.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Tester 10 salaries reported	$17.22 per hour
Game tester 3 salaries reported	$17.67 per hour
Quality assurance manager 3 salaries reported	$20.33 per hour
Quality assurance tester 5 salaries reported	$17.45 per hour
Sales assistant 1 salary reported	$110,000 per year

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