TL;DR - we (testers) need to tackle these problems head on ourselves rather than wait for people to "get it". It seems to me, a lot of folks here wouldn't be a

TL;DR - we (testers) need to tackle these problems head on ourselves rather than wait for people to "get it". It seems to me, a lot of folks here wouldn't be adverse to using a freelance tester in general, but are extremely adverse to using bad freelance testing (and have the scars to prove it!). I'm a contract tester and recently decided to make the transition to freelance. From my experience (and confirmed by the comments here) the main barrier is one of perception - how can testers / add value to my organisation? And how do I know this tester is as good as they claim? There are numerous ways someone like me can help an organisation: Help organisations find the right permanent employees; Mentor said permanent employees by sharing knowledge; provide testing experience to a known or unknown business domain; supplement the clients test lab with your own equipment; evangelise testing throughout the company, demonstrate what good testing can do, what it looks like I had to stop myself there! And pretty much all of those examples are from recent (within 12 months) history. Luckily for me I've been able build a decent enough reputation that there is potential for repeat business. Two more key problems: first, the kind of testers that people here need may live in a bubble where everyone knows the value of testing and as such may not realise the rest of us exist - my colleagues and I need to start dispensing some red pills :). Second, the testers that are trying to be better appear to be outnumbered by the ones that aren't (snake oil merchants, testing zombies, call them what you will) so again we need to tackle that head on too. Nice discussion. Thanks for the illuminating comments folks.