I tried to get into the AI industry… and honestly, it didn’t go the way I expected
I want to share this because I’m sure I’m not the only person who has gone through this.
I’m 23, from Argentina, and over the last few months I’ve been trying to find a way into the AI industry.
Not as an AI engineer. Not as a machine learning expert.
I was looking for entry-level opportunities where I could actually use my skills: AI evaluation, data annotation, content, training AI models, and similar work.
At first, I thought it would be relatively easy.
I use ChatGPT and Claude a lot. I have experience with marketing, social media and content creation, and I’ve spent a lot of time learning how AI tools work.
So I thought: why not try?
That was when the rabbit hole started.
I signed up for Outlier and Remotasks, but I kept running into redirects, unavailable projects and access problems. I would complete my profile, look for work, and then… nothing.
Then I tried Prolific.
That didn’t go very well either. At one point I couldn’t even properly access my account and got the message:
“PEC-GL-0003: User not found.”
Which was honestly pretty frustrating after spending time trying to get everything set up.
I also tried Claru.ai, Data2Sales AI, HumanSignal, YPAI, Kled.ai and Atlas Core.
Some of them didn’t have projects available. Some had registration or access issues. In other cases, I simply couldn’t get past the point of actually finding work.
And after doing this over and over, I started asking myself:
“Am I doing something wrong?”
Because online, you see people talking about AI jobs all the time.
You see posts saying things like:
“Earn money training AI.”
“Work remotely.”
“Become an AI trainer.”
It sounds incredibly accessible.
But when you actually try to do it, you discover that getting the opportunity can be the hardest part.
And then there was Mindrift.
That was the first platform where I actually managed to move forward.
It wasn’t some huge breakthrough where suddenly everything worked perfectly.
But it was enough to make me realize:
Maybe I can actually find a place in this industry.
The interesting part is that my background isn’t really technical.
I’m from Argentina.
My native language is Spanish.
My English is still something I’m working on. I can understand and communicate in English, but I’m definitely not at a native or advanced professional level yet.
And honestly, that has made this whole process more difficult.
A lot of the information, communities, documentation and opportunities are in English.
So now I’m at a point where I don’t want to keep randomly signing up for every AI platform I find.
I want to actually learn.
I want to understand what I’m doing and build skills that companies are looking for.
I’m interested in AI evaluation, LLMs, data annotation, prompt engineering, computer vision, dataset creation, Python and, of course, improving my English.
But I have a problem:
I don’t really know where I should start.
So I’m posting this hoping someone with more experience can point me in the right direction.
If you’ve worked in AI training, data annotation, AI evaluation or anything similar:
What would you recommend learning first?
Are there courses or certifications that are actually worth doing?
Are there communities where beginners can learn and ask questions?
Which platforms are genuinely worth trying in 2026?
And most importantly, what would you recommend to someone like me?
A 23-year-old from Argentina, native Spanish speaker, still improving his English, with experience in marketing and content, who wants to seriously get into AI.
I’m not looking for a shortcut anymore.
I just want to find the right path.
I’ve already tried a lot of doors.
Most of them didn’t open.
But one finally did.
Now I want to know what I should do with that opportunity.
If you’ve been through something similar, I’d really appreciate your advice.
I’m still at the beginning of this journey, but I don’t want to give up.
Maybe someone reading this was in the exact same position at some point.
If that’s you, I’d love to hear your story.
#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #AITraining #DataAnnotation #AIEvaluation #LLM #CareerInAI #RemoteWork #Argentina #LearnAI #Mindrift