u/SnuggyButhead

I've been on the Mercor roller coaster for a few weeks now. We've heard about a mass offboarding, no tasks, backlog of tasks, and now weekly 10 hour minimum. My thoughts:

1. Workflows and cadence move like a rabid squirrel on coke after a divorce. Full transparency, I work at a start up so this is not a surprise given the scope of the job I'm on for Mercor.

2. I enjoy the work. Something about me would be cool with doing this 8-10 hours a day. Probably not for everyone and the slack has comments to back that up. It's not everyone's dream way to spend their time.

3. I am getting accustomed to a wide variety of reviewers, and the personality in their reviews. I just approach each one with the same professionalism. Respond to comments, say thanks to the chill ones, and get my tasks closed. If you come into this thinking there are no difficult personalities, probably going to be a challenge for you.

4. I'm a nearly 50 years old with a doctorate and two decades of executive experience. For $160 an hour I'm not going to bitch about generational differences and communication styles. I pivoted toward AI, and completed a lot of coursework, to stay relevant in the workforce. It's a highly diverse workforce, the keys seem to be patience, research, communication, and flexibility.

With the new 10 hour weekly minimum and apparent ramp up, let's go. Good luck to all y'all engaged and on this ride.

I'm on week three of a massive project, y'all likely know which one because the Slack population is larger than most Caribbean countries.

The Slack is insane. No one reads anything. Y'all that can't pass the quiz need to slow down. It is easy if you read, which is important given the projects associated with the task.

My question is this, from your professional experience is this project really that bad? 11k people with uncertain task availability/timelines in an environment your employer can't control.

I've got two decades of program/project management experience, and this is insane to me. I'm just chilling and waiting to do the work when it pops up. Are some of these people off the rails or am I just out of touch.

TLDR: Tons of us in it. Hoping to get paid. Need to manage expectations.

I was hired unexpectedly as a part of the current large project. This is my first time working with Mercor. Here's what I've learned since my hiring email 8 days ago (quiz passed, first task completed):

1. Read what they tell you to read. It helps a lot. Posting in Slack is easy. If reading is hard, you won't like this environment.

2. I stressed about the quiz until I saw it, that was unnecessary anxiety. If you can't pass the quiz, this probably isn't your gig. There are a few thousand who have passed.

3. Search the Slack channels. There are a lot of answers there. If you come from a tech startup background, you understand over reliance on immediately hitting up Slack with a post instead of a search.

4. It isn't incredibly fair, structured, seamless, etc... hence intermittently making really good money for RLHF/HITL. I worked for public entities, they're structured and boring with a much lower pay scale.

5. This appears to be a never ending filter. People crash out for a multitude of reasons. A lot of the guidance is there if you just look for it. As an hourly contractor, no one is going to do overtime to save you when there are a thousand more people ready to roll the dice on a temporary way to make good money while sitting on their couch.

Yeah, parts of it suck until you pass a quiz and start completing tasks. Life can be shitty because nothing is guaranteed, but these gigs are worth a roll of the dice.

Good luck to all involved. Hope y'all make some money.

I got an instant for $160/hour after no movement for 6 months plus. Completed all initial req's and waiting on background check completion. I'm good with my full time but would love to move more fully into the AI game. Top 20 US doctorate (public policy and how gumbint spends billions), MBA from an unranked private U, and 1.5 years ongoing AI courses and professional development. 20+ years higher ed plus edtech/healthtech/SaaS. Entry level Python only. Bring the smoke. What do I need to move into this world full time? Fully appreciate unfiltered, honest answers from
the qualified folks. TIA.