Pros
First of all this is my third review, but we can't update old ones so here I go. I've been with Appen for over a year, first as an evaluator then as an auditor. I've had varying degrees of opinions as time has gone by so I will give an honest review for my current thoughts. -The pay is above is minimum wage, but this depends on your area. Hourly this pays better than some full time jobs. With extra hours (depending on your project) it can be a significant paycheck. -The process to apply and start is simple, you read a lot of negativity online and honestly, these must be people who have never searched for a job. Plenty of companies in my experience never reply to applications, take forever to hire, and even if you get hired the onboard process can take several days before you can start or feel like anything but a freeloader. So, if Appen didn't give you an offer within a week, take it easy, maybe you're not a good fit or they don't have anything, just because it's a work from home opportunity it doesn't mean they hire everyone all the time. -The jobs are usually fairly easy and once you figure it out you can manage to work with a podcast in the background, TV or a movie. -Flexible, want to go take a nap? Go ahead. Want to finish early today? Start at 6AM,not in a hurry? Start at noon. Had an emergency? Alright just work at 7PM. Just meed the quota and you will be fine. -Platforms are provided to communicate and clarify concerns. -They give you opportunities to improve your quality if there is a decline or any other issues.
Cons
Now for the cons, because while I overall give them a good rating, some things could be improved. -As people say, the work is subjetive, that is a fact and will cause disputes. To me this isn't a con necessarily, but it isn't a pro either, just a fact of the work type. They do try to clarify as much as possible but sometimes can contradict themselves. As an auditor I've noticed a lot of the problems come due to some people lacking common sense and not properly using the platforms Appen provides. Again, there is subjectivity, but people make it worse than it should be because they don't properly follow guidelines or use all their available tools. Now, the reason people do this brings me to my second point. -You are not paid for reviewing guidelines, emailing, clarifying doubts on the platforms. This is to be expected, because how would you stop someone from wasting time "researching" then billing for it? There are a lot clever people out there that make this a necessary evil, but on the flipside, it keeps people from helping themselves (which in the long run can affect them, but that's their choice) by stopping to research information. -The tools can malfunction quite a bit. Now, flexibility is a huge pro, but that gets thrown out of the window if the tools keep malfunctioning and suddenly your flexibility is gone as the Workflow stops updating/systen crashes/can't login etc. It sucks when suddenly you find yourself unable to finish your work because something went wrong and you have to finish 5 hours later or something like that. -Emails can sometimes take quite a bit to answer. -Would be great if one could give feedback about guidelines to identify problem areas and maybe reach a concensus of what is "right" for certain scenarios. One can email management, sure , but one will not be able to help feeling fastidious or simply as overstepping bounds. -No paid holidays or PTO. Holidays I can understand (as you can just take it free and make up) but PTO for people who have been there a certain amount of time would be nice.
