Work From Home with Appen – Is This The Right Job for You?

Remote jobs are attractive because there’s no need to dress up formally or stuck in traffic. Many companies are now open to this concept of employment and that’s what work from home with Appen is all about. Inside this review, we’ll talk about the different opportunities and help you figure out if this job is truly what it seems. 

Appen at a Glance

Appen is a publicly-traded company that partners with technology and e-commerce companies, offering global jobs in the area of data collection, transcription, social media evaluation and linguistic consulting. They have headquarters in the US and Australia and is one of the Top 100 Companies within the FlexJobs index. It is said to have over 400,000 remote workers located in more than 130 countries all over the world. 

What Are The Job Opportunities

At the main site, under the career link is where you will find remote job opportunities with Appen. 

Let me explain what each of them means and what are the requirements. 

(1) Raters 

Also known as an independent agent, you’ll be working closely with top search engine companies to do search evaluation, translation, annotation tasks and etc. The nature of the job requires you to provide feedback on the services and sites we used regularly and that could be in the form of simple surveys or long term on-going projects. 

The requirement; 

• Must be 18 years old and above.
• Must have access to high-speed internet
• Must be equipped with a PC installed with the latest anti-virus and anti-spyware software, that’s running on Google’s Chrome browser. 
• Excellent skills in doing web research, using social media and communication (i.e; strong command in other languages besides English is an added bonus).
• Ability to pass a language assessment exam.

To qualify as an independent agent, you will be tested for theoretical and practical comprehension of the search engine, plus the language test if you are required to do so. Free training is provided to help you pass, but should you fail any of the assessments, you may be eligible for a one-time re-take. 

The entire application process could take up to about 14 days and once qualified, you will start to receive projects. During the assignments, you are expected to be available at least 5 hours per day from Monday through Friday. Additional assessment will be required for specific projects before you can undertake the tasks. 

(2) Microtasks

These are basically less complicated crowdsourcing tasks that can be completed in an hour. It doesn’t require any assessment and you just need to fill out a simple form for registration. After verifying your email account, you’d proceed to acknowledge all the rules and complete a survey so that Appen knows more about your skill set, interests, and availability to work in a week.

(3) Language Jobs

As the name dictates, these are language-specific jobs that work on transcription, translation, and linguistics for companies. To search for work from home listings, change the location filter to ‘remote’ and you would find the shortlisted results. 

Here’s an example of a listing for a remote job in the Philippines. It tells you the work tasks, the requirement and also the nature of employment. 

To apply, you need to submit a profile detailing your resume and other personal information. The company will get back to you if you are the candidate they are looking for. 

(4) Corporate Jobs 

Believe it or not, high-level jobs on Appen have remote positions too. These project-based works mainly focus on the engineering, marketing, finance, and sales sectors. Obviously, you need to have a qualification for those professions before applying. 

Here’s a look at a posting for a remote linguistic job in the US, just to give you an overview of what the job looks like. 

How Much Can You Make

As an independent agent (raters), you are looking at a minimum pay of $15 per hour. Some reviews online have seen testimonials of people earning up to about $700 per week so that’s not impossible. 

Microtaskers get paid less – often in pennies – before making a significant amount per hour. Meanwhile, language and corporate jobs are likely to earn more since they are professional-oriented and highly skilled. 

Payments are made monthly through direct deposit or check and you are reminded to do your own taxes when the time comes because Appen will not be in charge of that. 

The Advantages 

The name Appen may not come across as familiar in the make money online space, but in the world of remote-jobs, they have quite a reputation. 

• Appen is a legit company that has won numerous awards and recognition. They have real offices that are contactable across different parts of the world so it’s not some kind of work-from-home scams you often see online. 
• Whatever pay that is quoted per hour is what you would get. Appen doesn’t take any commission cut and you won’t be charged anything extra during the payment transfer either. 
• Whether it is micro-tasking or working on corporate jobs, signing up for a position is absolutely free of charge. Heck, you don’t even need to make phone calls or attend physical interviews as everything is done through the online application! 
• The overall nature of the job is flexible and you get all the convenience of working from home. You don’t need to talk to clients directly (unlike Arise, another work from home platform), you are free to schedule part-time hours or go full-time if it’s something you like doing. 

The Disadvantages 

Sadly, remote jobs aren’t always as rosy as they seem.  

• Despite the flexibility everyone is talking about, I don’t think it’s equivalent to becoming your own boss. Technically, you are still following someone else’s instructions to perform a job. Even though it appears that projects are coming in all the time, they are also taken up very quickly by other agents, making the opportunity scarce during peak times.
• Language and corporate jobs are very country and profession-specific so it’s not readily applicable to the majority of people. If you are an average Joe or Jane like me who would rather make do without a resume, you probably want to apply as a rater (or a micro tasker – if you don’t mind earning in pennies) as the tasks seem more feasible. Even so, you need to endure the assessment tests and willing to take new ones when new projects come along. 
• Your ability to monetize from Appen very much depends on how long you’ll be staying with them. If for whatever reasons, they decide to let you go, you pretty much lost the opportunity to work remotely. Even if you re-apply, the chances of them taking you in again could be very slim. 

Is Appen The Right Opportunity for You? 

The way Appen works is that they source for skill-specific workers to perform job tasks for their clients. And because these are high-profile companies, you are expected to be self-motivated, execute instructions independently and deliver the tasks promptly. 

Your ability to do all these can earn you a good reputation with Appen and for those who are committed, earning about $700+ per week isn’t impossible. However, working on remote jobs may not be suitable if you fall into any of the following categories; 

• Your communication skills are just okay.
• You don’t have the qualification the companies are looking for.
• You can’t seem to find a project that suits your skill or schedule. 
• The hourly tasks are too mundane and routine. 
• You much rather use your own creative skills to do something else and earn more. 

So, does that mean you will never be able to work from home? Of course not! There are many online opportunities that are less rigid, beginner-friendly and certainly don’t require a fancy resume. 

Ever heard of affiliate marketing? It lets you run an online business based on your interest while leveraging from other brands. You can manage it from a home or even while traveling. Money is made from sales commissions whenever you refer a new customer to a product or service and this process can be recurring, depending on how you market it. 

For example, if you love doing Yoga for a hobby, you can create a Yoga blog, sharing tips and product recommendations from the Amazon marketplace to promote in the niche. You can do the same too if you are into flying drones, recording with GoPro or even playing Legos – these are common/happy stuff we do every day that can potentially generate passive income down the road. 

However, before you get too carried away, it’s important to know the basics first. For that, I would like you to join me – free for 7 days – at my recommended training platform so you can experience for yourself how to set up an affiliate business and get to know others who already have success doing it. 

Hey, I hope this review has given you a good idea of what work from home with Appen is like. If you have any comments or questions, please leave them in the space down below and I’d be more than happy to get back to you.