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Appen Reviews
319 reviews
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Full-timePart-timeApprove of CEO
Mark Brayan
75 Ratings
Pros
Can work from home at the hours that are convenient for you (in 224 reviews)
Flexible hours - choose when you work (in 54 reviews)
Cons
repetitive boring work that makes you dread the thought of doing it for 4 hours a day/5 days a week (in 18 reviews)
Independent contractor (no benefits) (in 18 reviews)
Helpful (21)
![Appen Logo]()
"Excellent place to work!"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Appen full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
Remote work and flexibility
Interesting projects and clients
Challenging dynamic environment
Intelligent and thoughtful leadership
I love working for Appen!Cons
I noticed several reviews saying this isn't a real opportunity - it absolutely is a real work from home contract opportunity and is definitely not a scam. . . but it is contract work. If you have never done contract work, it's a good idea to investigate how that works before applying or writing a review expecting employee benefits and practices and talking negatively about it instead of realizing that it is par for the course of what to expect when it comes to contracted work.
Advice to Management
Keep up the good work!
Appen 2017-06-25 07:18 PDTHelpful (16)
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"Only Good When Tasks Are Available"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookNo opinion of CEOI have been working at Appen part-time (Less than a year)
Pros
Nice pay, Flexible hours, Easy work routine to follow, No outrageous equipment requirements
Cons
Tasks are hardly available after the first couple of weeks, Emails to support hardly get answered, Guidelines for rating don't seem to be consistent
Advice to Management
Pay more attention to the rate that you're hiring people, because if no one seems to have tasks then there's something wrong with having this many employees
Appen 2017-07-20 19:32 PDT![Appen Logo]()
"Work From Home"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNeutral OutlookNo opinion of CEOI worked at Appen part-time
Pros
Allows you to work from home for a decent rate.
Cons
Can and will terminate employment at any point with little to no explanation and may not always have work regardless of your being hired.
Advice to Management
Stop hiring and pay attention to the employees you already have. Give them more incentive to work harder.
Appen 2017-08-18 15:32 PDTHelpful (1)
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"*UPDATE* Having 2nd Thoughts"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookNo opinion of CEOI worked at Appen part-time
Pros
Work at home, PTO, W2
Cons
I couldn't update my previous review - please refer to that one for a more complete list of cons.
After only having 7.75 hours of billable working hours last week, I decided to resign from my Rater position. I was looking at this role as as way to supplement my income, but it is hard to do that when there's nothing to work on.Advice to Management
- Communicate better with contractors, especially when there is no work to do. Having folks spend 19 hours of their week logging in, only to not have tasks load is unproductive. If there's a shortage of work, communicate that. If someone isn't getting tasks for one reason or another, communicate that as well. With the amount of remote workers Appen employs, steady, effective communication is imperative.
- People are doing this job to make money. When more than 1/2 the hours aren't billable due to workload, it tells me that there are way too many people working on a project. Don't hire at such a high rate. Bring in a new group and spend the time to properly train them instead of churning them in & out like a factory.
These 2 issues have been addressed multiple times on here, only to receive a cookie cutter response from Appen HR stating they value feedback from employees. If this were the case, these issues wouldn't be an issue anymore.
I really am bummed that this opportunity didn't work, as I found the work to be easy and it fit nicely with my current work schedule. But to sit online for 12 out of 19 hours a week, not getting work isn't productive for me or for the project.Appen 2017-08-21 04:58 PDTHelpful (8)
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"Social Media Evaluator"
StarStarStarStarStarI worked at Appen part-time (More than a year)
Pros
Flexible
Great pay
Work from home
Enjoyable work
Paid on timeCons
Technical issues
Terminated all of a sudden
Taught one way, then after several months of doing the work one way it changed and affected job performance ratingsAdvice to Management
Be consistent and supportive. Try to eliminate the tech issues
Appen 2017-07-05 14:27 PDTHelpful (5)
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"It's normally a great job."
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Positive OutlookI have been working at Appen part-time (More than a year)
Pros
Flexible hours
good pay
easy work
work from home
can work from anywhere is usCons
multiple tool errors
unresponsive staff
extreme lack of communication
tons of outages
project mangers never respond.Advice to Management
Respond to your workers, let them know that you know there issue and don't wait 3 weeks to send a wide spread issue without ever responding to people individually.
Appen 2017-08-08 13:12 PDTHelpful (2)
![Appen Logo]()
"Search Engine Evaluater"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookNo opinion of CEOI have been working at Appen part-time (Less than a year)
Pros
Love working remotely from home and getting to spend more time with my family.
Cons
I wish I was able to get more hours.
Advice to Management
Find a way for employees to acquire more work.
Appen 2017-07-19 17:33 PDTHelpful (9)
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"Not the best"
StarStarStarStarStarI worked at Appen part-time
Pros
Flexible hours, payment is on time.
Cons
Dropped from project with no notice, dropped from second project within the same week.
Appen 2017-07-07 17:19 PDTHelpful (29)
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"Better Than Their Competitors"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsNeutral OutlookNo opinion of CEOPros
* Offers W-2 positions
* PTO accrual for employees
* 100% remote
* Hours are flexible within the project's guidelines.
* Work independently
* Time keeping process and system is much better than competitors'.
* My project has a variety of task types, not just the one introduced in the training and evaluation.Cons
* The work itself is very tedious.
* Raters do not learn or utilize skills that are valuable to other employers. This job does not look good on a resume.
* No opportunities for advancement
* Have not seen any opportunities for full-time projects
* The training and evaluation to qualify for this position is incredibly time-consuming, tedious, very project-specific and unpaid.
* Appen does not consider reading their emails or reviewing task guidelines as billable time. This is illegal, as hourly employees in the US are not permitted to perform work tasks "off the clock".
* My project has a maximum of 4 hours per day and a strict 19 production hours per week. This requires raters to work a minimum of 5 days a week and dramatically limits scheduling flexibility.
* No training for new task types. Raters must try to figure out how to complete new tasks based on a quick read of the task guidelines. (Reading guidelines hurts a rater's productivity.)
* No bonuses or other incentives, at least for my project
* Productivity standards and subjective accuracy evaluations can be stressful.
* No benefits aside from a small PTO accrualAdvice to Management
Offer qualified employees a pathway to full-time projects and advancement opportunities (reviewer, support personnel or project manager positions). Many of us are capable of much more than we're able to contribute as raters.
Offer paid training or develop a much shorter training and evaluation process. New raters should be trained on all task types. As new task types are introduced, raters should be given the opportunity to complete a paid training set on the new task.
Offer incentives for raters who consistently meet productivity and accuracy standards.Appen 2017-05-23 11:59 PDTHelpful (3)
![Appen Logo]()
"A decent place"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsNegative OutlookI have been working at Appen part-time
Pros
Very fair wage
Minimal hour requirement
Work from homeCons
You work for Appen clients, not appen directly.
Paid monthly
Constant changeAppen 2017-07-14 05:59 PDT
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Appen Response
Jul 24, 2017 – Recruiter
Thank you for your review! We love hearing success stories from our crowd.
We’re so glad to hear that you are enjoying your time with Appen!
Thank you for your suggestions! We are always happy to hear constructive feedback from our contractors.... MoreLess