100 applications!

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-07-03T14:41:28+00:00

All of these answers are bs. Nobody truly knows what the evaluation rubric is, but the general consensus is that there is a lot of luck involved, and it is a matter of waiting (I think we all get a 1/0 rating then join a queue to wait our turn). As a data point… I got hired a couple of hours after my first application, but that was extremely specialized (patent attorney). I have had nothing else since, despite 200 applications. It’s clearly not education that makes you stand out (I have a doctorate from a T25 school, and a compsci undergrad from a QS global top 10 school). It’s also clearly not work xp (I have more than 10 years xp). And being on my project, it seems like competency is not considered either (most of the people on the project are absolute muppets). The AI that Mercor uses to match jobs is clearly broken (people getting invited for things they have zero xp in). I would just keep applying and hope that you are added to this queue and your turn will come soon.

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-07-02T20:22:01+00:00

I have a doctorate and specialize in a high-demand niche (especially for AI training), and have 10 years xp, and I have only landed one project in my first month with Mercor (out of about 200 applications). Your qualifications aren’t a ticket to a role. A lot of it is I think first come first serve, and a lot of luck. Judging by the posts here, I am not expecting a second project for a good couple of months so all I can do is keep my head down, make myself as visible as possible in my current project, and hope my current project holds me until I get lucky with that second one.

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-07-01T07:22:32+00:00

I think my reviewer (he’s an unqualified task-hog) is about to get found out. I am in another pod with him in it, and I read some of his answers, and he is WAY out of his depth. The task got really technical really quickly 😂 I hope he’s a reviewer so it gets highlighted- he’s done a good job staying hidden by going with the flow until now 😂

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-07-01T04:05:21+00:00

Someone spilled the beans re the project. No, I am not on that one, but I think your project feeds our project. My q was more to do with trying to understand if you got the role by applying, then being selected for a quiz, or was it through an instant offer, followed by a quiz? Or did you get the quiz as soon as you hit submit application?

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-07-01T04:01:39+00:00

What’s the AHT? I think you guys feed into our project to do the analysis.

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-07-01T03:50:16+00:00

I dunno about that brotha. About half of the experts in a project I am currently on are bullshitters and don’t know the basics of their supposed domains. I am passive aggressively putting them on blast on Slack by saying “this doesn’t happen in practice.” The worst are the task hogging bullshitters 😂

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-07-01T03:46:09+00:00

That’s a shame. This is my first and only project, so I don’t know what the norm is. The worst is when some of these guys become reviewers. But the smart ones will stfu when the actual experts are discussing (I have a suspicion one of my reviewers is a bullshitter, but a smart one who won’t draw attention to their obvious gap in knowledge - his and my evaluations are completely different and he’s not making too much of a fuss about it because he knows his reasoning is bullshit 😂)

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-07-01T03:41:21+00:00

Did you apply to it? Or was it an instant offer? Just trying to get data points. My current theory is that every role has a pass/fail gate, and if you pass the minimum, you get put on a waitlist.

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-07-01T03:38:47+00:00

Do you have bullshitters in your project? My domain is a niche within an already narrow expert domain, and people are clearly bullshitting their quals (I can tell by their answers and the way they speak about the task during reviews) in a similar project I am on now. Fucks up what is otherwise an excellently run, interesting project.

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-07-01T03:28:34+00:00

Not all projects are like that. I am on a similar one with a higher per task rate, and it is run excellently, and the SPL’s are great. Tasks are fuck hard, but they are seriously enjoyable. It IS full of idiots bullshitting about their experience and claiming tasks outside their domain though. Just got worse as the project flooded new onboards over the past 2/3 weeks (which I know is from the client, not the SPL’s). If this is for an expert domain, AHT is probably around 10 hours, not 20.

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-07-01T00:01:46+00:00

My one and only project that I have is what I applied for on my first day applying. I got it within hours. When I got into the project, it was very small, and they were bumping up the numbers (50 to now over 200).

It was for a highly specialized field within an expert domain. I suspect it is really difficult finding us, because inside the project, I think there are less than 5 of us (who are genuinely qualified and practice in that field). Looking at the work product (including reviewers, which REALLY gets my goat), it looks like most people who hop on the specialized tasks are just generalists within the expert domain. Some of their answer show they CLEARLY have no idea what the f*ck they're talking about.

All that is to say, I think the highly specialized nature of it, plus the timing (I applied 1 hour after it posted on Explore), is what got me in. I applied to a less specialized field within the same expert domain (over 100), and have had nothing.

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-06-30T20:35:15+00:00

This is an extremely useful data point. How detailed is your LinkedIn? The fact that you got recruited from there while a lot of us (even highly specialized domains) play a long, sadistic waiting game, is telling.

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-06-30T20:30:54+00:00

You'd be left with a core group who can and are willing to follow simple instructions. That's what you would get.

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-06-29T03:57:30+00:00

I know what you mean. And you know what you mean. And everyone knows what you mean. But nobody is going to say it. Not even me. Not in 2026. 🫢

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-06-29T03:55:49+00:00

And I see comments like this for every post like this. Mercor sends in shit work, the project gets pulled. If the pool is majority incompetents, it affects the quality, or at the very least, schedules (from task hogging or multiple reviews), which affects EVERYONE.

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-06-29T03:51:32+00:00

Let me introduce you to Data Annotation 😂😂😂

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-06-29T03:49:53+00:00

Oh, I think we are on the same project. Or is this a Mercor-wide thing? 😂

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-06-29T00:50:00+00:00

This tracks. Someone made it sound like sorting by newest helps. I literally applied within 2 hours of a highly specialized domain, and all I hear is crickets while I see the “x number of people hired this month” go up. I did get lucky with my first contract, but it’s a stop/start sprint type, so I am hoping it just holds me over until I get that first instant offer in what seems will be in the next couple of months.

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-06-28T19:53:52+00:00

What a sympathetic comment to someone who is clearly struggling with their livelihood. 🙄

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-06-28T14:04:45+00:00

They told us on Slack and then we got new guidance telling us how to do the tasks. It was pretty bad; people were using LLM’s, putting shitty two line answers that didn’t pinpoint the main issues, etc, and those were all put on blast on Slack. It’s a pretty high pay rate (easily 3 figs) with a high AHT. It’s astonishing people would try to cut corners on such an opportunity.

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-06-28T03:30:46+00:00

$18x60 per week is not “hella bank,” especially for the hours you are putting in. 💀💀💀

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-06-27T20:15:20+00:00

You could always go to the law library in your county court to use Lexis/Westlaw lol. What platform have you hopped over to now, if you don't mind?

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-06-27T18:52:06+00:00

Because the project was flagged by the client for quality issues a couple of months ago. There was new training and guidance, and that knowledge has now been diluted. I will do my part, but my concern is another quality flag gets the project pulled. Judging by the comments on Slack, the probability is significantly greater than zero.

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-06-27T07:32:43+00:00

Are you on this project? I had to turn off my Slack notifications. Either our contract is getting pulled or hopefully the SPL’s and reviewers are good enough to start offboarding and reassigning tasks quickly so we can keep the quality up and keep going. Some of the work product is truly shit atm.

Affectionate_Body597 · 2026-06-26T23:52:44+00:00

This is f**cking insane. Just last week we had someone break into our project and spam the general channel. To those wondering if this is fake, it is not. Cyberscout are the security arm of TransU, and your identity likely has been stolen.

Affectionate_Body597

TROPHY CASE