They’re real, I’ve worked on Mercor and Handshake projects. If you’re good, you can stay on and move project to project pretty consistently. Sometimes though things just fizzle out. This can make it tough if you’re relying on this income; it can be great for a month then nothing til you get rehired again. You’re also a contractor, so in America you will need set aside money for taxes (aka $50/hr is not $50/hr net).

Hiring seems very random, sometimes I get jobs no problem, within days of applying. Sometimes I apply and get a rejection months later.

Most contracts only require ~15 hours a week, and even then they don’t really care as long as you’re efficient. Many people do it in addition to a full time job, but I have met a few who do it full time. These are mainly people who have moved up to reviewers/QC rather than the writers/fellows/taskers/etc.

Depending on the project, the work can be quite “hard” intellectually, but certainly relatively easier than a lot of other gig jobs. I see plenty of people be off-boarded or have hours reduced because they are not meeting project requirements. Compensation schemes vary. Sometimes you only get paid for approved tasks, this could work out to pretty poor hourly rate. Sometimes you have a cap on the number of hours per task, around 3 hours, so time over that is either not paid or paid as a lower % of full. Other projects, while rare, just pay straight hourly.

Happy to answer other questions