Appen Reviews

Pros

Amazing opportunity to work with people all over the world, and meet people from diverse backgrounds and cultures. I feel like I have a friend in any country I go to. The times you work can also be flexible depending on your role.

Cons

With flexibility comes blurred working hours – long hours are treated as normal, and taking calls early/late or working on weekends to meet a deadline are common. The company is also growing rapidly but some processes are still highly manual, like in a smaller company. The project work can get repetitive.

Advice to Management

Preserve the diverse workplace culture and continue to bring in people from all around the world. Preserve the flexible work times. Invest in scaling up processes and automating manual processes.

Pros

Fast paced work with a lot of variety

Cons

Long hours expected for not great pay

Pros

Good perks, bonuses, vacation time, etc

Cons

Bureaucracy, lack of career growth opportunities, upper leadership doesn't communicate their vision clearly.

Advice to Management

Engage your team in the bigger mission so they understand what they're working towards, other than a paycheck. Be more clear about the culture and values.

Pros

Great people, fast-growing company, top clients.

Cons

Low salaries, no company culture, no benefits.

Advice to Management

Do not position the company as a machine learning company. Set clear expectation to people you are hiring.

Pros

Flexibility to decide when and where you work, work from home, easy work once you learn the guidelines. They are working out the kinks involved in working with crowdsourced employees, but they really listen and adjust based on employee feedback. Good pay for an entry-level work from home job.

Cons

Slow response time from managers. Work is not consistent. You won't support a family with this income, but it will help, and it's one of the better-paying crowdsourced positions available.

Advice to Management

Keep up the great work!

Pros

Project manager on the project is responsive and helpful.

Cons

This company pays about 10rmb for an hour of work and only use PayPal to pay. while no one use paypal in China as everyone is using Alipay. To get your money from paypal, you have to have at least 150usd in the account and there is 30usd withdraw fee.

Advice to Management

I feel sorry for your Chinese project managers that are paying people using their own money so they can complete their project. If you want to do business in China, do proper research and provide proper support and try to adapt. Otherwise, you will just quickly get crushed like many other foreign companies.

Pros

Hours are flexible, work is fairly easy.

Cons

Management has a short term financial gain mindset, doing whatever it takes to make money now, even if it loses the company money in the long run. No foresight or understanding of the industry at all.

Advice to Management

Take a step back and ensure you office and employees are well equipped and happy. Cultivating a successful office culture is more important than short term monetary gain.

Pros

Can't think of any. Never got the chance.

Cons

I took all the required testing and was contacted by an Appen recruiter. I was asked to send my details and Super Fund information after passing the tests with flying colors. Three months after sending my details to start work I received an email stating that others matched my skill set more closely? I had long forgotten about Appen at this point and had moved on. What a strange company.

Advice to Management

Zero communication to prospective employees is a bad look. So is creating the impression you have hired someone when you didn't plan to at all. Get your act together.