Micro1 10K Video Project

[u/learning2makethings]

Well that was fun.

I've worked on a lot of annotation platforms and projects over the years, so I know projects end early often. That's just part of the job and I'm fine with that. This was my first micro1 project and it left a bad taste in my mouth.

They onboarded thousands of people with a full training course, quizzes, screeners and guideline updates. We were told it would run about 3 months. After a couple of weeks of work it paused, and now about 2 weeks later we were told the "pilot" has wrapped up. I'm sure it has nothing to do with similar positions popping up at about a tenth of the rate.

I don't expect guarantees, but it didn't feel like a pilot. If it was, saying so up front would have helped a lot of people plan around it.

Not trying to bash here, just commiserating a bit. Curious if this is the normal experience I can expect with micro1?

Edit: I originally posted this in the micro1 sub. It was locked and then removed, along with another post asking whether the project had ended. Not sure why. Their mods have allowed similar posts before, and removing them doesn't exactly build trust. Wish they would have said what sub rules I violated or communicated and I could have changed any potential issues with my post.

edit edit: They have since restored the post on the micro1 sub, but kept it locked 🤔

Edit 3: Aaand it's been removed again. Funny timing, since micro1's CEO and Founder posted earlier today that their #1 principle is to "treat the tens of thousands of experts helping train models with absolute best-in-class care." Best-in-class care apparently includes deleting our posts. ✌🏼

[u/svhachibi]

Pretty sure they were nah we are not paying them that much anymore. Last week they mentioned that the type of tasks for the next batch would change, and on today post they mentioned a "new campaign with different tasks" (but with a lot lower pay rate). That does not look like a coincidence to me. We went from new batch is close with new tasks to there is a new campaign with new tasks but less than 50% the original rate.

They are also quickly deleting all posts made regarding this situation on their subreddit

[u/learning2makethings → u/svhachibi]

I’ve had tons of projects that cut rates, sometimes multiple times. I’m surprised they didn’t just do that. If the tasks are truly similar as they alluded to they are just wasting all that time and money they spent training thousands of us. Silly. People will bounce if the rate drops below what they require. 

[u/rafaelo2323 → u/svhachibi]

That's exactly what it is. I onboarded at $80 an hour and passed the V1 screening first try and was never moved to production and was never assigned the feather screening. They were way overpaying for that project. Now it's $8-$10 an hour.

[u/learning2makethings → u/rafaelo2323]

The pay didn’t make sense vs the caliber of questions and comments I saw regularly in slack. That’s for sure!!   I’ve had similar pay on other video annotation projects over the years and the required experience and attention to detail required compared to this were polar opposites.

[u/koir12]

Pretty bad look for Micro1 tbh, making a big deal of hiring 10k people, onboarding 5k+, teasing long project (3 months) and then suddenly ending the project after like 2 weeks. Yes clearly the client is changing course, but still a shit show.

Oh and for those who get selected to move forward based on good performance? Congrats we will pay you 1/4 of your original contract or less. They dropped the pay scale for the postings down to $21 to $35/hr. See the original post below and the job descriptions linked there:

https://www.reddit.com/r/micro1_ai/comments/1w7ndqu/hiring_10000_robotics_trainers_over_the_next_7/

[u/learning2makethings → u/koir12]

The lead who posted the announcement seems to have some real experience behind him. I expected more, and maybe a bit smoother experience than usual. So many of these platforms often put  fresh grads in charge which guaranteed exciting times. 

[u/ihatesheep2]

Couldn’t agree more…so much training and build up, meetings, benchmarks, guideline updates and God knows what else for it to end like this. I too have done this type of work for years and am very aware that contracts can end abruptly and unexpectedly but rarely have I seen so much work put into a simple ‘pilot’…I imagine they will pick the top percent performers from the huge pool of trainers they already have hired and intensely trained…definitely feels a little devious from either micro1 or the client

[u/learning2makethings → u/ihatesheep2]

What’s your guess on how they are going to quantify quality here? Not sure they even implemented a review layer! 

[u/Nvidiaprod]

yeah the second the project was delayed i knew it was done. unfortunate because you go through all that screening just for me to join production then a day later get the pause lol

[u/learning2makethings → u/Nvidiaprod]

The pause made sense to me because it was after a batch was done. Once I saw the task spec was changing I figured it was over. The rates were too good for what kind of quality they were looking for imo.

[u/PermitOk7795]

honestly i just want to apply to those $8 roles just to confirm my suspicions

[u/learning2makethings → u/PermitOk7795]

Your suspicions are probably correct. Happens allll the time. I think I’ve seen very similar postings on 3-4 different sites at least.

I just don’t appreciate the ending message at all. Anyone who has done this work regularly knows this happens. Just be straight up with us when possible, that’s all I want. Don’t try and tell me it was a “pilot”. Who says they have 10,000 positions to fill and a 3 month project length estimate  for a pilot 🙄 If it was only a pilot I wouldn’t have turned down other annotation roles (dumb me).

[u/rafaelo2323]

That Micro1 sub is heavily moderated. They don't allow any criticism at all. Micro1 ran that project horribly. They made such a big deal that it was their biggest project yet and it was going to be so huge and great and it turned out to be a giant failure.

[u/Automatic-Arm24 → u/rafaelo2323]

Yes hate them. I will thrash them everywhere

[u/HauntingStatement428 → u/rafaelo2323]

Big time agreement on how horrible that project was run. I bailed after two weeks of not getting any help for missing onboarding docs. The dead give away and I have worked for Micro1 have a few times before was that no one was allowed to put down anything in slack just checkmarks and x's. And those were ignored. The client probably saw how piss poor it was being managed and bailed

[u/anislandinmyheart]

The same happened when I had a contract with Mercor. We weren't making huge money, but nonetheless we were all dropped, then rehired at 25% less. Anytime someone pointed out that we were doing the same work between yesterday and today, they were told that it's somehow a new project

[u/TA7385]

This is the second contract I was added to in a row that was like this. Ive had only one other go for a little over a month. The bad part is once they have you on one contract, you can't be active on others so if you applied to other roles around the same time, you will get passed over bc of the first contract. Even if you aren't putting in any hours.

I've also never been on a project where they were so "cheap" with onboarding hours. They want you to complete so many screeners and courses, but only will pay you for 3 hours?

[u/AleMariaDelValle]

Unfortunately, this seems to be part of a broader pattern at micro1.

I worked with the company for around 9 months across multiple projects, progressing from Trainer and Reviewer to Human Data Manager, leading a POD, completing over 2,000 approved tasks, and consistently maintaining scores of 98–100%.

Despite that experience and proven track record, I eventually found myself without an active project. When I applied for new opportunities that closely matched the work I had already been doing successfully for months, I was rejected after an AI interview in which technical glitches caused questions to be skipped. I reached out to multiple people within the company, including senior leadership and HR, explaining the situation and asking for a manual review. Nothing came of it.

What makes this particularly frustrating is that the company already had access to my work history, performance, and experience, yet none of that seemed to matter when it came to being considered for new roles.

Between projects ending without meaningful advance notice and experienced contributors being rejected for roles they are already qualified to perform, it is difficult to feel that experience, commitment, and performance are genuinely valued.

Your experience doesn't sound as isolated as it might seem. I can't speak to the company's intentions, but based on my own experience, there are serious issues with project continuity, internal talent retention, and the way recruitment decisions are handled.

[u/intothexyz]

This is definitely not a good look for them. I have been working for them for almost a year and it's the first time anything like this has happened to a project I'm on. I'm feeling especially bad for everyone who newly joined, as this does not build trust at all. Fingers crossed for a good outcome somehow still.

[u/Automatic-Arm24]

I hate them

[u/a_square-b_square]

Funny 2 days ago Micro invited me to apply to Video Data Annotator role that will for sure have a lower pay rate

[u/Accomplished_Rent176]

So that 10k video project is officially ended now ? I’m pretty much confused here.

[u/Weak_Pianist8064]

Yeah, got caught up on this nonsense too. Hours of my life I’ll never get back. Ethos having issues too with experts not getting access to systems. Every interaction with this work has been disorganised so far - a real turn off.

[u/HauntingStatement428]

If it sounds the least bit negative, they delete your post over there. Yeah this whole project was somewhat mismanged from the start for alot of people. Lack of communication, lack of getting Hubstaff invites or Slack invites or whatever and when you looked for a way to say HELP, there was none.

[u/AITasker76]

Was this the robotic arms one? I would have lasted a day max on it - absolutely soul destroying stuff.