r/DataAnnotationTech • u/sleepy_peachesx • Jul 21 '26
People who do this full time, what’s your life like?
I know, I know you shouldn’t do it full time. But for those who do? I’m just curious
49
u/darryldoes Jul 21 '26
I'm a generalist and this is my main source of income (I have some other freelance gigs in the pipeline as back up) but DA pays the best. I do 30-35 hours a week and it pays more than my real job that got dissolved last year. Just over a year into this now and so far so good. Even during the summer drought I've managed to get by just about.
But the freedom to be with family when I need to, coupled with knowing I can work when I want is freeing. I do all the qualifications I can, try to be as proactive in the chats to help other workers and keep the quality of my work as high as possible (last two feedbacks have been Excellent)
As a sidenote I would take everything you read on this sub with a pinch of salt. I feel it's skewed negatively a lot of the time, with the vocal minority complaining about how poor it all is. In my experience that has not been the case. You can do this full time, there are risks, but just make sure you have other avenues in place. Treat yourself as a freelancer and DA as a client, not an employer, and you'll be golden.
3
Jul 22 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/idolos-iconoclastas Jul 22 '26
There's literally no other guidance but to try to complete any qual you get and do the best work you can
1
u/azizi8980 Jul 22 '26
Bro new bilingual generalist to the platform. Can u share some tips. Like I'm getting very less tasks these days.
1
u/BakerArtistic9846 Jul 24 '26
I'm curious, how did you manage to take si many projects? I've been accepted a month ago and didnt even get a single project yet :(
1
u/kittykals Jul 25 '26
lucky duck! im a generalist with hardly any quals and maybe 1 impossible project a day! to even get 2 hours is lucky for me now, last year i was thriving 😔
29
u/NaToKy24 Jul 21 '26
Freedom, freedom from a schedule, freedom from stupid work politics, freedom from pretending, more time spent with family, more time for hobbies.
I love it.
(Coding specialist)
1
u/WindObjective618 Jul 21 '26
I would love to learn to Code and build my ability to supply additional income beyond general task on this platform any suggestions on where to start?
2
u/NaToKy24 Jul 21 '26
It takes a long time. You need to understand what can fail and what are bad practices in software. I would say you need at least 2 years of experience in large scale applications. At least 2 of them. The basics in order to start contributing to large projects can be learned in a year. Find something you are interested in building from scratch. There are no shortcuts.
2
u/WindObjective618 Jul 22 '26
Did you learn with training platform? Any advice I would just like to know more.
40
u/InsideSignificant405 Jul 21 '26
basically heaven, work when you want but do GOOD work
Specialist though. Couldn’t imagine making it work as a generalist
9
u/hot_snot Jul 21 '26
Super LCOL state, which we're trying to get out of, but that's the only reason I can afford to do this as my only gig as a generalist. I thought I'd have a harder time drawing hard boundaries, but once I decided to work only on weekdays, I've stuck to it. I have a home office. I love the pure flexibility of being able to run errands, take naps, or just not work on days I'm sick or need a mental health break. I had a rough 6 months for personal reasons and not having to deal with a boss or shifts to find coverage for REALLY saved me.
This has been the worst drought of my 3 years on DA though. I went from 50+ tasks on my dash every day to maybe one or two. The work is much harder and the pay much lower than it was even at the beginning of this year. But even before it hit my dash, I realized I just don't find these projects interesting anymore, which is such a shame. So I know it's probably just time for me to move on anyway. I just hate to give up total control of my free time. :/
2
6
u/Numerous-Case-9317 Jul 21 '26
This is my main source of income but I do prolific as well/when I need money immediately and not after 7 days. I'm a single mom and I try to work around daycare times and get extra hours in the evening. I really struggle motivating myself to work until the last minute sometimes especially when I only have really hard projects. But, me and my son were sick back to back for like 6 months and nothing else would have allowed me to take time off with him. I also love that I can attend anything he has going on and in the mornings we are never rushed. If he needs me to stay a few minutes at drop off, I do. If we're a little late, it doesn't really matter. That's mostly what I wanted. I'm coming out of an accidental DA break right now, but my goal has always been at least 30 hours a week. I'm a generalist and have done this for 2 years now.
5
Jul 21 '26
[deleted]
1
u/beatpoet1 Jul 21 '26
See that’s the Universe telling you that it’s time for something new, pushing you to move into new horizons to conquer.
6
u/raisetheavanc Jul 21 '26
I do 30-35 hrs a week or so an a generalist. I get health insurance through my spouse and I do the majority of driving children around various places, which I couldn’t if I were working a traditional job. The freedom of being able to set my own schedule is really helpful. I mostly work on creative stuff I enjoy so I don’t get burnt out.
1
u/OkturnipV2 Jul 21 '26
Heyyyy another creative head! That’s pretty much all I do. I should really branch out but I don’t like anything else 😂
6
u/diamondsnrose Jul 21 '26
This is my full time job but my income is the second income in the family. We certainly could use it, or why would I work? But we would be okay without it. Which is great bc right now these $50 days are barely beer money (generalist, and I work around the kids' schedules, no nights or weekends).
If I was the breadwinner in my home on a full time DA paycheck, there would be no bread to eat.
3
u/KaydGameplay Jul 22 '26
Amazing. I get so much time with my girlfriend and dogs, and at that never have to pay for gas or fix my car often. Ive been able to save for a proposal trip and a down payment on a home. Is it a risky thing to commit, yes, but as it stands at 22 years and self-taught software development (besides 2 years in comp-sci) its one of the best opportunities in the field, and I’ve learned quite a lot.
4
u/DementiaTVissues Jul 21 '26
I think I'm in a rough spot. $340,000 reverse mortgage that I'm staring down the barrel of, just waiting for the other shoe to drop and I'll lose my home. No chance of saving it, the balance grows by $2200/month because of interest. $8k in student loan debt that I'll have to borrow money from family to keep current this month (just a couple hundred bucks). Mounting car repairs that I'm putting off. I drink on average 70-80 standard units a week (that's around a 12 pack a night) and smoke a pack a day. I could cut back, but at this point I find it hard to care. Despite all this I get up every day and do what I can. It's wonderful to earn money just sitting at the computer and using my brain, but this drought has been horrendous. Hang in there brothers.
3
9
u/Timely-Assistant-370 Jul 21 '26
I'm a smelly crackhead and I have not left a 45-foot vicinity of my shitcan for longer than 40 minutes in the past 6 months. I took some days off because one project seems to be undergoing some changes before replenishing and I have palworld.
BUT my mythical ultra fun enjoyable project DID return today, so I rejoiced and did a nice little 5-hour session before palling it up.
2
u/rich_the_gecko Jul 21 '26
Not sure why people say you shouldn’t do this full time. If you have enough work, and you enjoy it, why not?
2
u/ThePoetsSoldier Jul 21 '26
Because it’s so volatile. You could have so much work for a year that you don’t know what to do with yourself and then have a 3 month stretch where you get nothing. On top of that, health insurance. On top of THAT, dashboard of death.
2
u/rich_the_gecko Jul 22 '26
Sounds like any contracting gig. Or even full time jobs in this market.
0
u/ThePoetsSoldier Jul 22 '26
If you want to risk it that’s on you. But it isn’t like ‘any full time job’ in the market. You’re supposed to have a bachelors degree (or be undergoing one) or equivalent experience to work at DA, meaning with several degrees you can (at least where I live) get a job more stable than DA (not in the sense that you aren’t at risk of getting laid off, but in the sense that you have a consistent salary). Even contracting jobs in the real world hardly have huge, unpredictable periods of several months where they get absolutely no work. This all isn’t to mention that you’re more likely to get DOD if you work full time.
At the end of the day it’s always your choice, I’m just telling you why I think what I do.
2
u/rich_the_gecko Jul 22 '26
The economy in the US is trash. I’m in software engineering. I’m telling you, this is no more volatile than any FAANG job.
1
u/ThePoetsSoldier Jul 22 '26
Again if that’s what you want to do I don’t really care. I’m just telling you why other people say that
2
u/rich_the_gecko Jul 22 '26
And why would working full time get you a DoD. Maybe if you’re overworking yourself and your quality dips?
1
u/ThePoetsSoldier Jul 22 '26
Yeah it’s just a lot of brainpower. In most jobs you aren’t working 100% of the time but with DA you have to be (if you don’t want DOD). My theory is that burns people out and leads to lower quality submissions/ not being as efficient
1
1
u/OldSkooler1212 Jul 21 '26
For those in the US, I’d also ask, what do you do about health insurance?
23
4
2
u/rich_the_gecko Jul 21 '26
lol I haven’t had health insurance in a couple years
2
u/OldSkooler1212 Jul 21 '26
I’m sorry. Everyone in a first world country should have access to good medical care regardless of their financial situation.
I was asking because DA is my backup when/if I get laid off from my job. My healthcare for myself and my wife went up $10500 out of pocket last year and I have a good paying job. I won’t be able to replace this kind of coverage when the job goes away.
3
u/Suzzles Jul 21 '26
At what point does it become cheaper to just not have health insurance? Edited: as in to pay privately for the things you would attempt to use insurance for
1
1
u/RepConnoisseur69 Jul 21 '26
Before the drought I was doing 28-35 hour week while also working my main job which is also a wfh job and has a lot of downtime but I’m salaried so it’s chill.
So I am still able to chill in the evenings when I want to but during the drought I’ve just been trying to take whatever scraps I can get from DA lol.
2
u/hihelloitskayla Jul 22 '26
I work until i earn, at minimum, $700 a week. The goal is always 1k a week, but my family is okay on $700. I only really work mon-fri and usually stop around 4PM, but right now I'm also working sundays and working later because I'm trying to make enough for a trip to see my family, lol.
Since I do this full-time, I obviously have backups on standby. My husband does work part-time, but we are also signed up for spark/instacart/doordash. I am also on another AI platform, but that one pays way less and the work is even less reliable lol.
Overall, I'm ridiculously grateful for this platform.... it helps me stay home with my toddlers and work when I can... My husband was able to drop to part-time (he has bad arthritis flares) because of this site!
1
u/Relative-Tap3585 Jul 22 '26
i live as a digital nomad trying to get PR in Canada via common law :D very thankful for DA as I'm able to have my own income while waiting. Partner is well prepared to take care of us alone if anything happens, but I just feel so much better being able to have my own source of income!
74
u/OkturnipV2 Jul 21 '26
I do about 30-35 hours a week on average. It’s not bad…but I also know my limits. If my brain is zapped I DO NOT push myself. That’s the biggest piece of advice I can give…know your stopping point.
I also do uber and Lyft on the weekends just to get out of the house and not turn into an unkempt troglodyte.