Appen – A Great Work From Home Opportunity for Anyone Looking for Extra Income

Giving birth, whether naturally or by C-section, takes a toll on a woman’s body and sometimes her mind. Having to go back to work within weeks or 3 months of giving birth does not allow a family the time to adapt and bond with their new addition. Unfortunately, in the United States returning to work within 3 months of having a child is the norm and for most families a must. Other families run into the hard situation where both parent’s need to work to support the family, but child care costs end up being 50% or more of one parents take home pay. (This happened to my husband and I.)

My Story

After our daughter was born the cost of childcare for our one child was going to take up 50% of my take home pay. So, I went to my employer and told them my situation. I asked them if I could switch to part-time or work from home a little more since I had family who could watch my daughter part time during the week. (It was not unheard of for individuals to work from home at my old company. Actually, half of the employees worked from home.) Their answer was no, and sadly I had to give my notice and resign since 50% going towards child care was just too much for us.

While I was slightly discouraged I told my husband I would find a way to bring in some extra money while being a stay at home parent. I would do what I could in regards to couponing and cutting down our bills, and I would look for part time work opportunities. I looked at babysitting, dog sitting, selling things on Etsy, and multi-level marketing opportunities. None of those opportunities fit me though. I was growing concerned not having a job, or something to put on my resume to fill the gap of when I was going to be a stay at home parent, was going to hurt me in the future when I wanted to get back into the work force full-time. So, I searched further and ran across the company Appen.

What is Appen

Appen is a company that offers speech and search technology services for their clients. They offer part-time work from home positions in web search evaluation, social media evaluation, transcription, and more across the world. The majority of their part time positions are between 5-7 hours a week or 20 hours a week. Since they hire individuals as independent contractors you can apply for different projects that fit your availability. Some positions require certain degrees, but some positions do not require a degree at all.

My Work for Appen

I have worked for Appen for a year on one of their social media evaluation projects. I worked between 5-7 hours a week and brought in an extra $300 or more a month to financially help my family. It might not seem like much, but between all of my other cost saving techniques and working for Appen I have been able to help pay a couple of household bills and add extra spending money to the budget. While I cannot discuss a lot about the position I have held at Appen, due to a sign confidentiality agreement, I can tell you that if you have experience with social media and computers working as a Social Media Evaluator or Web Search Evaluator will not be difficult. If you have degrees in linguistics or speak another language Appen has other opportunities you can apply for as well.

Things you should be aware of working as an Independent Contractor

There are some things to be aware of when working as an Independent Contractor for Appen. As an Independent contractor, you receive your paycheck once a month, Appen does not take taxes out of your paychecks so you will need to set aside some of your paycheck every month, and Appen can release you from your contract if they have collected all of their data from you or you are not meeting contracted production goals.

Appen is a Great Work from Home Job

As a stay at home parent looking to bring in extra cash don’t be discouraged. If like me you are not the artsy type, or are not wanting to join a multi-level marketing company, take a look at Appen’s open positions. If Appen is not for you, I want you to know, YOU CAN find a work from home job. You just might have to do some digging. Click here to search Appen’s job database. https://join.appen.com/jobsearch/#|||1

Side Note

If for some reason, you do not hear back from Appen when you submit an application, or are not hired there are two other companies that I know of that are competitors of Appen. They are Leapforce and Lionbridge. I have not worked for these companies so I cannot say much about them, but I do know they sometimes have job openings for social media evaluators and web search evaluators.

Happy job hunting!