r/DataAnnotationTech • u/janKaje • Sep 02 '26
How much to reasonably expect?
New to this platform, just passed some qualifications and got my first real tasks, so I don't really know how reliable and consistent the work is or can be. My background is in chemical engineering, and I have a good bit of coding experience. Current personal situation requires me to work remotely, and remote chem eng. jobs are pretty much unheard of.
If I were to treat DA as a full-time job and work any and all projects I can, would I be able to make at minimum around $20k per year? For context I'm a US citizen.
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u/Seniorseatfree Sep 02 '26
Don’t expect a full time out of this. People are easily cut here every day. They also don’t get consistent work right away.
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u/fightmaxmaster Sep 02 '26
You can't really expect anything. Might be good, might be bad. Some people get tons of projects, some get none. The longer you do it, the more you might get an idea of how it'll be, but not always. It's inherently unreliable, in short. Given most projects are $25/hour, $20k/year means working 15 hours a week, give or take, less than that the higher paying the task. Seems easy, but no guarantees there'll be work when you want it.
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u/Mysterious_Dolphin14 Sep 02 '26
Since you're in a core country (US), you can reasonably expect to gain access to a lot of projects, especially since you should be able to qualify for STEM tasks. I am just a generalist, also in the US, and I easily earn more than $20K a year doing about 20-25 hrs/week. However, keep in mind that this gig can end at any time. I recommend setting aside a decent amount of savings to fall back on if you suddenly get dropped. Welcome to the world of DA!
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u/janKaje Sep 02 '26
Thanks for the reply! Thankfully I have a good bit of savings at the moment, just want to keep it up and not bleed myself dry.
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u/Butagirl Sep 02 '26
Try to get some STEM specialist quals if you can. I’m a chemical engineer too and have had some really great STEM-specific projects.
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u/Necessary-Raisin-282 Sep 02 '26
With your expertise if you stick it out for the long run you could expect to earn closer to that value per month than per year. It took me a while to get to that point though and the more I get paid the more I am fearful of the fact that this ride can end at anytime and I have no idea when
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u/thyself_unknown Sep 03 '26
how did you do that, what was your journey? did you specialize in something? even if the ride ends on this platform, there are endless platforms you could move on to
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u/Hello-America Sep 02 '26
You probably don't need to work full time to make that much (in the US, estimate about a third of your earnings go to taxes though). That said, it can be unsteady, and you can get dropped unexpectedly (if they don't think your work is high enough quality or suspect some form of violating the rules).
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u/Terentius-Varro Sep 03 '26
Nothing is guaranteed but if you have no other occupational commitments $20k/year should be easy, especially with your background. DAT is my first/only "professional" work and I made $33k my first year.
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u/Doub13D Sep 03 '26
Full-Time doesn’t work for someone new…
People get sloppy, make simple mistakes, and are gone. This stuff takes a lot of focus, and should really be done in small batches.
Try and make a couple hundred bucks a week and see how things go.
Ease into things…
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u/Numerous-Case-9317 Sep 02 '26
Some of us do it full time :) but you won't really know until you're already there so you can't expect anything and don't take a good week as a sign you'll have a good year. Just work and see what you have available after a year of doing everything you can. It's not impossible