Can You Work for Both Appen and TELUS International AI?

As a general rule, you shouldn't work for Appen and TELUS International AI (formerly Lionbridge AI) simultaneously. However, if you can ensure that the tasks you contract for are completely distinct, you may be allowed to do so and get your contract renewed several times without any problem.

When working for these companies, you’re an independent contractor providing evaluation services for their clients. But, since both Appen and TELUS International work with the same clients or even competing clients, you need to make sure there is no conflict of interest between the projects you apply for.

Since you are looking for information about TELUS International AI and Appen, you may also like to register on these other websites that offer work from home opportunities.

Having Multiple Accounts on Appen and Lionbridge

The terms and conditions of your contract at Lionbridge and at Appen do not permit you to create multiple accounts with these companies. In case you do so, know that duplicate accounts can be identified easily and you’ll likely lose your job. It is not clear if TELUS International, which acquired Lionbridge AI, has the same rules.

If you have two or more family members working similar jobs, avoid using the same IP address as this is a grey area as reported by many people on Reddit.

To secure your job when sharing the house with more people participating in similar projects, contact your internet provider and put in a request for separate IP addresses for each independent agent.

Choose Distinct Projects for Both Companies

If you do wish to work on different projects in both companies at the same time, that's possible. But, again, you must sign up for entirely distinct projects for different clients.

Like the folks at Glassdoor advise, at the time of applying for the project, it is advisable not to reveal that you’re also working for a competing company. Even if you have the experience working on similar projects in say, Appen, it is probably best not to talk about it in your application to the AI Community by TELUS International.

You’ll also want to consider getting separate email IDs when signing up. That’s because both Appen and TELUS International AI Community use the same platforms for their crowdsourcing activities.

For example, the UHRS portal is used for Microsoft-related tasks and the Raterhub website is used for Google's. If your email ID shows as already registered on these rating portals, that’s a clear giveaway and your application will likely get rejected.

Make sure to provide the minimum required quality scores and put in the minimum number of hours you’ve committed, and you can be successful.

Avoid Conflict of Interest When Working for Appen and TELUS International AI

As mentioned previously, if you are registering with Appen and TELUS International's AI Community at the same time, it is critical that you avoid working for the same clients at competing employers.

Appen, Lionbridge and TELUS International have a wide scope of services that they offer their clients and you can ensure that there is no conflict of interest by picking up different contracts.

For instance, if you’re working at translation and transcription at Appen, consider opting for social media evaluation at TELUS International AI Community. Both projects are completely unrelated to one another.

Here are some of the categories of projects or opportunities that you can apply for:

• Language-related like translation, transcription, and lexicon annotation
• Linguistic specialties like speech evaluation, computational, converting text to speech, pronunciation, phonetics, and more
• Conducting surveys and data collection
• Search engine evaluation
• Social media evaluation
• E-commerce testing

Learn to Identify the Project Code Names

Once you start working regularly, you’ll learn that client companies have code names for their projects.

For instance, the Google search engine evaluator project is called Yukon on Appen whereas at TELUS International it goes by the name of Internet Assessor (or Personalized Internet Assessor) or Rater.

The Facebook ad evaluator project is called Project Nile at Appen, while Instagram ads are evaluated by way of the Truckee.

If you, inadvertently, end up working on the same projects for both companies, that would be a conflict of interest and you would most likely risk losing the accounts.

New projects are organized from time to time and if you think you have the necessary skills, you can look for specifically unrelated projects and apply.

The Takeaway

Should you take up projects at Appen and TELUS International's AI Community at the same time? Well, you could. In fact, it might even be advisable since there’s always the possibility that you don’t get a contract renewal.

If you’re relying on projects from a single company for an income, that could be a problem when you might find yourself out of work, unexpectedly.

Make sure to avoid any conflict of interest by distinguishing similar projects and choosing tasks carefully.

As a freelance contractor, it’s not just about losing your job if you’re found out, it’s also about maintaining good work ethics. Good luck!