A review and guideline on how to apply for a Telus International Rater Job. If you’re looking for an online, remote job where you can schedule your own hours, Telus International is hiring for their Internet Assessor Rater position. As a rater for Telus, you will judge the helpfulness of search engine results including websites, texts, images, videos, audio answers, and ads.
Telus International, formerly known as Lionbridge, is a data and technology company that offers digital solutions to top, innovative companies to help develop and improve their AI products. Telus has many different freelance and employed positions for remote workers such as Internet Safety Rater, Data Annotation, Translation, Transcription, Media Search Analyst, Online Education Consultants, and many more. Their rater position seems to be their most high paying job with the longest contract.
Job Description for Telus International Rater Job
As a rater for Telus, your job is to make judgements on the usefulness and quality of results returned in a search engine after a user makes a query (what they input to search). Raters will judge results in the form of on-SERP content, websites, images, videos, text and audio files.
For example, if a user made a query for, ‘restaurants near me’, results for a shoe store would not be useful nor would restaurants that are in another state. The best results would be restaurants that are located within 25 miles or so of the user.
Rating the page quality (PQ) of a website involves judging how high quality the content is, the overall usefulness of the website and its layout, and its EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).
Websites that have content that is original, informational, a trusted reputation and high authority on the topic, and a user-friendly layout would have higher PQ ratings. Websites where content is sparse or low quality, inaccurate or harmful content, and a hard to navigate layout with distracting ads would have a lower PQ rating.
When working as a rater, you will log on to their online platform to select tasks to complete at your own schedule. The majority of tasks require a computer/laptop and a smartphone.
The Rater position at Telus is an employed position so you will be paid an hourly rate for the amount of time spent on completing tasks rather than per task. Each task has an estimated finish time anywhere from 30 seconds to 15 minutes per task.
It is advised to finish each task around its given estimated time rate. Completing tasks as quickly as possible may diminish your work quality as well as skew the estimated task completion time for other raters and you will still be paid per total time completed, not per task.
There is a bit of leniency for new raters taking longer than the given estimated time but continuing to do so may put your account under review. All new raters tend to feel a bit overwhelmed with finishing tasks on time but within a few weeks to months they find they have more than enough time to finish.
How to Apply for a Rater Job For Telus
To apply for a rater job for Telus International, go to their AI Community Job Listing site. Find the listing that’s under ‘US Rater’ or enter ‘rater’ in the search tool. You can read more information on the job description and requirements and when you’re ready, hit ‘apply now’.
You’ll then complete a short job application entering your contact information and answering a few questions about your experience, language skills, and devices. You will have an option to submit a resume. I’ve heard of people getting hired with and with out a resume so it’s unclear if having a resume helps, though it probably doesn’t hurt to add it.
After submitting your application it could be anywhere from a few days to weeks/months until you hear back. According to a round up of experiences from users on social media platforms like Reddit, many whom weren’t accepted received a rejection email with 2-3 days. The majority who were accepted heard back within a week to even 3-6 months later. A large group of applicants never heard back at all. This is pretty common with online, remote jobs as it can be difficult to gauge when they are hiring.
Requirements To Work As A Rater For Telus
-You must be 18+ years of age.
-US Resident (for this position, at times they are looking for candidates from other countries).
-High school diploma or GED
-Native efficiency in your country’s language (English for this job)
-You must have a computer, mobile device, and stable internet connection. (Android smartphone 4.2 or higher or iPhone iOS version 13.0 or higher)
-Must pass a 3-part exam on the guidelines.
Experience in web browsers, social media, as well as familiarity with businesses, media, sports, news and internet content is helpful.
The Qualification Exam
If your application has been accepted you will receive an acceptance email including an NDA to sign. After submitting the signed NDA form you should then receive an email sending you information on how to access the 200+ page guidelines PDF as well as the steps to take the qualification exams. You will have 7 days to complete the 3-part exam.
Part 1– Theoretical Multiple Choice From Guidelines: The easiest of the three exams that tests you on definitions, rating theories, and other easily found information on the guidelines.
Part 2- Page Quality Examples: You will rate 5 to 10 website’s page quality based off the guidelines.
Part 3- Needs Met Examples: You will rate 5 to 10 results on how useful they are in meeting the query’s needs based off the guidelines.
The reason the guidelines are stressed so much is because it’s really important to stick to the rating and judgement rules according to how they’re stated in the guidelines. You may have a personal opinion on the quality of a page or how well a query’s needs are met but there could be discrepancies from the guidelines. When in doubt, stick to the guidelines.
*When studying, be sure to have a really good understanding of what is the ‘intent’ of a query and how to rate ‘Page Quality’ and ‘Needs Met’.
You will be notified immediately after completing the Part 1 exam if you have passed or failed. For the second and third exams, you will be notified within 2-3 days if you have passed or information on how to retake it if you failed. Candidates are usually given one more chance to take each part of the exam and must past all three to get hired.
Once hired, you will start the on-boarding process which requires uploading your ID, tax documents, and signing contracts. Then you will be given an expected start date for when you can begin working, which usually will be that week or the following. From start to finish, it should take around 2-3 weeks total from being hired, finishing the exams, and to begin working.
How and When Do I get Paid
Raters for Telus get paid bi-weeky through direct deposit to their bank. You will enter your daily time worked and number of tasks on a timesheet in your user portal and submit it at the end of the pay period. Payment for the prior two weeks of work should be received the following Friday.
While payments vary for different projects and locations, the hourly pay is usually based on your local minimum wage and falls between the $10 to $16 per hour range. Telus’s Rater job is not an independent contractor position like most remote gigs. You will be considered a W-2 employee and will have taxes taken out of your paycheck.
All projects vary but usually a minimum of 10-15 hours and maximum of 20-26 a week are required. New raters may be put on a probationary period where they’ll have limited hours (1-2) for the first few weeks. So long as you hit the max weekly hours, it’s definitely possible to make over $1,000 a month.
Monthly Evaluations
Passing the qualification exam is a feat that not many are able to do but that doesn’t mean it’s time to forget everything you studied and to just start banging out the hours. The guidelines must always be adhered to when working and there are monthly evaluations on the quality of your work.
Typically 10 random tasks from the previous month will be chosen for all raters to be graded on. There are six scores for this metric: Perfect, Excellent, Exceeds Expectations, Meets Expectations, Substandard and Unacceptable. Continuous results below Substandard will limit your hours or possibly lead to permanent termination.
Pros:
Flexible schedule/work from home.
Pays around minimum wage.
Bi-weekly pay.
A lot of work available.
Cons:
Must pass difficult qualification exam.
Must meet minimum hours per week.
Work can be repetitive and tedious.
Strict evaluations which can reduce hours or get you fired.
Conclusion
The Telus International Rater Job is a popular, part-time, remote job for those seeking steady, work from home income. The most difficulty comes from the qualification exam as well as the monthly evaluations but with a solid grasp of the guidelines and a good understanding of the web, like any other job, you’re able to learn and improve quickly. It’s a great job opportunity for those seeking a flexible schedule to work 10-20 hours a week and earn $1000+ per month.
If you want to see other rater jobs or are located outside of the US, check out other Rater Jobs that are hiring.
