What the work involves

You'll be handed artifacts that look like the things you already produce or critique: a strategy memo, a market-sizing model, a due-diligence summary, a client-ready deck, a pricing recommendation. Some are written by people, some by AI systems. Your job is to assess them against a rubric — is the logic sound, are the assumptions stated, does the numbers work survive a second look, would this survive a partner review or a client meeting — and then write feedback specific enough that someone could act on it.

Typical tasks include side-by-side comparisons of two candidate outputs with a reasoned preference, line-level annotation of where an argument breaks down, and occasionally producing a reference answer yourself so the model has something credible to be measured against. Volume and format shift between projects; the constant is that vague verdicts get rejected. "Weak analysis" is not feedback. "The TAM is built bottom-up from a customer count that contradicts the penetration figure two slides later" is.

What the platform screens for

  • Verifiable domain history. Mercor's screen is AI-led and asks follow-ups. Expect to name the industries you've advised in, the kinds of engagements you ran, and what you personally owned versus what the team delivered.
  • Depth under pressure. Generic consulting vocabulary reads as noise. Concrete methods, tradeoffs you've actually made, and the reasoning behind a recommendation read as signal.
  • Rubric discipline. Can you apply someone else's evaluation criteria faithfully, including when you'd have scored it differently on instinct? Strong opinions plus willingness to follow the guideline is the combination that gets hired.
  • Written clarity. Feedback quality is the deliverable. Sloppy prose disqualifies regardless of pedigree.

Logistics

Fully remote and almost entirely asynchronous — you claim tasks and complete them on your own schedule, with deadlines measured in days rather than hours. Most contributors treat this as part-time alongside existing work, in the range of 5–20 hours per week, though some projects open up larger blocks. Requirements are a bachelor's degree, 2+ years of relevant professional experience, working fluency in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word, and residence in the United States, Europe, the UK, or Canada. Pay is hourly and project-dependent; the $80–160/hr band reflects observed rates, not a guarantee.