First-Time AI Trainer: Your Complete Week-One Checklist

The first week is the most important and most confusing period in AI training work. Here is a complete, ordered checklist for getting everything set up correctly — so you can focus on actual tasks as quickly as possible.

Before Day One: Admin Setup

• Open a Wise account if you don't have one — needed for USD-to-EUR conversion on most platforms. Verification takes a few days; start this before your first application. See our payment methods guide.
• Prepare your W-8BEN information — have your address and country of citizenship ready; most platforms handle the form itself during onboarding. See our W-8BEN guide.
• Set up a dedicated email folder for platform communications — acceptance emails, task notifications, and payment confirmations need to be findable.
• Check your spam filter settings — whitelist every platform domain you apply to. Missing acceptance emails is one of the most common costly mistakes.

Day One: Apply to Your First Stack

• Start with Mercor — complete the AI video interview (20-30 minutes). Be specific about your background and credentials.
• Submit to SME Careers — short form, often approves within days, no interview required.
• Submit to Outlier AI — straightforward application; particularly good for writers and subject-matter contributors.

Applying to all three simultaneously rather than sequentially saves weeks. See our parallel application guide for the full approach.

Day Two: Start the Assessment Platform

• Begin the DataAnnotation.tech assessment — 1-3 hours; read every guideline fully before starting. The most common failure mode is guideline-skimming, per our first-task lessons piece.
• Check email including spam for any early responses from Day One applications.

Days Three to Seven: Use the Waiting Period

• Apply to micro1 if you have a technical background.
• Apply to Alignerr to any job listings matching your background.
• Read available guidelines on any platform that's sent you access — familiarize yourself before your first task, not during it.
• Set up your income tracking spreadsheet — date, platform, task type, time, earnings. Start from task one. See our rate tracking guide.
• Check German tax obligations if applicable — our Germany tax guide explains when to register with the Finanzamt.

When You Get Your First Task

• Read the full guidelines before starting — not the summary, the full version.
• Take longer than you think you need on the first task — quality matters more than speed here.
• Don't submit if you're unsure — most platforms allow abandoning a task without penalty.

Week one's goal is not to earn a lot. It is to get approved on multiple platforms and complete your first tasks correctly. Income follows from platform standing; platform standing follows from early quality. Get the sequence right.

Common Week-One Mistakes to Avoid

• Applying to only one platform — task availability varies; 2-3 simultaneous applications mean you always have somewhere active
• Skimming the evaluation guidelines — the most common cause of low quality scores and failed assessments. Read them twice before your first task.
• Giving up during the approval wait — 2-4 weeks is normal; silence is not rejection
• Not setting up Wise before your first payment — platforms initiate payments as soon as a balance clears; set up Wise during week one, not after
• Working without tracking your real hourly rate — include reading time, pre-task setup, and any unpaid familiarisation; your effective rate is lower than the stated rate until you build speed

What Weeks 2-4 Look Like

After initial approval and first tasks, platform quality-score systems begin building a picture of your work. Most contractors see task matching improve significantly between weeks 2 and 4. First payments arrive 7-10 days after completing initial tasks. The ramp feels slow because it is slow — by design. The platform is calibrating your matching before assigning higher-value tasks.