What the work actually looks like

You write single-turn prompts in your own practice area and label each one benign, dual-use, or adversarial. A benign prompt might ask how to demonstrate compliance with a state peak-particle-velocity limit at 200 feet. A dual-use prompt sits where the technical content is legitimate but the framing is ambiguous. An adversarial prompt is one where a competent practitioner would recognise that the requester has no professional reason to be asking. You then read the model's response, judge it against a written policy standard, and produce a reference answer: what a correct response contains, what it withholds, and the technical reasoning for both. The rationale is the deliverable as much as the label — it has to be legible to a policy reviewer who has never set a delay in their life.

What the screen is looking for

Mercor screens for licensed practitioners who sign for material, not for people who have read about it. Expect probes into specifics: how you reconcile a magazine inventory, what your jurisdiction requires for transport documentation, how you would set a timing sequence to keep a structure under a regulatory limit. The screen also tests judgment separate from knowledge — whether you can articulate why one request is routine and a structurally similar one is not, without collapsing into blanket refusal. Writing ability is weighted heavily; prior technical writing, published work, or expert witness experience is an explicit positive signal and you are asked to attach a sample.

Logistics and the honest caveats

  • Fully remote and asynchronous; tasks are claimed from a queue rather than scheduled.
  • Observed pay is $65–75 per task, task-based rather than hourly, and not guaranteed — rates and volume vary by project and batch.
  • Volume is typically part-time and lumpy; treat it as supplementary to practice, not a replacement.
  • The material is uncomfortable by design. You will be reading and writing misuse scenarios in your own field for sustained periods, and the platform states you can pause or withdraw without penalty.
  • Nothing you contribute may draw on classified or export-controlled information, NDA-covered material, or anything under prepublication review. Existing obligations do not disqualify you, but they must be disclosed up front so the work can be scoped around them.