Pros
I was a temporary employee scoring standardized student exams. The benefits of doing such a position are: * Freedom to work as much as you want, as long as you meet the minimum commitment for the project and within * For some projects available work hours are extensive, e.g. 5 am - 11 pm ET * You can do this type of work all day long as if it were a regular job, or in bits and spurts throughout the day * Reading student responses, especially for writing projects, can be very interesting * Support staff are friendly and helpful and available during most of the scheduled project hours * More advanced projects pay better and provide bonuses for high performance
Cons
* The pay is not that great. Above minimum wage but with no benefits and limited work available, it's hard to get the dollars to add up. * Feedback on performance varies by project. On one project I received constant quantitative feedback on how fast I was scoring, and how accurate I was. On another this information was not available in the system, whether due to intent or a technical glitch I don't know. * You might apply in the fall and not get picked for a project until spring of the next year or even the year after. So it's great to be able to do the work when you get it but it isn't something you can count on. * Communication was sometimes lacking. On one project the pay ended up being below the projected rate because the average scoring rate was much slower than planners anticipated. By the time this was addressed the project was nearly over.