A unique background

Alexander is a UK-based AI Tutor in the Math, Physics, and Accounting domains. Before joining Mindrift, his work mostly focused on academic research in Solar Physics, as well as various roles in the energy sector. 

Mindrift Team: How easy was it to fit your collaboration with Mindrift into your daily schedule?

Alexander: I tend to work on weekends or in the early and late hours before my full-time job. It’s not something that’s particularly difficult for me, as I’m used to this type of schedule. So far, the projects with Mindrift have been consistent, so I’m able to plan my schedule accordingly.

Mindrift Team: What inspired you to try freelancing in the AI field?

Alexander: A big inspiration was the ability to use skills from my varied background and to be responsible for a team of diverse freelancers. More specifically, it was the perfect chance to use my mathematics skills. Although I have a good full-time job, I miss doing relatively difficult math. Unfortunately, not all math skills are applied in my work place, but at Mindrift, I’m able to use them. 

Finding the right opportunity

When Alexander saw an ad for Mindrift on Facebook, shared by an acquaintance, his interest was piqued. The idea of a freelance opportunity where he could flex his mathematical skills led him to get in touch with us!

Mindrift: Why did you decide to collaborate with Mindrift?

Alexander: Initially, I found that the job was interesting because it required me to use the skillset I acquired while I was transitioning from one industry to another, making me feel useful. Although I was able to use mathematics, finance, physics, and IT skills, these are just the basics of what is required for high-quality work. What I found more important was making the change from one career path to another—that made me adaptable to change and quick to learn new things. 

Digging into the QA role

Prior to his collaboration with Mindrift, Alexander had never done any QA work, however, he found the projects fairly straightforward. He stressed that the most important thing you could do to prepare is read and understand the guidelines perfectly. 

Contributing as a QA at Mindrift doesn’t require any coding or technical knowledge, but it does call for flexibility, domain expertise, and a high level of diligence. 

Mindrift Team: Can you explain what a QA specialist typically does?

Alexander: I would say the most important thing for a QA specialist is to follow the project requirements because some activities seem counter-intuitive. However, it gets easier with practice. Typical work for a QA specialist includes evaluations of the results produced by AI tutors and ensuring they’re satisfying the clients' requests. QA specialists are also required, in some cases, to guide AI tutors through more complex tasks. 

Mindrift Team: Did you face any challenges while completing Mindrift projects?

Alexander: The biggest challenges come with complex projects, where the learning curve for experts takes weeks. However, there are strict deadlines, which can result in long hours of work that might drain you by the end of the project. That happened to me on one occasion. To deal with it, I asked to do fewer projects for a few weeks or to take a short break. 

Exploring AI applications

We’re always curious how our freelancers view AI and its impact on their fields, and on society as a whole. For Alexander, time-savings is the most exciting aspect of AI applications within his industry, particularly when it comes to report writing and coding. 

Mindrift Team: How do you see AI, particularly generative models, changing the way work is done in Math, Physics, and Accounting?

Alexander: Ultimately, AI is a good tool to achieve goals faster. Unfortunately, it’s not suitable for all tasks and is prone to errors. Usually, the tasks that are badly completed by AI are the ones that have a lot of input information or require consecutive reasoning, where one mistake leads to a completely wrong outcome. 

So far, I’ve found AI to be good at suggesting methods of formulas to use later on, which significantly saves time. AI can also excel at providing code for numerical tasks, however, you still need to do a lot of modifications for the code to be workable, even if you focus on one procedure or function.

Advice from our expert

The best advice comes from the experts themselves. We asked Alexander to give some advice for readers interested in AI tutoring and his message is clear—if you’re adaptable to change, have a go!

Mindrift Team: Who should try it out? Describe the type of person you think would be perfectly suited for this role.

Alexander: I would say any person with strong domain expertise and a good sense of work culture, as well as those who are creative and curious, will be a good fit. You should also not be afraid to ask questions and be pedantic—that’s very important!

If this sounds like you, and you have professional experience in any domain, come join us at Mindrift! Mindrift is a platform that curates a talent pool of experts and connects them with cutting-edge AI projects from the world’s leading companies. 

Work on interesting AI projects on your own time, add new experiences to your resume, and get paid for your contribution. Check out our open roles and talent pools to get started.