| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Mega-rant: my one-year experience as a new translator Thread poster: Yehezkel Tenenboim
|
|---|
| I agree with everything you say | Dec 8, 2021 |
I've been in the business for a long time, and it's much less enjoyable and lucrative than it used to be. A lot of this has to do with technology that makes me less productive, not more, and which makes it hard to maintain personal relationships with my customers.
I recently had an email from a young language student asking what I thought of translation as a career. I'm ashamed to say I didn't have the heart to give her my real opinion, which was there's no future in it. So I didn't... See more I've been in the business for a long time, and it's much less enjoyable and lucrative than it used to be. A lot of this has to do with technology that makes me less productive, not more, and which makes it hard to maintain personal relationships with my customers.
I recently had an email from a young language student asking what I thought of translation as a career. I'm ashamed to say I didn't have the heart to give her my real opinion, which was there's no future in it. So I didn't reply. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Peter Motte 
Belgium
Local time: 00:57
Member (2009)
English to Dutch
+ ...
Adieu wrote:
$50-ish
If they still want to send you 10 cent jobs marked up to $50.00 USD, well, that's JUST FINE
Only take small jobs from regular clients who also send you big jobs, so that the small jobs can be seen as some kind of client friendly service, and not as something which is needed to generate income.
Also: if you don't take low rates, that usually means the jobs never gets done. Agencies sometimes count on the idea that suppliers will think the agencie will find suppliers who're willing to work for low rates, but that's not always the case, and it happens at least less often then you think.
It's a matter of learning to say "no".
[Edited at 2021-12-08 17:24 GMT]
| | | | Adieu
Ukrainian to English
+ ...
If she is a teenager or in her early 20s, it really really isn't a good idea.
By the time she's at a "respectably employable" age, automation will be far worse than now, and the few remaining cushy positions will be firmly squatted by those of us who are still active and not dead.
Of course, depending on the language pair, there might still be old uncancelled executives who believe the main hiring criteria for an interpreter or personal assistant are "young, female, gla... See more If she is a teenager or in her early 20s, it really really isn't a good idea.
By the time she's at a "respectably employable" age, automation will be far worse than now, and the few remaining cushy positions will be firmly squatted by those of us who are still active and not dead.
Of course, depending on the language pair, there might still be old uncancelled executives who believe the main hiring criteria for an interpreter or personal assistant are "young, female, glamorous", but the value of such propositions is dubious at best and they tend to have short expiration dates.
In short: tell her to get teaching credentials in her jurisdiction, she'll probably need them if she doesn't want to end up in bilingual sales or customer service.
philgoddard wrote:
I recently had an email from a young language student asking what I thought of translation as a career. I'm ashamed to say I didn't have the heart to give her my real opinion, which was there's no future in it. So I didn't reply.
[Edited at 2021-12-08 17:10 GMT]
[Edited at 2021-12-08 17:13 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Good things about translation | Dec 9, 2021 |
It's been six years since I began translation as a professional. Everything you said rings true to my ear. After six years, I'm still not fully able to make a living. Finding the right clients is a long and exhausting process. You have to battle through everything you mentionned, and there's zero regulation or support when things go really fishy ("Hey, someone in our team completely botched up your translation, so we're letting you go... after we retain some money on your next payment to de-botc... See more It's been six years since I began translation as a professional. Everything you said rings true to my ear. After six years, I'm still not fully able to make a living. Finding the right clients is a long and exhausting process. You have to battle through everything you mentionned, and there's zero regulation or support when things go really fishy ("Hey, someone in our team completely botched up your translation, so we're letting you go... after we retain some money on your next payment to de-botch the translation").
But translation, the actual thing, is just so much fun. And being a freelancer is so much better than being employed (at least in my opinion). Making your own schedule actually makes you more productive while being so much less stressful. And probably another thousand reasons based on "I decide what to do and how to do it". ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
Jocelin Meunier wrote:
But translation, the actual thing, is just so much fun. And being a freelancer is so much better than being employed (at least in my opinion). Making your own schedule actually makes you more productive while being so much less stressful.
I'm signing on this 100%.
| | | |
Thank y'all for your comments. They were all insightful and helpful. A few remarks:
Many of you understood that I've had difficulty getting work. Nothing could be further from the truth. I've been bombarded with work ever since I started. I've been rejecting work all the time. I don't need a website, a profile, or social presence. I got almost zero clients through my ProZ profile. You could argue that these could perhaps increase the quality of work that I get, but I'm doubtful.... See more Thank y'all for your comments. They were all insightful and helpful. A few remarks:
Many of you understood that I've had difficulty getting work. Nothing could be further from the truth. I've been bombarded with work ever since I started. I've been rejecting work all the time. I don't need a website, a profile, or social presence. I got almost zero clients through my ProZ profile. You could argue that these could perhaps increase the quality of work that I get, but I'm doubtful.
Working for smaller agencies sounds good. But it hardly seems like a magic solution. I'm guessing that "competitive" is the key word here. Only a small minority of us will be able to find small, exclusive agencies and get hired by them. At any rate, I would love to hear suggestions and experiences regarding this. It just seems that huge agencies dominate the market right now, trend increasing. After all, I assume that they deliver reasonable results to their end clients; so why would a potential client purposefully look for a tiny agency?
The same goes for forming direct connections with clients. How does one go about it? Obviously it's unethical and probably illegal to contact end clients that you serve through agencies. I assume that an e-mail to Pfizer saying, "Hello, I'm a freelance translator, please hire me" would go ignored. If I have a website and a nice profile, I can imagine that once a month some grandma will contact me to translate her last will or something, but this won't help me make ends meet.
I didn't expect such direct admittals from veteran translators that they wouldn't recommend anyone to choose this path right now. I totally see how being a translator 40 years ago was pure fun and a dignified profession. Seems to be general agreement that things are going downhill. Add to this the ever-improving AI algorithms, as someone mentioned, and it seems like many of us should start looking for alternatives (I have). ▲ Collapse
| | | |
As others have said the first year is always difficult, whatever the circumstances and even more so when there is an epidemic out there and some parts of the economy were closed down and were just starting to rebound at a time when a fifth wave epidemic worries the health authorities. So, it would be a miracle if your first year was a success. In my experience of 20 years as a freelancer, the best agencies are those that demand very little at the beginning, for instance, just to sign a short NDA... See more As others have said the first year is always difficult, whatever the circumstances and even more so when there is an epidemic out there and some parts of the economy were closed down and were just starting to rebound at a time when a fifth wave epidemic worries the health authorities. So, it would be a miracle if your first year was a success. In my experience of 20 years as a freelancer, the best agencies are those that demand very little at the beginning, for instance, just to sign a short NDA. All the agencies I have been working with pay on time (otherwise I would have left them), the rate I find acceptable (sometimes some negotiation skills are needed), have friendly PMs and respect “their” translators. I am certainly not the only translator who finds herself in this “lucky” situation… ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 00:57
French to English
Yehezkel Tenenboim wrote:
Many of you understood that I've had difficulty getting work. Nothing could be further from the truth. I've been bombarded with work ever since I started. I've been rejecting work all the time. I don't need a website, a profile, or social presence. I got almost zero clients through my ProZ profile. You could argue that these could perhaps increase the quality of work that I get, but I'm doubtful.
I don't know about my colleagues who answered you, but what I understood reading your rant yesterday was that you'd found plenty of work, but badly paid, and with unreasonable deadlines, and from robotic PMs. I definitely got the impression that my colleagues were all making suggestions to help you find better clients.
You say you got hardly any clients via your Proz profile, that's hardly surprising if you hadn't fleshed it out as Tom suggested.
I have managed to get some work thanks to my profile here, and even more via my LinkedIn profile. None of the work I've got that way has resembled the drudgery you have described, it's been interesting, paid at a decent rate, and with decent deadlines. So it sounds to me like you might well find better clients that way.
Oh and the small, boutique agencies: yes they do exist, no not everyone can work for them. If you can get work with them, I can highly recommend it, because the job satisfaction is so much greater: they treat you like human beings, they actually read your profile to check that you're the right kind of translator for the job in hand, and they'll usually come back for you every time the same end client sends them work. You get intelligent answers to your questions (tip: always tell them what you'll do if you don't hear back in time to make their deadline: I usually write that if I don't get any answers, I'll assume the answer to all my questions is "yes", and phrase my questions so that this leads to me using what I think is the most appropriate solution. Sometimes the question will be "should I just leave this bit out?")
Finding direct clients: I'm not good at actively marketing. Most of my direct clients are people I've met in real life: once when I hosted a small concert for my musician neighbours, I played gracious hostess and started chatting with some people who turned out to be from the musicians' record label. I discussed the music they produce with great enthusiasm, then when one of them asked what I did for a living, they all exclaimed "oh but we need a translator!" They are now one of my best clients.
Then the other day a woman whose dog plays nicely with mine at the dog park, came over asking whether it was true I was a translator and whether I could do translations for the wind ensemble she worked for, so I'm now translating their website. In both these situations, being able to smoothly slide an elegant case out of my bag and extract a pristine business card definitely helped. You never know when someone might turn out to need a translator.
I believe it's possible to attend events at local chambers of commerce or whatever and get into conversation with other local businesses. Making yourself known to PR firms, graphic artists, and so on, can always help because you never know who might need a translation one day.
| | |
|
|
|
Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 01:57
Member
English to Turkish
| It's nice to see | Dec 9, 2021 |
that there are some colleagues who actually appreciate the importance of luck in this business.
It's all very easy to say 'get specialized', 'improve your profile/presence', 'ditch the best rate agencies, aim for the boutique agencies', 'market yourself' etc. etc. (he probably knew all this in his second month as a freelancer)
All these fine pieces of advice won't amount to much if you don't have luck on your side.
I've been freelancing for over 4.5 years now, and I can safely... See more that there are some colleagues who actually appreciate the importance of luck in this business.
It's all very easy to say 'get specialized', 'improve your profile/presence', 'ditch the best rate agencies, aim for the boutique agencies', 'market yourself' etc. etc. (he probably knew all this in his second month as a freelancer)
All these fine pieces of advice won't amount to much if you don't have luck on your side.
I've been freelancing for over 4.5 years now, and I can safely say that luck has played a bigger role for me than my subject matter expertise (which is considerable in my opinion), my previous 10-year experience as an in-house translator (where I was under contract to produce 3000 words on a daily basis, so imagine the word count I got under my belt), and my marketing efforts (which included a failed personal website, money squandered on professional organizations, memberships etc.). Little lucky breaks like applying to a 150 word job ad on the detested Proz job board (which led to larger projects from that agency that earned me 15k in the course of 6-7 months), receiving an email notification in the dead of night, deciding whether or not to bother replying to it (which led me to one of those elusive, fabled 'boutique agencies'), sending a message to a PM on a social media platform which led to more work from that agency. In short, luck has been instrumental in getting my foot in the door and my quality as a translator helped me keep the job.
Let me put in my two cents about the so called boutique agencies that people keep recommending to newbies or less fortunate translators. Like Key Denney says it's very difficult to find them (let alone work for them), and when you find them it's very difficult to get on their books, because you need to pass their translation test, which is assessed not by an external reviewer (providing an impartial, fair evaluation free of conflict of interest), but by a translator working for that well paying agency who has every reason to get 'over-zealous' (as you put it, but I'd call it something else...) at the prospect of a newcomer in a language pair (English to Turkish or Hebrew) where jobs are scarce, and finally when you manage to pass the test and get on their books it'll take years before you hear from them until the PM's 'go-to' darling translator in your language pair becomes unavailable for whatever reason. If you're lucky that happens in a year or two, and if you get real lucky and the unavailability is prolonged then you become the new number one translator, and things go well for you from then on.
I'd say you've got to be patient to get lucky, and as others say work on your marketing skills (that is in the meantime till you get lucky). ▲ Collapse
| | | |
I did misunderstand what you were saying. I thought your rant was about lack of work when curiously enough it was about too much work. I have been translating full-time for over 30 years and I’ve found myself occasionally in that situation. What do I do? First of all, I think it's an ideal time to quote an higher rate with any new potential client. If they say no, nothing is lost anyway. When I first started getting offered more than I could deal with I was incapable of saying no, as I was sca... See more I did misunderstand what you were saying. I thought your rant was about lack of work when curiously enough it was about too much work. I have been translating full-time for over 30 years and I’ve found myself occasionally in that situation. What do I do? First of all, I think it's an ideal time to quote an higher rate with any new potential client. If they say no, nothing is lost anyway. When I first started getting offered more than I could deal with I was incapable of saying no, as I was scared I'd lose my clients, but the fact is that I didn’t. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Keep looking for the small agencies | Dec 9, 2021 |
Small, specialist agencies can be highly competitive.
They market themselves on quality, not on how cheap they are, and look for the clients who appreciate that approach. They provide value for money and build up loyalty - satisfied end clients keep coming back year after year. This means the agencies are not always desperately looking for new clients. They still have to spend resources on marketing, but I suspect it pays off better than cut-throat ´We´re the cheapest´ BS.
... See more Small, specialist agencies can be highly competitive.
They market themselves on quality, not on how cheap they are, and look for the clients who appreciate that approach. They provide value for money and build up loyalty - satisfied end clients keep coming back year after year. This means the agencies are not always desperately looking for new clients. They still have to spend resources on marketing, but I suspect it pays off better than cut-throat ´We´re the cheapest´ BS.
They know that their end clients are humans, and maintain human contact - even if the clients are also huge corporations and world names. I have often been surprised to find big Danish companies that are known round the world working with quite small translation agencies.
Why? Because the agencies specialise in Scandinavian languages, and in specific subject areas. You can't please all the people all the time, but they find a niche and give it their very best service.
The equivalent must apply in other countries and languages too.
Small agencies often operate from small towns or even out in the country, where they keep office costs and other expenses low. Then they can afford to pay better rates to the translators they work with.
They really get to know their end clients, and they match each one with a ´preferred translator´ or a handful, who can get to know the end client´s terminology and style, build up background knowledge, TMs and termbases. The agency sometimes helps here.
Their translators are loyal, so the agencies are not always desperately looking for some rookie who will sit up all night for a few peanuts. They probably spend less time recruiting, onboarding (horrible word!) or whatever they call it, but more on keeping experienced translators happy.
This is going to be the kind of agency you want to work with, if you are not going to spend most of your time on PEMT - and possibly even if you are! I have seen one agency after another use it, but they admit there are jobs that are not suitable for MT. There will always be a need for skilled human translators, so that is where you should be aiming.
It may not be easy to find small agencies - I admit most of my clients found me, or I was recommended to them. Some have found me through this site, or through the Chartered Institute of Linguists. Colleagues have recommended me to others, so network, network, and find ways to do it in spite of Covid-19!
I work for agencies, because they do all the marketing and DTP, coordinating multilingual projects, and administration I would not be good at or do not want to spend time on.
Don't give up - I really hope you manage to find some good, long-term clients, and start enjoying translation! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 00:57
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Yehezkel Tenenboim wrote:
Makes me wonder whether this table is a myth.
The table is a self-fulfilling prophesy. It is based on the rates that translators claim to charge, but most translators don't want to state a rate that is too low or too high, so they all end up stating the rate that is already in the table, which reinforces the rate in the table.
Half the jobs I get, especially in the "localization" realm, contain sentence fragments devoid of any context.
It sounds to me like you focused on (or got only jobs from) a certain type of agency that offers a certain type of job. These jobs or these agencies are good fillers, but shouldn't be most of your work.
With me needing to process the e-mail, login to their online portal, change the password because it expired, download the source files, try again because it failed, and so on and so forth, I'm losing money on this job.
Yes, we accept such jobs because these agencies sometimes send longer, more profitable jobs, and our willingness to do such small jobs gets us a foot in the door. But once a year you should evaluate how valuable a client is to you, and if the amount of profitable jobs are insufficient, you should stop doing these small jobs for those clients.
Incidentally, all the CAT jobs I've ever done didn't feature a TM or a glossary, which is arguably the main reason for using CAT in the first place. Or am I missing something?
The main reason for using CAT is to have a consistent workflow regardless of the source file format. TMs and glossaries are also sometimes involved.
For agencies, it saves money if everyone is doing things the same way and if most things that happen, are predictable. Unfortunately, for translators, the workflow argument doesn't work because every agency has its own way of doing things and different CAT tools work in different ways (and as you have discovered, there are also multiple ways of doing a thing in an individual CAT tool).
I used to be eager to try out new tools, but I have become very picky, and will reject a job if I dislike the CAT tool, or tell the client to send it in a different format for me.
[Edited at 2021-12-10 07:03 GMT]
| | |
|
|
|
Baran Keki wrote:
Yours was my favorite contribution to this debate.
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 00:57
French to English
Christine Andersen wrote:
Keep looking for the small agencies
I agree entirely. The one problem is that the vast majority of agencies want to have clients believe that they're a whole lot bigger than they really are.
One agency I know of actually has active emails for project managers that don't exist...
| | | | Michael Newton
United States
Local time: 18:57
Japanese to English
+ ...
| New translators | Dec 14, 2021 |
Some agencies are really nothing more than Potyomkin Villages. Great-looking websites, but not much more. More likely some dude running a business out of his kitchen.
| | | | | Pages in topic: < [1 2] | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Mega-rant: my one-year experience as a new translator | CafeTran Espresso | You've never met a CAT tool this clever!
Translate faster & easier, using a sophisticated CAT tool built by a translator / developer.
Accept jobs from clients who use Trados, MemoQ, Wordfast & major CAT tools.
Download and start using CafeTran Espresso -- for free
Buy now! » |
| | Wordfast Pro | Translation Memory Software for Any Platform
Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users!
Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value
Buy now! » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
Translation news
