| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | Poll: Have you ever considered becoming a remote interpreter? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Lingua 5B 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 02:54
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| More variables | Feb 16, 2023 |
Ice Scream wrote: Lingua 5B wrote:
It’s paid $1/minute That rate may be very attractive to immigrants when the only alternative may be working in fast food or a warehouse. #costoflivingcrisis
How much does fast food pay? $8/hr? Fast food tends to have a lot of working hours, eg. 40/week. Remote interpreting tends to have scarce engagement, here and there, 1 hour in two months, especially in rare languages with a lot of supply. Now count the rest for yourself and see what could provide a better living for them, or any living at all.
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Lingua 5B wrote:
How much does fast food pay? $8/hr? Fast food tends to have a lot of working hours, eg. 40/week. Remote interpreting tends to have scarce engagement, here and there, 1 hour in two months, especially in rare languages with a lot of supply. Now count the rest for yourself and see what could provide a better living for them, or any living at all.
Thanks for the maths lesson, always useful for an economics translator, but the point is that $60 for an hour's work every now and again is a big deal for someone on the poverty line.
| | | | Michael Newton
United States
Local time: 20:54
Japanese to English
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| Remote interpreter | Feb 16, 2023 |
Never. The pay is horrible. I have worked as an in-person interpreter for $100 an hour. It is stressful but exciting.
| | | | IrinaN
United States
Local time: 19:54
English to Russian
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| Another math attempt | Feb 17, 2023 |
For the sake of my sanity - what word count are we talking about?!?!?
Now, to the point:
Bigger agencies offer $.50 - .55/min = $30-33/hour. Police and immigration work pays $.70.
I know people who do this. Good, professional people who were just forced temporarily by certain circumstances and decided to try. For example, strained back or broken foot that hurt bad enough and long enough to ma... See more For the sake of my sanity - what word count are we talking about?!?!?
Now, to the point:
Bigger agencies offer $.50 - .55/min = $30-33/hour. Police and immigration work pays $.70.
I know people who do this. Good, professional people who were just forced temporarily by certain circumstances and decided to try. For example, strained back or broken foot that hurt bad enough and long enough to make sitting at the computer or going on site nearly impossible. On average, they made between 1 to 2K a month on top of more serious Zoom work. Say, $30 x 3 hrs/day cumulatively x 15 days = $1485/month. (3 and 15 are random numbers taken as an average but it can be not only decreased but increased as well, should you log in more often and during the most active business hours).
Cons - still not enough money, erratic workload. Yes, some days may bring 30 min top, but your garden will be well taken care of on that day. But a bank can put the client on hold for an hour and you'll get paid all the way until the call is disconnected by one of the parties.
Pros -
1. More than most younger Prozians state as their hourly rates.
2. Full and complete freedom. You login ONLY when you can/want at any point in time over 24/7/365, stay logged in for as long as you want, waiting for and receiving calls, take your breaks whenever you need one. Just set the system "on break" without signing off. No one to ask or report to.
3. It's a good supplement when you are: not a big shot yet:-), temporarily disabled (God forbid!), have some slow-pace house projects or other reasons to stay at home, like nowhere to go anyway:-) while being able to switch gears on demand, i.e. pick up the call. Maybe you'll welcome some distraction.
When fishing is slow, even a crawfish will do for a fish. ▲ Collapse
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 02:54
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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| Starting out | Feb 17, 2023 |
Do you really believe that people who are just starting out are capable of conducting successful phone interpreting? I can see a lot of frustrated clients in this case. It's not always a random chit-chat, it can also be expert business meetings. But I hope they are sensible enough not to use this per minute service.
I am trying to think of another "profession" that's paid by the minute, can't think of any.
| | | | Liviu-Lee Roth
United States
Local time: 20:54
Romanian to English
+ ...
| C'mmon, Michael, | Feb 17, 2023 |
Michael Newton wrote:
Never. The pay is horrible. I have worked as an in-person interpreter for $100 an hour. It is stressful but exciting.
If $75/hr, minimum 2 hrs. is bad, than we must be living in different countries!
Since the pandemic, 80% of my workload is remote interpreting, and I earned more than in the years before. Nowadays, most county and state courts, including immigration prefer to conduct the initial hearings remotely.
lee
| | | | IrinaN
United States
Local time: 19:54
English to Russian
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| Too many ingredients in the mixing bowl | Feb 18, 2023 |
Lingua 5B wrote:
It's not always a random chit-chat, it can also be expert business meetings.
For the purpose of this conversation, phone interpreting I was talking about has nothing to do with any unexpected business meetings. Business meetings done online via various platforms are always expected and booked in advance, and simo is paid at $80 - 100/hour. It's when the customer prefers to pay 15-25/hour for the same without a partner the tidal wave of angry participants emerges, but whatever dissatisfaction the end customer might claim they never point a finger at themselves for picking the weakest and the cheapest of the herd.
Pay-per-minute phone interpretation largely involves language support of calls to/from insurance companies, often Medicare, hospitals and other health care facilities, and banks explaining the charges. This language support is provided by the government through subcontracted private agencies. Random chit-chats between two Chinese, Russian or Mexican grandmas will not be supported but each grandma is entitled to the above. It's true that grandmas do not issue any advance warnings:-). Better agencies provide and routinely update their glossaries, especially on a mix of medical insurance and legal terms since a lot of calls come from older people who can't get through that thicket and want to know why something is not covered.
Any unexpected or specialized business meetings are simply out of the question, the system is neither designed nor intended for it. Except for the organizations officially connected to the OPI system, no one can connect for any other purposes, it's an entirely independent and unique setup on the interpreter's computer as well. And every conversation is private since it involves grandma's private medical and banking information, among other things. It's a two-party exchange by default, both legally and technically.
$1/min for OPI for the described system is actually not bad but I've never heard of such rates. Do you by chance mean $1/minute for pre-booked business meetings? Now, that's a horror I've never heard of either but if this rate does indeed exist and such LPs can be found then... I'm speechless. Lingua 5B, may I please repeat my question? What was that mysterious word count for interpretation that you've mentioned?
[Edited at 2023-02-18 15:14 GMT]
| | | | Liviu-Lee Roth
United States
Local time: 20:54
Romanian to English
+ ...
| In the old days .... | Feb 18, 2023 |
Lingua 5B wrote:
Do you really believe that people who are just starting out are capable of conducting successful phone interpreting? I can see a lot of frustrated clients in this case. It's not always a random chit-chat, it can also be expert business meetings. But I hope they are sensible enough not to use this per minute service.
I am trying to think of another "profession" that's paid by the minute, can't think of any.
During the "gold rush", the oldest "profession" was paid by the minute!
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Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:54
Serbian to English
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| Not even to them | Feb 19, 2023 |
Ice Scream wrote: Lingua 5B wrote:
It’s paid $1/minute That rate may be very attractive to immigrants when the only alternative may be working in fast food or a warehouse. #costoflivingcrisis
Leaving aside your grossly over-generalised assumptions about immigrants (based on what exactly?), and without going into casuistics about legal / illegal work or cash in hand vs taxed/official, what counts is what you can earn in a whole week or a whole month. A "rate per minute" in itself is meaningless, and even the simple fact that the rate is given "per minute" is a total farce - professional interpreters work on half-day minimum.
IOW $60 per hour compared to the minimum wage of £9.50 per hour (£10.42 after April 2023) may sound like very well paid, but in practice it's just a bad joke. Most jobs offer work for 30-40-50 and more hours per week, while telephone interpreting will provide short sparse bouts of work, with a lot of wasted unpaid time in-between, the end result very likely to be nothing worth writing home about.
I've done few telephone interpreting - between parties that previously had in person meetings were I was the interpreter, about matters I knew inside out as I had translated most of the related documents. That was when I was in full-time employment, so the question of "rate" (per minute / hour or day) was irrelevant. Done that way occasional telephone interpreting can work just fine. But even then I was next to one of the parties.
The way this telephone interpreting "by the minute" is advertised is a total bad joke. A double joke:
(1) the way it's organised smacks of amateurism as you're expected to deal with two parties you never heard of talking about matters you never heard of before without any preparation and with a voice-only input, and
(2) the pay is an even bigger farce. I could bet that 99% of other jobs (of any kind) would provide for more monthly income, but without being on permanent UNPAID stand-by.
Not to forget a "small detail" - that interpreting requires a specific mental constitution - it's not for everyone. I know of top translators who were pushed into interpreting when no one else was available, only to swear afterwards "never again".
Short version: ever considered becoming a remote interpreter "paid by the minute"? Ab-so-lu-te-ly no way.
| | | | Liviu-Lee Roth
United States
Local time: 20:54
Romanian to English
+ ...
| a lot of misconception | Feb 19, 2023 |
Daryo wrote:
The way this telephone interpreting "by the minute" is advertised is a total bad joke. A double joke:
(1) the way it's organised smacks of amateurism as you're expected to deal with two parties you never heard of talking about matters you never heard of before without any preparation and with a voice-only input, and
(2) the pay is an even bigger farce. I could bet that 99% of other jobs (of any kind) would provide for more monthly income, but without being on permanent UNPAID stand-by.
Not to forget a "small detail" - that interpreting requires a specific mental constitution - it's not for everyone. I know of top translators who were pushed into interpreting when no one else was available, only to swear afterwards "never again".
Short version: ever considered becoming a remote interpreter "paid by the minute"? Ab-so-lu-te-ly no way.
(1) As Irina mentioned above, as an OPI, you know very well the subject matter and the parties. When an agency gets a contract with, let's say, an insurance company, they provide a necessary glossary and sometimes the narrative that needs to be read to the customer.
Although it is paid by the minute, an immigration "Credible Fear" can last between 2 -5 hours. A remote Deposition lasts between 3-6 hours (with PAID breaks).
There are two types of OPI - scheduled and unscheduled. The SCHEDULED is paid by the hour, ($65 - 100/hr in my language pair), while the UNSCHEDULED is paid by the minute.
(2) Another misconception is that a translator cannot be an interpreter. Well, in my language pair, in the US, we are at least 30 colleagues who do both at a very high level, earning an income in the lower six digits.
UNPAYD stand-by is a rare occurrence. When I am not interpreting, I work on my translations.
lee
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Daryo wrote:
Leaving aside your grossly over-generalised assumptions about immigrants (based on what exactly?), and without going into casuistics about legal / illegal work or cash in hand vs taxed/official, what counts is what you can earn in a whole week or a whole month. A "rate per minute" in itself is meaningless, and even the simple fact that the rate is given "per minute" is a total farce - professional interpreters work on half-day minimum.
IOW $60 per hour compared to the minimum wage of £9.50 per hour (£10.42 after April 2023) may sound like very well paid, but in practice it's just a bad joke. Most jobs offer work for 30-40-50 and more hours per week, while telephone interpreting will provide short sparse bouts of work, with a lot of wasted unpaid time in-between, the end result very likely to be nothing worth writing home about.
If I had a penny for every maths lesson in this thread...
My point, which is clear to anyone not looking for an argument, is that someone on minimum wage would be very happy to get an occasional $60 an hour on top of their existing income. I said immigrants because they are obviously more likely to have the relevant languages. Giving an example is not the same as generalising. Is that not part of Statistics 101?
| | | | IrinaN
United States
Local time: 19:54
English to Russian
+ ...
| And in the meantime | Feb 22, 2023 |
Daryo, usually we are in agreement
Ice Scream wrote:
My point, which is clear to anyone not looking for an argument, is that someone on minimum wage would be very happy to get an occasional $60 an hour on top of their existing income.
keep studying, cleaning, gardening, ironing, doing laundry and other long-overdue chores and minor repairs, which have been baring their teeth from every corner of your place for the last 6 months or so, sifting through papers, fix household stuff, reorganize the kitchen, paint walls, enjoy numerous hobbies, read, email, watch movies and documentaries. Even keep sending thousands of resumes to worthless agencies, which is indeed a wasted unpaid time. The list can go on forever. No one must sit frozen near the computer and stare at the phone. Keep translating, for Pete's sake:-). All that in parallel with covering t least monthly light and phone bills without any particular effort.
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 02:54
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Interpreting manager | Feb 22, 2023 |
When I worked as an interpreting manager, we had interpreters answering session calls from underground trains, kitchens, bars, busy streets, even toilets. This caused loud noises, self-explanatory inconveniences, connectivity issues, etc. Not only were the clients very angry about this, many of them asked for refunds. No, I was not the one selecting these people, I just coordinated projects for a while. The interpreters were tested for their language competence, but they take a very loose stand-... See more When I worked as an interpreting manager, we had interpreters answering session calls from underground trains, kitchens, bars, busy streets, even toilets. This caused loud noises, self-explanatory inconveniences, connectivity issues, etc. Not only were the clients very angry about this, many of them asked for refunds. No, I was not the one selecting these people, I just coordinated projects for a while. The interpreters were tested for their language competence, but they take a very loose stand-by approach “I’ll just be wherever, they’ll find me.”
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| | | | IrinaN
United States
Local time: 19:54
English to Russian
+ ...
| Endless possibilities:-) | Feb 23, 2023 |
People can get drunk, suffer instant amnesia, get attacked by their own upset cat, have a loud plane crash in their backyard... Every business carries a burden of handling emergencies and weeding out incompetent and stupid now and then. So, what's your point in relation to the big picture?
How hard would it be for me to place my watering can back on a balcony shelf, or set aside my book or a hammer, or turn off TV and pick up the phone no later than on a second ring in peace and qu... See more People can get drunk, suffer instant amnesia, get attacked by their own upset cat, have a loud plane crash in their backyard... Every business carries a burden of handling emergencies and weeding out incompetent and stupid now and then. So, what's your point in relation to the big picture?
How hard would it be for me to place my watering can back on a balcony shelf, or set aside my book or a hammer, or turn off TV and pick up the phone no later than on a second ring in peace and quiet of my home office? Will I be ready to switch gears in an instant? Well, after 20+ years of interpreting real-time conversations and events onboard the ISS, including space walks, trust me, I will. Those who can't while having no other income, should stare at the phone all day or change the trade, willingly or unwillingly (with help of a diligent PM). ▲ Collapse
| | | | Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:54
Serbian to English
+ ...
| No "misconception" | Dec 31, 2023 |
Liviu-Lee Roth wrote: Daryo wrote:
The way this telephone interpreting "by the minute" is advertised is a total bad joke. A double joke:
(1) the way it's organised smacks of amateurism as you're expected to deal with two parties you never heard of talking about matters you never heard of before without any preparation and with a voice-only input, and
(2) the pay is an even bigger farce. I could bet that 99% of other jobs (of any kind) would provide for more monthly income, but without being on permanent UNPAID stand-by.
Not to forget a "small detail" - that interpreting requires a specific mental constitution - it's not for everyone. I know of top translators who were pushed into interpreting when no one else was available, only to swear afterwards "never again".
Short version: ever considered becoming a remote interpreter "paid by the minute"? Ab-so-lu-te-ly no way. (1) As Irina mentioned above, as an OPI, you know very well the subject matter and the parties. When an agency gets a contract with, let's say, an insurance company, they provide a necessary glossary and sometimes the narrative that needs to be read to the customer. Although it is paid by the minute, an immigration "Credible Fear" can last between 2 -5 hours. A remote Deposition lasts between 3-6 hours (with PAID breaks). There are two types of OPI - scheduled and unscheduled. The SCHEDULED is paid by the hour, ($65 - 100/hr in my language pair), while the UNSCHEDULED is paid by the minute. (2) Another misconception is that a translator cannot be an interpreter. Well, in my language pair, in the US, we are at least 30 colleagues who do both at a very high level, earning an income in the lower six digits. UNPAYD stand-by is a rare occurrence. When I am not interpreting, I work on my translations. lee
The way you do it is not quite how most "telephone interpreting" agencies that mushroomed recently do it.
(2) Another misconception is that a translator cannot be an interpreter. Well, in my language pair, in the US, we are at least 30 colleagues who do both at a very high level, earning an income in the lower six digits.
There is no "misconception" at all. There are facts.
A number of good translators are also as good when working as interpreters. I know quite a lot them, very good at both. It's possible, no doubts about it.
But the fact remains that these are two different professions with different requirements.
Not everyone can do both. Some people are only good as translators, other are only good or only interested in interpreting. You do need a specific mental constitution for interpreting, that is not necessary if you stick to translating only.
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