| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Poll: The secret of my success in finding translation/interpreting work, if I had to choose just one, is: Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Baran Keki 
Türkiye
Local time: 20:58
Member
English to Turkish
| Timely delivery | Nov 20, 2023 |
Kay Denney wrote:
because they know I'll deliver a good translation on time.
I've always found it amusing when translators boast of their ability to 'deliver on time'. I mean it should be a given, you must deliver it on or before the deadline, that's your job, why would you take pride in this?
When I was an in-house, I was working in tight, sometimes downright impossible, deadlines. The agency was like one big fast food restaurant, churning out volume after volume, translations going straight to the client without revision, checking etc... Instead of having any setbacks due to quality issues (which was inevitable in such an arrangement), my boss thrived. She went on to open 6 or 7 new branches in less than a decade... Cheap rates and undercutting the competition doubtless helped, but her cavalier, devil-may-care attitude towards quality and customer satisfaction never ceased to amaze me.
Anyways, now I'm working with civilized European agencies and they give me a 2-day deadline for 366 words. Should I play up to my ability to deliver on time?
Please don't get me wrong, I don't mean to have a go at you here. I just can't comprehend how people can't deliver a 2000 word job in 3 days. I really can't. And I know it happens.
| | | | Zea_Mays
Italy
Local time: 19:58
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
| image cultivation always pays | Nov 20, 2023 |
Christopher Schröder wrote:
I always assumed agencies were too busy devising ways of reducing rates and quality to bother monitoring the forums for miscreants.
Good outsourcers will even search you on social media to see what crap you post there.
| | | | | Delivering on time | Nov 20, 2023 |
Baran Keki wrote:
Please don't get me wrong, I don't mean to have a go at you here. I just can't comprehend how people can't deliver a 2000 word job in 3 days. I really can't. And I know it happens.
Maybe it’s because they don’t set themselves hourly productivity targets?
Although delivering on time is supposed to be a big deal in translation, my experience is that (a) a lot of translators don’t, (b) most direct clients don’t expect it and are pathetically grateful when you do, maybe because they rarely get the text to you on time in the first place, and (c) agencies tend to build in massive buffers to allow for late delivery from suppliers because delays are the norm. In the real world, of course, nearly everything everywhere is late. So delivering on time is definitely appreciated and worth shouting about.
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:58
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| That's shocking | Nov 20, 2023 |
Christopher Schröder wrote:
Although delivering on time is supposed to be a big deal in translation, my experience is that (a) a lot of translators don’t
Do you think there's a cultural aspect to this? Lateness just isn't really acceptable in some countries, and certainly my clients seem to have the firm expectation that deliveries will be made on time. I assume (but of course cannot confirm) that those who are frequently late end up with fewer and fewer orders. Or simply none.
Dan
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Zea_Mays wrote:
Good outsourcers will even search you on social media to see what crap you post there.
Do you have any evidence for this? It seems highly unlikely to me that they'd have the resources or inclination. And if they did, surely I'd be swimming in job offers via ProZ!
Dan wrote:
Do you think there's a cultural aspect to this? Lateness just isn't really acceptable in some countries, and certainly my clients seem to have the firm expectation that deliveries will be made on time.
Obviously I only have anecdotal evidence for how prevalent lateness is, but 30 years of dealing with agencies (employee, being one, freelancing) suggests it's not at all uncommon. There may well be cultural variations but the countries I work with are all pretty similar.
The worst agency I know routinely sends out emails saying SUPER URGENT with a four-hour deadline whatever the word count, happily agrees to your offer of 48 hours, and then comes back with a final version in layout for you to proofread about a week after that. I always assumed they were allowing for late delivery from suppliers, but maybe they're just too busy scanning the forums!
I assume (but of course cannot confirm) that those who are frequently late end up with fewer and fewer orders. Or simply none.
You'd think the same about translators who aren't very good, but it doesn't seem to work like that. Imperfect markets and all that, I suppose.
| | | | | Someone serious | Nov 20, 2023 |
Dan Lucas wrote:
Do you think there's a cultural aspect to this?
I have never claimed (or been remotely able to claim) that I always deliver on time. My clients are all in Italy. This morning (20 November) I finished a job that was to be done and handed in by mid-September. Very important stuff, for one of the big Italian museums: I received the first part of it in early November with final deadline last Thursday. The last part only came on Thursday, when I was doing a genuinely urgent job for another client, which had to be done by "midday on Friday". I managed to get the latter in at 6 o'clock in the evening (the real deadline) and sent off the other one this morning. Everyone was happy, the September people will happily pay 30% more and the others will pay the usual (advertising) rate.
These are cases where the fault was not mine but, apparently unlike many, I make plenty of mistakes too. I always haggle over delivery times ("You want it by Thursday? Would Friday be OK? Really? Oh, great! Is anyone going to do anything with it on Saturday? No? Well, then, could I give it a final read-through on Monday morning - you know, just to get it perfect - and get it to you by noon? Oh, that's wonderful - thank you! Have a nice weekend!").
The only trouble is that I then forget to send the file and they call me up on Wednesday to see how long I'm expecting to take... ("Could you get it to us by the end of the week?"). :- )
Here's hoping no colleague reads this and decides never to suggest my name to a client! "I've no idea what he's like as a translator, but I know you'll never get your work done on time... Try looking for someone serious".
| | | | Liena Vijupe
Latvia
Local time: 20:58
Member (2014)
French to Latvian
+ ...
Zea_Mays wrote:
Good outsourcers will even search you on social media to see what crap you post there.
Maybe some small ones will, but most won't care. I even had to "fire" a client recently (sadly, one of my best for a few years) when things went south and beyond repair very fast and I got sick of their SUPER URGENT requests and the shameless crap they would pull to cut the rates significantly. I have also not been shy to leave them bad reviews and provide my comments to them directly at every opportunity and they still send me requests at least a few times a week...
| | | | Hasrina Munajat
Malaysia
Local time: 01:58
Member (2023)
English to Malay
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | Tips on finding translation jobs | Nov 21, 2023 |
A solid presentation of your profile which clearly lays out your credentials, vast experience and specialization, along with good feedbacks from the clients you worked with are the keys to succeed in securing translation jobs.
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Iman Tahanan
Local time: 21:58
English to Persian (Farsi)
+ ...
| Personal Branding | Nov 21, 2023 |
For me, It has been (mainly) because of personal branding and inbound marketing. Not here of course, in other social media platforms.
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I work almost exclusively with direct clients, and I often ask new clients where they got my name (if they don't mention it themselves: "We heard from Colleague Smith that you do translations in our field..."). Almost all of them are word of mouth from my other clients or from fellow translators.
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