| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | How to overcome the "chicken and egg" conflict when xx years of expertise are required? Thread poster: Monika Gregan/Boenisch
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| My two cents | Jul 21, 2012 |
Monika Gregan/Boenisch wrote:
I do not want to be a liar at all.
I know! I was only trying to make my point, not accusing anyone of doing anything wrong. My apologies if I expressed myself incorrectly.
Monika Gregan/Boenisch wrote:
I just want to get the message across that I have to offer over 10 years of bilingual work experience without having contual exposure to the framework of the industry and that I now, after one year of continued professional development,would like to get a foot in the door...:-)...and so far I couldn't close a deal yet....despite several attempts to apply to job postings on Proz.com.
Makes total sense to me, and it would be completely fair that you started you career based on your previous experience. However, relying on proz.com jobs only might never take you where you wanted since the market is terribly competitive here.
I would suggest that you summarise your past translation experience, work with languages in the past, and current training efforts in translation in your CV and start contacting proper translation agencies in your area for a start.
In your CV, try to focus in the main industry or type of place you have been working most of you previous/current career, i.e. to declare what kind of fields you are deeply acquainted with. That might be a competitive advantage in many cases.
And good luck!
[Edited at 2012-07-21 15:39 GMT]
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I have over 10 years "bilingual work experience"( different from being a part time or occasionally working translator) across various fields of industries . I hold a degree in business studies and I was working in that capacity. Finally, I made a decision to change career in August last year and took the appropriate measures to reach my goal. The reason to ultimately come to that conclusion was due to my relocation to London in 2006.
Kind regards
Monika
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote: neilmac wrote:
I agree that honesty is the best policy, but sometimes it is better to spare the minor details that might deter potential clients. I don't quite understand this. Sounds like it is OK to sell a lemon: well, the crakshaft is cracker, and the brakes are leaking, but those are details that might deter a potential buyer, so let's keep that for ourselves? When talking about 5 years of experience as a translator, any sensible person would understand 5 years of full time professional work, not 5 years doing occasional translations for your employer or pro bono... The difference between the two situations is astronomical, not a minor detail. If I had specifically asked for 5 years of experience, someone said that they had it, and I hired that person to later find that the information lacked some "minor details"... I would be fully, utterly disappointed about it and that person would be for ever scrapped from my list. A person who however came to me with an honest answer, but who is able to produce what I need, is definitely my kind of fish.
| | | | Elke Fehling 
Local time: 16:24
Member (2005)
English to German
+ ...
| Number of words instead of number of years | Jul 22, 2012 |
Oliver Walter wrote:
Then you might cut yourself off from somebody who is in fact able to do the work very well.
Oliver
You are right, the best thing would be to do a personal job interview and then start with smaller jobs to find out if the person is really reliable. This, however, isn't always possible. That's why people request CVs, even though it's just numbers mostly contains irrelevant information.
Only a couple of weeks ago I had to proofread the test translation of a translator that - according to her CV - had 8 years of translation experience. The translation was awful. For a short test translation it contained way too many grammar and spelling mistakes, the style was awful (you could tell it was a translation) etc. The CV stated she was a full time translator, she had vaste experience in numerous fields and she also said that she had translatied about 4,000,000 words during those 8 years (highly improbable, in my opinion, that's an average of 2,000 words a day - every working day, no vacations, no days taken off...)
Even if the CV was correct and honest that didn't help her. The test translation was awful and we didn't use her.
At university we used to say "Mehr Schein als Sein", which is ambigious. "Schein" in German means "shine", "appearance" but also "certificate", "sein" means "being" or "existence". The saying meant that certificates, diplomas etc. were more important than the actual performance. It also meant, however, that it is more important to appear good than to really be good.
Anyways, I have never heard somebody state the number of words when he was asked about his translating experience. What do you think about that? Is this a valid "measurement unit" for experience?
| | | | | Serious question: | Jul 23, 2012 |
Henry Hinds wrote:
Find an angel who will love you, help you and trust you not by your experience but because your angel recognizes you have talent and will open the door for you to become successful.
There is no better way than having an angel.
Are you, or have you ever been a teapot?
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| No easy way to assess translators' abilities... | Jul 23, 2012 |
Elke Fehling wrote:
...
Only a couple of weeks ago I had to proofread the test translation of a translator that - according to her CV - had 8 years of translation experience. The translation was awful. For a short test translation it contained way too many grammar and spelling mistakes, the style was awful (you could tell it was a translation) etc. The CV stated she was a full time translator, she had vaste experience in numerous fields and she also said that she had translatied about 4,000,000 words during those 8 years (highly improbable, in my opinion, that's an average of 2,000 words a day - every working day, no vacations, no days taken off...)
...
I agree that the number of years as a translator and the number of words translated are not enough to assess a translator's abilities. I am sure some new translators can write better than some "experienced" ones with many years in the business.
To me, "years of experience" just reveal that translation IS your job, and that you managed to survive all those years in a profession where best and worst happily coexist, with no way for a translation buyer to differentiate between both until their first sizeable order.
Irrespective of metrics such as translation experience of wordcount translated, it's how you can persuade a prospect that you're the exact match for a given job. Marketing skills and background will get you a foot in the door, then your translation skills will keep the door wide open.
As a side note, I don't think an average of 500kwords-equivalent/year (based on annual revenue divided by unit rate I assume) is so off-the-wall when you only work with agencies. I've been in the 400-700k range since 2000, and I have most weekends off and a few weeks holiday.
Good luck,
Philippe
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