| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] | How to lose jobs Thread poster: Robert Rietvelt
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Baran Keki 
Türkiye
Local time: 02:17
Member
English to Turkish
| Could Covid related unemployment have anything to do with this trend? | Mar 11, 2021 |
As you know a lot of people have lost their jobs and they are actively looking for ways to work from home. And since most people think they know 'good English' (if they've watched a dozen or so American TV shows), they might see translation as their obvious 'new career'.
I notice that more and more unemployed English teachers and academics are becoming translators and swelling the ranks of a language pair that already offers precious little jobs. I wonder if others observe a similar trend... See more As you know a lot of people have lost their jobs and they are actively looking for ways to work from home. And since most people think they know 'good English' (if they've watched a dozen or so American TV shows), they might see translation as their obvious 'new career'.
I notice that more and more unemployed English teachers and academics are becoming translators and swelling the ranks of a language pair that already offers precious little jobs. I wonder if others observe a similar trend in their language pairs?
Most of these people have no idea about the going rates and the agencies might take full advantage of this. Perhaps this (sudden influx of newcomers) might partly explain the decline in rates? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:17
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| But is this a recent thing? | Mar 11, 2021 |
Baran Keki wrote:
Perhaps this (sudden influx of newcomers) might partly explain the decline in rates?
The fact is, if you look back over this forum people have been complaining about declining rates for years and years. Look at this thread, discussing a glut of translators and too few jobs. It includes complaints that clients favour low rates over quality, and suggestions for increased use of regulation to combat these problems. A very topical thread, you might think - except that it was created in 2001. Twenty years ago.
Or this one, complaining about a job posting, stipulating 0.04 euro a word, that apparently received nearly 200 bids. One of the commenters remarks on an EN-FR job paying $0.015 per word. Again, it contains all the usual ProZ themes, and again this is from 2001...
I'm not suggesting for a minute that many freelancers are not facing genuine problems (and coronavirus may well have prompted an influx of translators at the low end), but I am not convinced that these problems are "new". Of course, it's very hard to say, given how little hard information we have.
Dan
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 02:17
Member
English to Turkish
| It isn't, but... | Mar 11, 2021 |
Dan Lucas wrote:
The fact is, if you look back over this forum people have been complaining about declining rates for years and years. Look at this thread, discussing a glut of translators and too few jobs. It includes complaints that clients favour low rates over quality, and suggestions for increased use of regulation to combat these problems. A very topical thread, you might think - except that it was created in 2001. Twenty years ago.
Or this one, complaining about a job posting, stipulating 0.04 euro a word, that apparently received nearly 200 bids. One of the commenters remarks on an EN-FR job paying $0.015 per word. Again, it contains all the usual ProZ themes, and again this is from 2001...
I'm not suggesting for a minute that many freelancers are not facing genuine problems (and coronavirus may well have prompted an influx of translators at the low end), but I am not convinced that these problems are "new". Of course, it's very hard to say, given how little hard information we have.
Dan
I get your point. But has there been such an unprecedented level of unemployment due to a pandemic in the last 20 years? Most businesses are downsizing and letting their personnel go (well, you might argue that this has always been the case, but it's never been at this scale as far as I know). I have a friend who's a bank manager and in constant fear of losing his job (and this guy speaks 4 languages fluently). He tells me that the management let hundreds of people go in the last one year and he thinks his days at the bank are numbered.
These people are all educated people, genuine subject matter experts. There is no reason why they shouldn't take up translation and market themselves as "financial translators". The same could be said about engineers, teachers, restaurateurs etc. Maybe not so much for doctors and healthcare personnel.
My point is that those entering into translation due to Covid may not be informed about the rates and the agencies might capitalize on this fact.
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:17
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Baran Keki wrote:
I get your point. But has there been such an unprecedented level of unemployment due to a pandemic in the last 20 years?
Well, US unemployment hit 10.0% in October 2010 as the global financial crisis unfolded. It took a long time to come down after that because the economic fundamentals were dire. In February 2021 unemployment in the US was, I think, a bit over 6%. It's not clear what will happen as we move forward, but unlike the situation during the GFC, the fundamentals before COVID were pretty solid, and there's a lot of pent-up demand out there. While the situation doesn't encourage optimism, there are grounds for thinking the problems won't be as deep or as prolonged as they were in the GFC.
These people are all educated people, genuine subject matter experts. There is no reason why they shouldn't take up translation and market themselves as "financial translators".
Can't argue with that. After all, it's how I entered the profession.
My point is that those entering into translation due to Covid may not be informed about the rates and the agencies might capitalize on this fact.
I'm sure new entrants aren't, and I'm sure agencies do.
Dan
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William Bowley
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:17
Spanish to English
+ ...
One point in particular that's struck me from this thread is contacting a company when you haven't had any work from them for a while. I'm not referring to outliers such as general checking-in with a known face, but specifically to enquiring as to why you haven't been getting work from them lately.
Do you contact a supposed friend to ask why they aren't talking to you? Or perhaps a love interest as to why they went with someone else? Translation: I have little work at present/lots o... See more One point in particular that's struck me from this thread is contacting a company when you haven't had any work from them for a while. I'm not referring to outliers such as general checking-in with a known face, but specifically to enquiring as to why you haven't been getting work from them lately.
Do you contact a supposed friend to ask why they aren't talking to you? Or perhaps a love interest as to why they went with someone else? Translation: I have little work at present/lots of free time on my hands/am getting desperate/I can work for cheaper if you persuade me/please choose me (delete as applicable).
I echo the concerns of those in the thread over the whole quality vs price issue, but it's clearly an eternal problem. The particular fashion I've noticed lately is agencies trying to 'capture' a high-quality linguist to proofread (read: re-translate at a cheaper rate) an amateurish, mistake-riddled document (though oddly, one not always produced by a particularly low-paid translator). Technically, I've lost work by refusing such jobs, but the same requests keep coming (and evidently, these companies are still often going with the bargain basement price/quality translators).
For me, the obsession with MT is encouraging the sweatshop culture further. However, I have worked on MTPE jobs for common types of files or those with largely similar content/format and in terms of hourly rate and ease, MTPE ends up preferable to either working with restrictions (client templates, etc.) or producing a very similar file over and over again (sometimes at a reduced rate due to the above).
On simpler files with lots of commonly recurring vocabulary, 'solid' MT can paper over the cracks of a weak-to-inept translator and often produce a passable result. The issue becomes when these same companies try to push MTPE on more advanced and therefore more highly-skilled sorts of jobs.
So we wait and see - will it be a case of curiosity killed the cat?
[Edited at 2021-03-11 23:39 GMT]
[Edited at 2021-03-11 23:45 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | feelings about a 30 year-long career as a freelance | Mar 30, 2021 |
Dear colleagues
today I hit the bottom after the last quarrel with an agency about proofreading words count that is made by them on source words vs the target words reckoning normally used. You can imagine that for Italian, the difference with the English source can reach a 30%.... Said that, since long I have decided to diversify my income and translation has become a hobby practically......
| | | | Kevin Fulton
United States
Local time: 18:17
German to English
| Quite the contrary | Mar 30, 2021 |
Matthias Brombach wrote:
... retired translators, who gain a too small pension, that is insufficient for all the comforts of life (i.e. when living in Amsterdam, Kiel or London), but still have a financial basis decent enough to offer translation services for far less than in earlier times before being pensionable. Perhaps you will think of the same in five years?
I am on the verge of retiring within the next 2-3 years – in fact I could do it right now, but for an expensive hobby and limited travel possibilities due to the pandemic. It would take a very good offer to get me interested in translating again after retiring.
| | | | | the older translator quote (Matthias, then Kevin) | Mar 30, 2021 |
Kevin Fulton wrote:
Matthias Brombach wrote:
... retired translators, who gain a too small pension, that is insufficient for all the comforts of life (i.e. when living in Amsterdam, Kiel or London), but still have a financial basis decent enough to offer translation services for far less than in earlier times before being pensionable. Perhaps you will think of the same in five years?
I am on the verge of retiring within the next 2-3 years – in fact I could do it right now, but for an expensive hobby and limited travel possibilities due to the pandemic. It would take a very good offer to get me interested in translating again after retiring.
I can't find the quoted post by Matthias. A retirement age translator is also a senior experienced translator who has the expertise to have been able to stay a translator. You don't suddenly lower your worth by lowering your prices.
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