| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6] > | Being competitive without experience Thread poster: Quentin NEVEN
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Lingua 5B 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 17:52
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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Lefteris Kritikakis wrote:
Lingua 5B wrote:
At one point Lefteris dramatically left ProZ by deleting his profile.
Maybe you should hire a detective and a few paparazzi to follow me around.
No need, you are quite active publicly. If you preach extensively about bad outlooks, makes no sense to return, right? Maybe I just perceive logic differently.
| | | | Gregory Thomas (X)
United States
Local time: 10:52
English to Greek
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| PROZ is only 0.5% of the market | Jan 27 |
Lingua 5B wrote: Maybe I just perceive logic differently.
Proz is only about 0.5% of the translation market, it's moving leftovers and peanuts. The first week alone, 3 gvt projects were announced, 190K, 450K and another they're drafting. 25 languages. Unfortunately agency competition and MT reduced the prices, but still higher than the average offered here. Three large legal offices are involved in a case of which part was translated the first two weeks (150K without the exhibits), full translation price. Did you hear anything about these in here? Do you expect these people to throw serious and highly confidential projects on any online platform? And of the massive wordcounts moved through the largest agencies on a daily basis (much of it MT-finished and only post-DTP checked), and the almost massive moved through "established" channels, there's none of it here. One sub-contract was signed for an interpreting platform yesterday for $5/minute (the interpreters will receive $0.5/minute, and there will be salaried options). Did you hear anything here? Mind you, I personally only hear about 5% (or less) of what's moving - proz is moving peanuts.
I have my own reasons to go in and out of unofficial private platforms as I please. Obviously it's none of your business what I do.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:52
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| We never hear, here | Jan 28 |
Great comments there Lefteris.
Anyone expecting to be put in contact by Proz with the best paid, most interesting jobs is probably going to be disappointed every time.
[Edited at 2024-01-28 10:26 GMT]
| | | | Zea_Mays
Italy
Local time: 17:52
English to German
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Tom in London wrote:
Anyone expecting to be put in contact by Proz with the best paid, most interesting jobs is probably going to be disappointed every time.
Not me. Of course ProZ is not the sole player in the field, but who is so naive to think that?
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 17:52
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| None of my business | Jan 28 |
Lefteris Kritikakis wrote:
Lingua 5B wrote: Maybe I just perceive logic differently.
Proz is only about 0.5% of the translation market, it's moving leftovers and peanuts. The first week alone, 3 gvt projects were announced, 190K, 450K and another they're drafting. 25 languages. Unfortunately agency competition and MT reduced the prices, but still higher than the average offered here. Three large legal offices are involved in a case of which part was translated the first two weeks (150K without the exhibits), full translation price. Did you hear anything about these in here? Do you expect these people to throw serious and highly confidential projects on any online platform? And of the massive wordcounts moved through the largest agencies on a daily basis (much of it MT-finished and only post-DTP checked), and the almost massive moved through "established" channels, there's none of it here. One sub-contract was signed for an interpreting platform yesterday for $5/minute (the interpreters will receive $0.5/minute, and there will be salaried options). Did you hear anything here? Mind you, I personally only hear about 5% (or less) of what's moving - proz is moving peanuts.
I have my own reasons to go in and out of unofficial private platforms as I please. Obviously it's none of your business what I do.
Your lengthy explanation has nothing to do with my comment and does not explain it in any way. Quite the contrary, it makes me wonder even more…
Absolutely none of my business, but it’s not illegal for me to spot inconsistencies and illogical ocurrences. You are doing it all the time, none of your business if people get entry level jobs after translation, how their CV looks, what they do, etc. (should I continue?). I did not hear a single positive comment about translation from you, and yet for some reason you are back.
| | | | Zea_Mays
Italy
Local time: 17:52
English to German
+ ...
Lefteris Kritikakis wrote:
Lingua 5B wrote: Maybe I just perceive logic differently.
Proz is only about 0.5% of the translation market, it's moving leftovers and peanuts. The first week alone, 3 gvt projects were announced, 190K, 450K and another they're drafting. 25 languages. Unfortunately agency competition and MT reduced the prices, but still higher than the average offered here. Three large legal offices are involved in a case of which part was translated the first two weeks (150K without the exhibits), full translation price. Did you hear anything about these in here? Do you expect these people to throw serious and highly confidential projects on any online platform?
But of course they are published here - by the sub-sub-sub-contractors, at 0.01 cent/word! I thought you know how things work in the industry?
And of the massive wordcounts moved through the largest agencies on a daily basis (much of it MT-finished and only post-DTP checked), and the almost massive moved through "established" channels, there's none of it here. (...)
They are, they are.
[Bearbeitet am 2024-01-29 08:48 GMT]
| | | | | Most people need to work for a living | Jan 30 |
Lingua 5B wrote:
I can’t help but noticing and wondering:
At one point Lefteris dramatically left ProZ by deleting his profile.
He is now back pouring long narratives with gloomy outlooks on a daily basis. If he is so convinced and so sure things on the market are so negative and hopeless, why coming back? Am I the only one confused by this contradictiory actions-narratives?
If I were an employer, this contradictory and childish behaviour would be a huge minus in his CV. Eg. deleting a profile like a 10 year old, then coming back would tell me he was unable to find anything else to do.
You do know that most people need to work for a living, right? What's wrong with people being honest and mentioning the things they don't like about their work? I've personally never liked working as a transaltor but it's the only thing I know so I'll have to stick with it until I win the lotto or machine translation renders me 100% superflous for my employer.
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Gerard Barry wrote:
What's wrong with people being honest and mentioning the things they don't like about their work?.
Depends on how it’s done. Done badly it puts people’s backs up.
You’ve been guilty in the past too, and so have I…
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| There are other options | Jan 30 |
Gerard Barry wrote:
Lingua 5B wrote:
I can’t help but noticing and wondering:
At one point Lefteris dramatically left ProZ by deleting his profile.
He is now back pouring long narratives with gloomy outlooks on a daily basis. If he is so convinced and so sure things on the market are so negative and hopeless, why coming back? Am I the only one confused by this contradictiory actions-narratives?
If I were an employer, this contradictory and childish behaviour would be a huge minus in his CV. Eg. deleting a profile like a 10 year old, then coming back would tell me he was unable to find anything else to do.
You do know that most people need to work for a living, right? What's wrong with people being honest and mentioning the things they don't like about their work? I've personally never liked working as a transaltor but it's the only thing I know so I'll have to stick with it until I win the lotto or machine translation renders me 100% superflous for my employer.
If you really don't like it, why not try something else? You might find something you love.
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:52
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Rachel Waddington wrote:
If you really don't like it, why not try something else?
Significant shifts in role, either within the same industry or to another industry, require initiative, the ability to overcome inertia, and a large dollop of courage.
Dan
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Christopher Schröder wrote:
Gerard Barry wrote:
What's wrong with people being honest and mentioning the things they don't like about their work?.
Depends on how it’s done. Done badly it puts people’s backs up.
You’ve been guilty in the past too, and so have I…
I see little or nothing in Lefteris' posts that should put anyone's back up. Seems like some translators have big egos and don't like hearing home truths about their line of work.
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Rachel Waddington wrote:
Gerard Barry wrote:
Lingua 5B wrote:
I can’t help but noticing and wondering:
At one point Lefteris dramatically left ProZ by deleting his profile.
He is now back pouring long narratives with gloomy outlooks on a daily basis. If he is so convinced and so sure things on the market are so negative and hopeless, why coming back? Am I the only one confused by this contradictiory actions-narratives?
If I were an employer, this contradictory and childish behaviour would be a huge minus in his CV. Eg. deleting a profile like a 10 year old, then coming back would tell me he was unable to find anything else to do.
You do know that most people need to work for a living, right? What's wrong with people being honest and mentioning the things they don't like about their work? I've personally never liked working as a transaltor but it's the only thing I know so I'll have to stick with it until I win the lotto or machine translation renders me 100% superflous for my employer.
If you really don't like it, why not try something else? You might find something you love.
You're right, but it's not easy.
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Dan Lucas wrote:
Significant shifts in role, either within the same industry or to another industry, require initiative, the ability to overcome inertia, and a large dollop of courage.
… and, above all, a massive drop in income.
When I had my AI panic last year and looked at alternative careers, I was shocked at how little they paid.
That, it seems to me, is a very good reason to stick with the devil you know.
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:52
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| Who said it would be easy? | Jan 31 |
Christopher Schröder wrote:
When I had my AI panic last year and looked at alternative careers, I was shocked at how little they paid.
Are you sure? Because Mr Ranty McRantFace further up the thread is pretty sure that almost anything pays better than translation. Well, maybe if one is not very good at the business of translation that is the case.
More seriously, my previous comments may seem harsh but they are simply the unvarnished expression of a painful truth: significant change is always hard and part of that arises from the risk involved. If massive change were easy, everybody would do it and keep doing it until they were successful. It is particularly difficult to walk away from a comfortable and lucrative situation, which you seem to have found out only recently.
By contrast, I've been thinking about this for more than 20 years, because there was a time when I was making good money and I wasn't happy. Moreover, I could see other people who were making substantially more money than I was, and they didn't seem to be happy either. I changed specialism, as it were, within that career twice (which is quite unusual), and both times I ended up enjoying what I did more, and earning more. But I was still stressed quite a lot of the time.
This isn't unusual, as far as I can tell, given that someone wrote an entire book about it. My Amazon.com account tells me that I ordered Po Bronson's "What Should I Do with My Life?" on the 23rd of January 2003, and I remember how much the words on the page in the photo I just took (which is attached to this post) resonated with me at the time. Those words took up residence unbidden in the equivalent of my mental cupboard under the stairs - the place where you put all the bits that you're not sure how to categorise.
Every now and again I would think about them. 10 years later, I quit the industry completely and I went home. It took me a long time to act on them, yes, and it was risky, yes. But sometimes the top of the crumbling cliff is so comfortable that you won't make any progress unless you step off and build your wings on the way down.
Of course, I'm not saying you shouldn't be prepared, and I've already said it will be difficult. It hasn't been easy for me, and I certainly earn a lot less than I used to, but I also know that I have a better life. Maybe I was just lucky. Maybe I had the right combination of attributes to get lucky. Who knows.
Dan
[Edited at 2024-01-31 15:15 GMT]
| | | | P.L.F. Persio
Netherlands
Local time: 17:52
English to Italian
+ ...
| On a wing and a prayer | Jan 31 |
Christopher Schröder wrote:
Dan Lucas wrote:
Significant shifts in role, either within the same industry or to another industry, require initiative, the ability to overcome inertia, and a large dollop of courage.
… and, above all, a massive drop in income.
When I had my AI panic last year and looked at alternative careers, I was shocked at how little they paid.
That, it seems to me, is a very good reason to stick with the devil you know.
I hear you but then, the devil you know goes bankrupt, and the baskets in which you were supposed to put your precious eggs aren't that many anymore, or strong enough, or even baskets, just a couple of twigs.
So you try to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, but you're not sure you're talented enough to pull it through. Even if you were, though, it could take you years to make a living out of your new venture, because that's the nature of the beast.
All you want to do is curl up in fetal position under your duvet, with the sole consolation of knowing so many fascinating English idioms.
But you don't. You put on a brave face and go out, ready to withstand the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
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