How/Where can I find work? Thread poster: S_G_C
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S_G_C
Romania
Local time: 09:24
English to Romanian
Dear fellow proz-ians,
I've been searching for new translation opportunities for more than two months now, to no avail. I have passed a few translation tests and interviews, but none of them turned into a real job.
Waiting and dead periods are killing me, as my household expenses have gone up with the recent domestic price increases and bills keep coming. Moreover, I've been postponing two of my daughter's health check-ups due to the lack of money and this is now turnin... See more Dear fellow proz-ians,
I've been searching for new translation opportunities for more than two months now, to no avail. I have passed a few translation tests and interviews, but none of them turned into a real job.
Waiting and dead periods are killing me, as my household expenses have gone up with the recent domestic price increases and bills keep coming. Moreover, I've been postponing two of my daughter's health check-ups due to the lack of money and this is now turning against me.
Any suggestions on how or where I could find work during these gloomy times?
Much appreciated. ▲ Collapse
| | | | John Fossey 
Canada
Local time: 02:24
Member (2008)
French to English
+ ...
| Keep on marketing | Oct 18, 2021 |
In my experience, it takes about 4 to 6 months for marketing efforts to pay off, so it's important to keep marketing.
The BlueBoard is a good source of prospective clients. At least try to contact all agencies in your country, as they will have the most need for your language pair. You can search the BB by country.
Another source of clients is your country's association o... See more In my experience, it takes about 4 to 6 months for marketing efforts to pay off, so it's important to keep marketing.
The BlueBoard is a good source of prospective clients. At least try to contact all agencies in your country, as they will have the most need for your language pair. You can search the BB by country.
Another source of clients is your country's association of translation companies. For Romania it's http://afit.ro/ - there's a list of member companies.
[Edited at 2021-10-18 17:50 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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I have been a Proz.com paying member since 2007 and for me it has been a good source of work from clients and from colleagues who contact me directly through the directory. For that, you need to become visible by being active (I mean being active at KudoZ questions, as the more points you have, the better your ranking will be in the directory). In the beginning, it might take a while to become visible but it will pay in the long run as the more visible you are, the more often you will receive di... See more I have been a Proz.com paying member since 2007 and for me it has been a good source of work from clients and from colleagues who contact me directly through the directory. For that, you need to become visible by being active (I mean being active at KudoZ questions, as the more points you have, the better your ranking will be in the directory). In the beginning, it might take a while to become visible but it will pay in the long run as the more visible you are, the more often you will receive direct inquiries. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Abba Storgen (X)
United States
Local time: 01:24
Greek to English
+ ...
| If it makes you feel any better... | Oct 19, 2021 |
Sorana_M. wrote:
I've been searching for new translation opportunities for more than two months now, to no avail. I have passed a few translation tests and interviews, but none of them turned into a real job.
-- Even during the "good times" more than a decade or two ago, it would take persistent efforts for many months and a lot of patience with more than 20 medium to large agencies to start getting a flow of jobs, and years to establish a more reliable flow, and then some agencies would be sold to others and you had to restart the whole thing from scratch.
-- The translation industry is one of the least possible to give you useful feedback about whether you should expect something or not. I do not know of any other industry surrounded by this culture. Even Amazon or Walmart will give you detailed status/ expectations/ instructions on how to be a vendor and how to sell more etc, but not the translation industry.
-- You're not the only one with the same problem, there are thousands out there knocking on the door of agencies which simply do not have enough work to distribute. For the larger ones, it's generally the same 30-40 translators they use regularly, the rest are names in a database "just in case". For the small ones, make that 3-4. All of them claim that they have "a team of 1,328 translators", whatever. I know agencies which consist of 2 people running them and they have 4-5 translators that they know and trust to chose from regularly, their volume is easily completed by 2 translators and they got skyscrapers on their websites. The mid0size agencies, when a new PM comes in, she brings her own personal tastes on the job, and eventually replaces the translators with others she found somewhere (because she wants to show she's doing research). Does this sound like a reliable industry for its vendors?
-- My advice? This is not an industry on which to rely for income if you are starting now. You don't need to close your door to it, but waiting on a computer screen for something to appear is a total waste of your time. The key word is "waiting". Don't wait, try to find something else asap. And if they need you, they'll contact you. If I were you, I would keep advertising, but only in my spare time and only about once a week or so.
[Edited at 2021-10-19 09:53 GMT]
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Agneta Pallinder
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:24
Member (2014)
Swedish to English
+ ...
"Marketing" is such a broad word. For you the most important aspect might be "market research" in the sense of identifying a manageable number of translation agencies who look - from their websites or ProZ presence as if they could use your specific expertise. I did this some years ago, focusing on agencies in Sweden specialising in academic work, and got a list of about 15 whom I wrote to, trying to explain how my special expertise would be helpful to them. I got responses from nearly half and ... See more "Marketing" is such a broad word. For you the most important aspect might be "market research" in the sense of identifying a manageable number of translation agencies who look - from their websites or ProZ presence as if they could use your specific expertise. I did this some years ago, focusing on agencies in Sweden specialising in academic work, and got a list of about 15 whom I wrote to, trying to explain how my special expertise would be helpful to them. I got responses from nearly half and three of them are still clients of mine.
I would suggest you use, not the Blue Board, but the Translation agency search (under Jobs & Directories). You can specify your languages and field of expertise (they call it "industries") as well as the service you offer and the country of the agency.
I did a trial search, using Romanian & English, Medical, Translation and Romania and got a list of 18 agencies that might be worth exploring further. ▲ Collapse
| | | | S_G_C
Romania
Local time: 09:24
English to Romanian
TOPIC STARTER | Not starting now | Oct 19, 2021 |
Eleftherios Kritikakis wrote:
-- My advice? This is not an industry on which to rely for income if you are starting now. You don't need to close your door to it, but waiting on a computer screen for something to appear is a total waste of your time. The key word is "waiting". Don't wait, try to find something else asap. And if they need you, they'll contact you. If I were you, I would keep advertising, but only in my spare time and only about once a week or so.
I'm not starting now. I'm trying to get back on my feet after a hard time. Or rather several hard times, one after another.
I've been on the market since February, 2003. But it used to be good, it used to be busy, it used to be rewarding. Now... I've already run into debts, fretting, stressing out.
| | | | S_G_C
Romania
Local time: 09:24
English to Romanian
TOPIC STARTER | Already done | Oct 19, 2021 |
I would suggest you use, not the Blue Board, but the Translation agency search (under Jobs & Directories). You can specify your languages and field of expertise (they call it "industries") as well as the service you offer and the country of the agency.
I did a trial search, using Romanian & English, Medical, Translation and Romania and got a list of 18 agencies that might be worth exploring further.
I've done this several years ago. It didn't pay off. I sent tens of e-mails each day for 10 days, until I ran out of agencies.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:24
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Sorana_M. wrote:
I would suggest you use, not the Blue Board, but the Translation agency search (under Jobs & Directories). You can specify your languages and field of expertise (they call it "industries") as well as the service you offer and the country of the agency.
I did a trial search, using Romanian & English, Medical, Translation and Romania and got a list of 18 agencies that might be worth exploring further.
I've done this several years ago. It didn't pay off. I sent tens of e-mails each day for 10 days, until I ran out of agencies.
Yes- don't waste your time doing that. Much better is: make your profile 100% complete, including lots of examples of your work in the "Portfolio" section. In "Keywords" at the bottom of your profile, insert ALL the words (in both languages) you think potential clients might search for when they use Google. This may be hundreds of words and phrases. Above all: SPECIALISE in one particular field (and its associated fields). Then wait patiently. If you get this right, clients will come looking for you; but it could take months or even years to build up a decent catalogue of regular clients. The watchwords are: persistence and patience. If (for the moment) you can't make enough money off translation, do something else in the meantime while you try to develop your business as a translator. NEVER GIVE UP!
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S_G_C
Romania
Local time: 09:24
English to Romanian
TOPIC STARTER
Tom in London wrote:
If (for the moment) you can't make enough money off translation, do something else in the meantime while you try to develop your business as a translator. NEVER GIVE UP!
Thank you, I've tried that as well. But it's no secret Romania has become a concern for the WHO because of the population's attitude towards the pandemic and especially the available vaccines. You can see it was colored in black on the world's map.
And I must confess I don't fancy employers who don't care about the minimum safety measures and who tell employees "we don't require you to wear a mask, let alone get the jab, it's your choice". I don't feel safe in such environments.
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