| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Poll: Should a project manager necessarily be a former translator? 投稿者: ProZ.com Staff
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Interlangue (X)
アンゴラ
Local time: 01:01
英語 から フランス語
+ ...
... to see so many of us consider that PMs should be translators, and so many (the same?) in other polls state that translators lack business skills
I said no - PMs are doing the part of the job I dislike so much.
They need to have a lot of patience, good negotiating skills and an incredible resistance to stress -- a non-translator is sometimes (often?) better at that! It is more important for them to hav... See more ... to see so many of us consider that PMs should be translators, and so many (the same?) in other polls state that translators lack business skills
I said no - PMs are doing the part of the job I dislike so much.
They need to have a lot of patience, good negotiating skills and an incredible resistance to stress -- a non-translator is sometimes (often?) better at that! It is more important for them to have a good knowledge of the world of languages than of the languages themselves. Should a Dutch mother tongue PM, who manages quite fluently in French, English and German, who is learning Spanish after having attended 3 years of Italian classes, refuse to dispatch an assignment from Japanese to Slovenian?
I work with at least one of those - she is a secretary, and does not have a translator's degree!
[Modifié le 2010-05-06 05:41 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | No, if there is an in-house translator responsible for quality assurance. | May 5, 2010 |
A project manager shouldn't necessarily be a former translator or, for that matter, a translator, as long as his/her company has an in-house translator responsible for quality assurance.
Both as an in-house translator and as a freelancer, I have worked with excellent project managers that are not translators. They are not even bilingual!
Those project managers are intelligent, competent, organized and respectful professional administrators, thrilled with the world of tr... See more A project manager shouldn't necessarily be a former translator or, for that matter, a translator, as long as his/her company has an in-house translator responsible for quality assurance.
Both as an in-house translator and as a freelancer, I have worked with excellent project managers that are not translators. They are not even bilingual!
Those project managers are intelligent, competent, organized and respectful professional administrators, thrilled with the world of translation. They make my job easier.
On the other hand, every freelance translator is a project manager... ▲ Collapse
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Interlangue wrote:
I said no - PMs are doing the part of the job I dislike so much.
Absolutely!
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but it does help if the PM has a good understanding of what translators do. I've had a couple of projects where the translator agency involved had zero skills in project management and it was so frustrating, with confusing instructions that kept changing, bad communications etc. I've had the same problem on writing projects, working for people who don't have a clue as to what's involved and have utterly ridiculous expectations.
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| I think it's really important | May 6, 2010 |
The PM needs to understand the processes that translators go through.
Recently I was doing a translation and it "smelled" so strongly of English syntax that I asked the PM if I might possibly be doing a back-translation. She wanted to know why it mattered, and I (patiently and politely) explained that my translation would be more literal if it was a back-translation and more idiomatic if it was a regular translation, but that both would be accurate. I also indicated that if it was ... See more The PM needs to understand the processes that translators go through.
Recently I was doing a translation and it "smelled" so strongly of English syntax that I asked the PM if I might possibly be doing a back-translation. She wanted to know why it mattered, and I (patiently and politely) explained that my translation would be more literal if it was a back-translation and more idiomatic if it was a regular translation, but that both would be accurate. I also indicated that if it was a back-translation I would faithfully transfer apparent source text mistakes into the target translation. She insisted that there should be no difference. She then declared that I was incompetent, accused me of advertising my services to do work beyond my capabilities, and angrily canceled my assignment.
On the other hand, another recent PM who is also a translator was entirely sympathetic when I explained to him that the expansion factor from Portuguese into English will vary depending on the type of source text. I was able to demonstrate that a 25% expansion factor in the translated text was legitimate and not "padding." ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Started as PM/translator | May 18, 2010 |
Having done both jobs, I think there are couple of reasons why I said 'no'.
Firstly, not every PM job is the same: when I started out, the admin side and linguistic side was split. So there was no need for the PM to be a linguist. Even if they are, they will often have to place jobs in languages they don't understand anyway.
Secondly, the set of a skills of a typical PM (who may often have to deal with customers as a well as translators, depending on the size of the tra... See more Having done both jobs, I think there are couple of reasons why I said 'no'.
Firstly, not every PM job is the same: when I started out, the admin side and linguistic side was split. So there was no need for the PM to be a linguist. Even if they are, they will often have to place jobs in languages they don't understand anyway.
Secondly, the set of a skills of a typical PM (who may often have to deal with customers as a well as translators, depending on the size of the translation agency). They concentrate on things that we often don't consider like job splitting; word counting (in the old days, from a hard copy!); pricing up and quoting for a particular job (not all of which go through); selecting the translator (which often involves contacting several translators, as the deadline ticks down); scanning in, converting and sending out the document; coordination between the translator and customer (sometimes dealing with trivial issues from either side) and a final presentation check. These need patience, good time management and negotiation skills. Any translation or linguistic experience is a bonus, but not essential.
Of course, for PMs taking on the linguistic side - checking, revising etc. will need to be experienced translators, and some word counts will need knowledge of a particular writing system. And you do need at least someone in the company that understands translation.
Whereas it may be beneficial for PMs to have been translators, or to have undergone translator training, I think the reverse is also true. Being able to understand what goes on inside an agency helps with the business side of translation. It is more important for you to understand your customer than your customer to understand you. ▲ Collapse
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In some cases, it would help a lot, so that the project manager could understand some translation problems about file formats and deadlines.
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