Translation agencies who mislead you Initiator des Themas: daniel gwire
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daniel gwire 
Ghana
Local time: 10:14
Mitglied (2002)
Italienisch > Englisch
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In my 25 year long career in the translation industry I've had many instances of translation agencies who ask you out of the blue to join their team. This involves filling out application and/or registration forms and signing NDAs. When you're all signed up they promise to send work soon - but nothing ever happens! Just last March, at a time when I really needed work since I was still suffering from the effects of the Russian-Ukraine war, I had to go through hoops with an Italian agency just to ... See more In my 25 year long career in the translation industry I've had many instances of translation agencies who ask you out of the blue to join their team. This involves filling out application and/or registration forms and signing NDAs. When you're all signed up they promise to send work soon - but nothing ever happens! Just last March, at a time when I really needed work since I was still suffering from the effects of the Russian-Ukraine war, I had to go through hoops with an Italian agency just to complete the registration form because they had special requirements. When I finished they promised work within two weeks. I'm still waiting! This problem is ongoing but I still go through the process because you never know - this time it might be for real! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Keith Jackson
Frankreich
Local time: 11:14
Mitglied (2017)
Französisch > Englisch
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| sales people having to achieve targets | Feb 28 |
A lot of it is to do with the vendor managers or sales people having to achieve their targets for the year or month. They need to sign up translators or pad out their databases. It has nothing to do with their projects. Very few contacts via sales people end up with work from project managers. If work does come, maybe -just maybe- it's months or years down the line.
[Edited at 2024-02-28 12:51 GMT]
[Edited at 2024-02-28 15:00 GMT]
| | | | daniel gwire
Ghana
Local time: 10:14
Mitglied (2002)
Italienisch > Englisch
+ ...
THEMENSTARTER
Thanks Keith! For years I didn't know what on earth was going on. But I didn't really think too much about it because I was getting enough work elsewhere. It's only now during a dearth of work that I've started thinking seriously about this.
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To avoid wasting my time and theirs, what I usually do when I am contacted by an agency just to fill their databases is telling upfront what my rates are. More than often, they tend to disappear immediately, but I had one or two cases of a sudden reappearance many years later. The life of a professional translator is full of surprises (some are good…)!
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Liviu-Lee Roth
Vereinigte Staaten
Local time: 05:14
Rumänisch > Englisch
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| I have a good story | Feb 28 |
Years ago I got contacted by an agency who offered me a contract to deploy me as an interpreter for a year to a military base. From the very beginning I asked about the salary, but they dodged, telling me that I must pass all their test (knowledge, military vocab, medical tests, etc.) Six months later, after I passed all their tests (for which they spent over $1,000.00) they asked me to come to Washington, DC for the final training. Every time I corresponded with them I asked them about the pay.... See more Years ago I got contacted by an agency who offered me a contract to deploy me as an interpreter for a year to a military base. From the very beginning I asked about the salary, but they dodged, telling me that I must pass all their test (knowledge, military vocab, medical tests, etc.) Six months later, after I passed all their tests (for which they spent over $1,000.00) they asked me to come to Washington, DC for the final training. Every time I corresponded with them I asked them about the pay. Finally, they accepted to give me the numbers. It was laughable! It was less than half I make being home, therefore I declined their offer. At least, I had all my medical tests done for free! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Gregory Thomas (X)
Vereinigte Staaten
Local time: 04:14
Englisch > Griechisch
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Have you seen this movie? In one scene, the young woman gets "dumped" by her fiance over a text message, without explanation. And have you heard about recent tech-industry firings? Some of them without even a text message.
I sensed that something was wrong years ago, when even large agencies started sending mass emails for projects, which looked very much like personal emails. In hindsight, they were just training rookie PMs. They didn't even have the courtesy to say "This is a mass email"... See more Have you seen this movie? In one scene, the young woman gets "dumped" by her fiance over a text message, without explanation. And have you heard about recent tech-industry firings? Some of them without even a text message.
I sensed that something was wrong years ago, when even large agencies started sending mass emails for projects, which looked very much like personal emails. In hindsight, they were just training rookie PMs. They didn't even have the courtesy to say "This is a mass email" (which is perfectly respectful, if you clearly label it this way). Cheap deception, resulting in tons of people wasting their time to read and respond on an almost daily basis. They have stopped lately, probably because translators finally stopped responding.
You're going to see lots of "social-media-like" behaviors from them, a generation that thrives in ways to attract attention and cause empty participation. If I could advise Jerome Powell, I'd tell him "jack it up to 10%, keep it there for 20 years, and have Congress force private US companies to publish audited & detailed financial statements - for behavioral correction".
It's not fair, of course, that they are asking you to be perfect from your side, while they can behave like spoiled unresponsive pricks from their side. They won't even tell you if you're "fired" so to speak or the reasons, so that you could, perhaps, give them a better price or service. Because they can't create opportunities; they're used to opportunities falling from the sky: markets flushed with cheap money, desperate investors in 0% environments trying to place their money on the first nonsense they'll see, wealthy parents, and all excuses on their side. They even dictate terms out of the scope of commercial law in their countries, and ask you to sign.
My advice - Stop participating in settings where you'll be treated like that. And if most or all translators stop participating and responding, the behavior from the other side will change as well.
PS. Most of them don't have recruitment departments - the entire company is 3-4 part-timers. ▲ Collapse
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