Do agencies use bots?

Baran Keki wrote:

I'm sure a deviously industrious individual taking the time and trouble to get himself registered to a first-come-first-served agency as a translator of dozen languages (by stealing other translators' resumes) will find a way to 'code a bot to claim jobs', which are then to be outsourced on Upwork to bottom-feeders at 1 cent per word.
If the agency 'take the complaints seriously' and is in need of 'finding ways to distribute jobs more fairly', why not do away with the idiotic practice of sending jobs on the "first-come-first-served" basis, and actually assign tasks to tried and true translators instead of taking absurd chances with dubious characters who got themselves registered there by clicking on the 'Join Us' button and completing (or rather having others complete) an easy, generic test translation?
Is it too much trouble for them to hire PMs who will personally deal with translators to assign them tasks? Does this scheme (automatically sending out job emails on the first-come-first-served basis) help agencies save money by not having to hire PMs? I mean what kind of effed up business mentality is this?

Dan Lucas wrote:


That's what I would do. I would have a python script poll the server every few seconds, parse any new jobs, and grab anything with a volume or delivery date that I could handle. If it were only myself doing it I don't think there would be a problem and the agency probably wouldn't even notice. If lots of people were doing it then the impact on the server would probably be quite significant.

This might be what Emily has noticed.

Dan

Zea_Mays wrote:
It is a genuine business mentality, aimed at efficiency.
We are talking about one project with dozens of language combinations and hundreds of thousands of words that need to be processed every day.
This agency is very meticulous when it comes to selecting translators, there is no "Join us" button, and there are many dedicated PMs for this project. Once you've passed their tests, you get a personal account and you'll work in a specific CAT tool, which requires an account linked to your personal agency account, and your work goes through quality checks, so even if someone without the necessary skills managed to get on board, they would be off-boarded quite quickly.
I think the scenario you describe could and probably does happen with less serious agencies, but if designed and managed well, an auction system works pretty well for large amounts of content of the same type. Of course, it will not work for all types of projects.

Baran Keki wrote:
But nothing can convince me that it's a "good and efficient business mentality" to assign jobs randomly on a first-come-first-served basis.

Baran Keki wrote:
But nothing can convince me that it's a "good and efficient business mentality" to assign jobs randomly on a first-come-first-served basis. As an agency, you must have your "go-to" translators with a proven track record who have consistently worked and delivered for some of your regular end clients. You just don't take a chance with another translator no matter how thoroughly they have been 'onboarded'. Of course, it goes without saying, you need to go to another translator when your 'go-to' translator is not available, but then you (as a PM) know that the second choice is also a good translator with whom you've worked in the past and see that they've delivered a number of projects for you over the years. A 'serious' agency works like this in my opinion.

Emily Gilby wrote:
One of the agencies I work for uses a portal system which releases jobs for translators to claim. When they release a job, you get an email notification with a link to take you to the job. For years, I'd have time to click on the link, look at the job details and consider whether I had the time to take it on before accepting or rejecting it. In the last couple of years however, now when I click on the link, even if I do it immediately as soon as I receive the email notification, the job has already been claimed.

Renate Radziwill-Rall wrote:

I am not familiar with this system of grabbing the job, and the faster you are, the more jobs you get. The companies publishing on proz are all waiting for your offer, CV etc. And then they choose, and I have no influence on this. Even if I am the first one to send my mail with CV, that does not mean, I get the job. Where am I wrong?