Keep Getting Ghosted By Agencies After I Submit My Test. Should I Keep Trying to Be a Translator?

Baran Keki wrote:


Do you have any evidence to support this? Could this have anything to do with the (best) rates offered by Chinese agencies? Why would a native English speaker from a first world country learn Chinese to become a CN>EN translator to work with Chinese agencies? What's wrong with Norwegian?

Ice Scream wrote:


Sorry, Dan, I just had to.

William Hepner wrote:

I wouldn't worry about a few instances of ghosting, since it does happen sometimes. I'm pretty new to ProZ myself and, though I have a different language pair, I can understand how you feel. Just keep going!

(As a bit of advice: I took a look at your profile and I would suggest taking off the list of professional objectives. I have it on good word from someone more experienced than I am that making this part of the profile public can scream newbie. The profile itself is all about marketing, and you want to come off like a professional. Just a thought).

Metin Demirel wrote:



I translate from two languages, namely English and Italian. I have much more experience in the former and I feel like an impostor in the latter. I translated so many legal documents from English to Turkish that I even did comprehensive readings on the differences between the common law and the continental law. But when I started translating from Italian, I was hoping that Italy having the continental legal system like Turkey would make my job easier. Well, it didn't do that much. Because I didn't receive that many legal documents to translate. Instead I was bombarded with user manuals, because Turkey is a big importer of the Italian machinery. I gradually stopped accepting ENG>TUR legal documents, and focused more on ITA>TUR technical documents. It's easier and much more lucrative. Your expectations may fool you in the market. As for gaming, I am not a gamer, so translation of gaming texts seems harder than legalese to me. The same applies to medicine. I don't even know the names of my organs in my own language. People like me should avoid this particular field. It can be very risky.

Michael Newton wrote:

"Ten years' study of Chinese", "studied at a Chinese university". This will scare off many agencies as they are looking for mediocre translators whom they can pay peanuts. None of the agencies responded so most likely they received tests from multiple translators and they are just too lazy to respond. In the rare instances when I have been told I did not pass the test, the agencies are totally unwilling to explain why. I have seen proz.com jobs for Japanese medical translation requiring the translator to have "at least one year of experience". It takes years to learn how to translate Japanese medical texts. I think the intelligence of PMs is vastly overrated. Most likely they were baristas and PM is a step up for them.

Dan Lucas wrote:


This may sound harsh, but Jennifer has a point. You seem focused on your Chinese skills, but your ability to write well in your native language is, if anything, even more important. I cannot evaluate your Chinese, but there are a number of unforced errors in your English in this thread.

We all make a mistake or two, but your posts have multiple issues ("like allot to learn" and "your probably right" were the other ones that stood out for me).

Remember that a key motivator for clients to hire you is their expectation that you will write not only more natural English but also more correct English than a non-native speaker of the language. Sophisticated clients - who may also be those who are prepared to pay higher rates - will be looking for evidence of that in your communications as well as your tests. If you're not in the habit of writing correctly at all times, you may be making mistakes that dissuade them from working with you.

I would also agree with Jennifer that your tone is too informal for business English. If you were translating text for a game that requires informal English that would be fine, but this is a place for professional translators. Busy project managers want assign their jobs to serious and reliable freelancers: attention to detail is key. If a client were to read your posts in this (public) thread, would they be more or less inclined to work with you?

Others have already made valid points about your profile and the desirability of a clear and credible area of specialisation.

Regards,
Dan

Jo Macdonald wrote:

My advice is not to bother with tests, and if you do decide to do them to gain experience, don't be bothered by testers' results, or the lack of em.

I agree with almost everything Dan said...


Nobody is perfect, hopefully we're all still learning, and I wouldn't get too hung up about being soo informal, or too formal, or writing proper enough or whatever for the forum.

Be yourself, and if you're an informal kinda guy be that guy and find, or better still create, your own market.
You decide who you want to work with.

Imo tests are pretty much a waste of time.
In over 20 years in the business free tests have resulted in almost zero professional, profitable business relationships.
I have "won" some contracts doing paid tests, but some seriously professional people seem to think it's fine to use a good provider to win a contract then use another one to do the job.

Don't get disheartened by criticism. It's all good if you want to improve. I learnt to live and work with dyslekxya (how do you spill that again?) thinks to ma's rusty mold spell chucker, bit if tat ever packed up Y'd never know now wood eye?


[Edited at 2022-09-16 10:38 GMT]

Baran Keki wrote:

You seem to be living in a place what most people might call 'a paradise on earth', can't you find something more interesting there than being cooped at home and translating stuff? Isn't there any work in tourism industry?

AnnaSCHTR wrote:

Don't get discouraged! 5 months is nothing, give it at least a year. If you passed some of those tests, you are probably in their databases now, and they might contact you in the future. Even if you didn't pass - who knows? Hard work and persistence are important, but also a bit of luck. And the longer you "play the game" the bigger your chances are.

Also, please look at Adieu's post. Replace crypto with some general financial terms. That's a good advice.
As for making mistakes, we all do and we all get criticized for them. The best response is just doing better next time.

You have a great language pair and something will come up, sooner or later. I hope you are on LinkedIn as well, there might be some useful contacts there as well.

... I was a bit surprised that people would go through my verbiage and grammar with a fine tooth comb.

But your right, ...

I didn't consider that potential clients may look through these posts. It's best I delete them when this thread comes to a conclusion.

David McAlpine wrote:
But you're right, I didn't consider that potential clients may look through these posts. It's best I delete them when this thread comes to a conclusion.