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I don't know how it happened, but I got up this morning secure in the knowledge that tomorrow is Friday.
Ahem.
So, I've been puttering around the office, taking a break from receipts and such, deciding what to throw away and what to keep.
It ain't easy.
In between, I've been checking to see what result, if any, my inquiries have obtained. My eyes watered at the prospect of a job out there, French->English, weighing in at 4.3 million words (10-month deadline, TRADOS required), but a look at the fine print revealed that the outfit offering the job is paying all of US$0.03 per source word.
That's only a little more than the rate I eventually worked my way up to ($25 per thousand words) wa-a-a-a-y back when I started in this business.
A job involving 400 pages of Russian->English is offered by another company, with the word count described as "averaging" 200 words per page. The company will pay US$3.00 per page to the successful bidder. (Doing the math, that's $15 per thousand, which is the rate I started at, way back when.)
I think, in both cases, the target audience of translators is found in places where $30 goes much further than it does in the U.S. (or Europe, for that matter).
* * * Sometimes, it's spooky how things happen. I just went to open my email to send off a resume and find a response to an inquiry in my inbox. And what a response! A four-point checklist that sounds like the outline for a master's thesis! (This is the company looking for an R-E translator familiar with the Soviet space program.)
I'm going to have to think on this.
Cheers...
Ahem.
So, I've been puttering around the office, taking a break from receipts and such, deciding what to throw away and what to keep.
It ain't easy.
In between, I've been checking to see what result, if any, my inquiries have obtained. My eyes watered at the prospect of a job out there, French->English, weighing in at 4.3 million words (10-month deadline, TRADOS required), but a look at the fine print revealed that the outfit offering the job is paying all of US$0.03 per source word.
That's only a little more than the rate I eventually worked my way up to ($25 per thousand words) wa-a-a-a-y back when I started in this business.
A job involving 400 pages of Russian->English is offered by another company, with the word count described as "averaging" 200 words per page. The company will pay US$3.00 per page to the successful bidder. (Doing the math, that's $15 per thousand, which is the rate I started at, way back when.)
I think, in both cases, the target audience of translators is found in places where $30 goes much further than it does in the U.S. (or Europe, for that matter).
I'm going to have to think on this.
Cheers...
