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Proz nuttiness...
Feb. 8th, 2006 10:41 amProz.com is a flourishing site intended for translation professionals, but as it appeals to a worldwide audience of both translators and buyers of translations, it's sometimes difficult to come to grips with the expectations of some people (sometimes, even myself).
I am set up to receive automatic notification of jobs for which I am "qualified," meaning that if my profile fits what a potential client says are his or her requirements, I get an email. Today, I got a notification for a job to do some legal work, which is not my forte, but I clicked on the link in my email just to see what the job was all about.
And spoiled the enjoyment of my morning coffee.
First, for some strange reason, the listing displayed a message to the effect that I did not fit the desired profile. Okay, no problem. Looking further, it turns out the successful candidate will be translating patents from Russian to English. The client, though, insists that the translator be accredited to translate legal documents in that direction, which is what disqualifies me. Hmmm...
In my experience, patents are not so much legal documents as technical ones with a legal patina. Given my druthers, I'druther make sure any translator I'd hire to do patents was familiar with the technology first, with legal translation experience as icing on the cake. The client's requirements are his lookout, however, and besides the legal accreditation, he requires the candidate to jump through a number of hoops, including a sample translation.
The job? Approximately 9,500 source words.
The deadline? Two days.
The offered rate? US$0.03 per source word, payable in 45 days by bank transfer (which, if you live in the U.S. - and the successful candidate will satisfy this criterion - will cost you between $25 and $35)
<gag!>
And if that's not enough, the notification proceed will apparently be issued on Friday afternoon (presumably to allow the sample translation to be evaluated, other crypto-due-diligence to be performed), so that the successful candidate isn't giving up just any two long, hard days to do this work, but long, hard weekend days.
Pardon me while I experience a Proustian moment, back in the day when I did technical translations for Plenum at US$0.025 per source word, though with vastly more reasonable deadlines.
Speaking of deadlines, I have a pile of translations to do.
Cheers...
I am set up to receive automatic notification of jobs for which I am "qualified," meaning that if my profile fits what a potential client says are his or her requirements, I get an email. Today, I got a notification for a job to do some legal work, which is not my forte, but I clicked on the link in my email just to see what the job was all about.
And spoiled the enjoyment of my morning coffee.
First, for some strange reason, the listing displayed a message to the effect that I did not fit the desired profile. Okay, no problem. Looking further, it turns out the successful candidate will be translating patents from Russian to English. The client, though, insists that the translator be accredited to translate legal documents in that direction, which is what disqualifies me. Hmmm...
In my experience, patents are not so much legal documents as technical ones with a legal patina. Given my druthers, I'druther make sure any translator I'd hire to do patents was familiar with the technology first, with legal translation experience as icing on the cake. The client's requirements are his lookout, however, and besides the legal accreditation, he requires the candidate to jump through a number of hoops, including a sample translation.
The job? Approximately 9,500 source words.
The deadline? Two days.
The offered rate? US$0.03 per source word, payable in 45 days by bank transfer (which, if you live in the U.S. - and the successful candidate will satisfy this criterion - will cost you between $25 and $35)
<gag!>
And if that's not enough, the notification proceed will apparently be issued on Friday afternoon (presumably to allow the sample translation to be evaluated, other crypto-due-diligence to be performed), so that the successful candidate isn't giving up just any two long, hard days to do this work, but long, hard weekend days.
Pardon me while I experience a Proustian moment, back in the day when I did technical translations for Plenum at US$0.025 per source word, though with vastly more reasonable deadlines.
Speaking of deadlines, I have a pile of translations to do.
Cheers...
