Client awareness...
Jun. 27th, 2016 07:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpThe fellow that put me back on the rails for a career in translation back in 1991 recently recommended me to a company that's competing for a contract to translate the standard "huge amounts of work," for which I am most appreciative.
What pleasantly surprised me was the end client's stated intention to make inquiries to make sure that the translators involved in doing the translation samples (which will be used as part of the the award evaluation process) will actually be working on the successful bidder's team.
Reading this in the instructions for the translation samples immediately recalled instances where I was asked to send along a CV and translate sample text, but no work ever materialized.
It reminded me, apropos of my recent effort to track down my old boss from my first engineering job, of this one client meeting that occurred during the time I was a senior engineer—yet not senior enough to have advanced to the exalted title of "Associate Vice President." It was a meeting to which I was not invited, for the purpose of discussing any questions the client might have about our proposal, the technical portion of which I had sweated blood to get just right.
Not having been there, I could not tell you what happened, except for the part where I heard one of the client's representatives say, loudly enough to be heard in the corridor nearby, "Isn't there anyone in your [expletive] organization who will be working on our project that's not an 'Associate Vice President'?"
I kid you not, I hadn't prompted the guy, because I had raised exactly the same point. It was customary to include pages describing the accomplishments of the engineers that were to work on a successful proposal, but there wasn't enough room—I had been told—to include everyone.
It was okay by me; no skin off my nose. Mentally, I merely donned my writer's hat and said "thank you" that the checks they kept giving me kept clearing the bank.
The sample I did today initially left me pretty much speechless, as it was not a particularly complicated text, nor was it particularly arcane. But after I had submitted the final version, it occurred to me that it was very likely an excellent go/no-go kind of test that would do an excellent job of separating those who can and those who can't.
I'll not hold my breath. There is other work on my plate, so I better "turn to" and do it!
Cheers...
What pleasantly surprised me was the end client's stated intention to make inquiries to make sure that the translators involved in doing the translation samples (which will be used as part of the the award evaluation process) will actually be working on the successful bidder's team.
Reading this in the instructions for the translation samples immediately recalled instances where I was asked to send along a CV and translate sample text, but no work ever materialized.
It reminded me, apropos of my recent effort to track down my old boss from my first engineering job, of this one client meeting that occurred during the time I was a senior engineer—yet not senior enough to have advanced to the exalted title of "Associate Vice President." It was a meeting to which I was not invited, for the purpose of discussing any questions the client might have about our proposal, the technical portion of which I had sweated blood to get just right.
Not having been there, I could not tell you what happened, except for the part where I heard one of the client's representatives say, loudly enough to be heard in the corridor nearby, "Isn't there anyone in your [expletive] organization who will be working on our project that's not an 'Associate Vice President'?"
I kid you not, I hadn't prompted the guy, because I had raised exactly the same point. It was customary to include pages describing the accomplishments of the engineers that were to work on a successful proposal, but there wasn't enough room—I had been told—to include everyone.
It was okay by me; no skin off my nose. Mentally, I merely donned my writer's hat and said "thank you" that the checks they kept giving me kept clearing the bank.
The sample I did today initially left me pretty much speechless, as it was not a particularly complicated text, nor was it particularly arcane. But after I had submitted the final version, it occurred to me that it was very likely an excellent go/no-go kind of test that would do an excellent job of separating those who can and those who can't.
I'll not hold my breath. There is other work on my plate, so I better "turn to" and do it!
Cheers...
