| Páginas sobre el tema: < [1 2] | Poll: Has translation/interpretation changed your social life? Autor de la hebra: ProZ.com Staff
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Steven Capsuto 
Estados Unidos
Local time: 08:20
español al inglés
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| Flexibility of freelancing | Jan 23, 2007 |
When I was working in offices (in a variety of professions), I had to build my social life around my fixed work schedule and my friends' or relatives' fixed schedules.
As a freelancer, I can set my own hours. After all, clients don't care if I translate their projects at 8 a.m., 4 p.m., or 2 a.m., as long as I put in the requisite number of hours. So freelancing has made it much easier to see people.
In addition, the flexibility offered by a laptop computer and the inte... See more When I was working in offices (in a variety of professions), I had to build my social life around my fixed work schedule and my friends' or relatives' fixed schedules.
As a freelancer, I can set my own hours. After all, clients don't care if I translate their projects at 8 a.m., 4 p.m., or 2 a.m., as long as I put in the requisite number of hours. So freelancing has made it much easier to see people.
In addition, the flexibility offered by a laptop computer and the internet allow me to take a couple of days to visit friends or family who life further away, and I can still get my work done.
It's an amazing thing.
[Edited at 2007-01-23 04:33] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Change your perspective | Jan 23, 2007 |
Williamson wrote:
Erik Hansson wrote:
I simply can't agree on this one. A majority of us are self-employed, and if you're well into business you don't need to work day and night, 20 hours a day and forget the social life you either had or will never get.
Compare your situation with being emyployed, working from 9 to 5 every day, having a boss who's a pain in your neck and so on. I think most of us are happy with being self-employed, aren't we? Next question would be if we think we'll go bankrupt just because we turn down that next job and decide to take a weekend holiday.
Not if you want to make a lot of money. In that case you have to be available 7/7 from when you get up until you go to sleep and even then you have to delegate to others.
So you speak about want to make a lot of money, i.e. your own decision. If this is your aim, you'll have to take the disadvantages before reaching the aim. Or maybe you meant need to make a lot of money?
Compare that with a freelance ITer at a bank, earning €500 per working bankday or a freelance ITer in the City working 9-5 or somewhat later, earning £500 per day and this for four days a week. The other 3 days, this person programs for his/her other clients. An ideal balance?
I don't think very many of the fellow translators here have a chance to choose between either freelance translator or freelance IT specialist at a bank. THese are two extremes. The professions you mentioned are in a very narrow segment, so why don't you compare with a common white-collar job?
An freelance interpreter is under the pressure of the moment, but when (s)he goes home, the £350-€500 are earned. A translator has to work against the deadline, even if that means burning the midnight oil.
As a freelance you have the choice to take the job or leave it. It's up to you to agree on a reasonable deadline with your client. Maybe it's a question on a clear stand against the clients and also pride in our work.
Once the translation is delivered, the search for the needle in the haystack to reduce rates starts, followed by the chase of payments. This is seldom the case with freelance IT-services or interpreting.
[Edited at 2007-01-22 18:03]
As I understand from your explanations, this happens very often to you. If you speak about same clients who keep on trying to reduce the rates, why don't you go search for other clients. It's all in your hands to change your working situation!
| | | | Fiamma Lolli
Italia
Local time: 14:20
español al italiano
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Translating did not change my social life: it changed ME.
(I'm self employed and I prefer to work less and have time for the people I love than working a lot and neglecting my friends).
| | | | Williamson
Reino Unido
Local time: 13:20
flamenco al inglés
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| Midnight oil freedom. | Jan 23, 2007 |
Erik Hansson wrote:
Williamson wrote:
Erik Hansson wrote:
I simply can't agree on this one. A majority of us are self-employed, and if you're well into business you don't need to work day and night, 20 hours a day and forget the social life you either had or will never get.
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Remember the book : How to earn £80.000 as a translator by A.Eames. To earn that kind of money-the equivalent of what a freelance IT-earns at a bank- with translation, you have to have a decent rate, not the 0.05 eurocent p.w. and be available to your customers day and night.
So you speak about want to make a lot of money, i.e. your own decision. If this is your aim, you'll have to take the disadvantages before reaching the aim. Or maybe you meant need to make a lot of money?
Idealism and "love of" does not buy your house.
Compare that with a freelance ITer at a bank, earning €500 per working bankday or a freelance ITer in the City working 9-5 or somewhat later, earning £500 per day and this for four days a week. The other 3 days, this person programs for his/her other clients. An ideal balance?
I don't think very many of the fellow translators here have a chance to choose between either freelance translator or freelance IT specialist at a bank. THese are two extremes. The professions you mentioned are in a very narrow segment, so why don't you compare with a common white-collar job?
How to become a freelance IT-er? By giving Windows and Office for free, increase your rate to maximum 300 euro per day of teaching Office, learn VBA, learn VB.net and C# and market yourself. In a nutshell, that's what one of my acquaintances did. His house was paid for in five years.
An freelance interpreter is under the pressure of the moment, but when (s)he goes home, the £350-€500 are earned. A translator has to work against the deadline, even if that means burning the midnight oil.
If you have to meet a deadline, you don't have the choice.
Translation is not like IT or interpreting. You take the job and then follows a period in which you have to finish it. You cannot refuse every job that comes along. If you do, you would not be able to make a living.
Once the translation is delivered, the search for the needle in the haystack to reduce rates starts, followed by the chase of payments. This is seldom the case with freelance IT-services or interpreting.
[Edited at 2007-01-22 18:03]
As I understand from your explanations, this happens very often to you. If you speak about same clients who keep on trying to reduce the rates, why don't you go search for other clients. It's all in your hands to change your working situation!
Indeed, that is why I try to digest 10 management courses, credit by credit and as well as learning Html, CCS, Php and prepare MsOffice2007 courses/presentations.
I would like to earn a living with the following activities:
1. Office and IT.
2. Translation as a preparation to enhance my vocabulary to pass the entrance test in one of the "better" interpreting-schools. Not jump on them, but be one of the happy few that pass their tests.
3. Interpreting.
In due course, see to it that 2 is replaced by 3.
A life behind a pc-screen: what a freedom. Translation: a job for mothers with toddlers?
[Edited at 2007-01-23 08:33]
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| Translation : excellent life! | Jan 23, 2007 |
Personnaly, I was very astonished by the comments.
Working as a freelance was a choice and I never had before a so exciting life!!
Every day is bringing new surprises, new interesting jobs, new persons and I met and discovered a lot of fabulous people in and outside the "translation and interpretation world".
I also think all is a question of organisation.
OK, we have less holidays, but isn't it a chance to be able to go for a walk whenever we want or have a... See more Personnaly, I was very astonished by the comments.
Working as a freelance was a choice and I never had before a so exciting life!!
Every day is bringing new surprises, new interesting jobs, new persons and I met and discovered a lot of fabulous people in and outside the "translation and interpretation world".
I also think all is a question of organisation.
OK, we have less holidays, but isn't it a chance to be able to go for a walk whenever we want or have a surprise lunch with our husband when all employees are stuck in their offices?
As I love my job life in general is better and I continue having a great life!
"Hauts les coeurs!!" ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I love the freedom | Jan 23, 2007 |
I fully agree with Erik, and I am planning to configure my life to make room for swimming twice a week, get massages (or my neck will be stiffer than iron), and socialize. In fact I am planning on making some room for interpreting or multilingual hosting services, in order to spend less time in front of the screen. I love talking.
I would never want to be employed, and having to go to work every day on a set schedule,... See more I fully agree with Erik, and I am planning to configure my life to make room for swimming twice a week, get massages (or my neck will be stiffer than iron), and socialize. In fact I am planning on making some room for interpreting or multilingual hosting services, in order to spend less time in front of the screen. I love talking.
I would never want to be employed, and having to go to work every day on a set schedule, with a boss to give me orders and arrange my schedule, is a nightmarish thought.
Of course freelancing has its downsides - like the uncertainty of what you'll earn. But I find it much more exciting to never know if I'll make 500 or 5000 a given month, than to know no matter what I will only make 1235€ or whatever.
And indeed you have to be available six days a week (how could you possibly work seven on a long term basis without getting completely burned out?) but that leaves also some room, if you can check your mail from outside the office you don't need to be locked in, waiting for clients. And what about working in the porche, or terrass if the weather allows it? Could you possibly do that if you were an employee? Or could you take your laptop and retire to the country to work, or travel?
Translation is an art - not only the translating itself, but being able to get a balance in life, between work, social, spiritual, and personal time. Isn't living itself, in a meaningful way, an art that few people achieve? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Of course...! | Jan 23, 2007 |
Leticia, I totally agree with your following sentence.
"Translation is an art - not only the translating itself, but being able to get a balance in life, between work, social, spiritual, and personal time. Isn't living itself, in a meaningful way, an art that few people achieve?"
| | | | | I like this thought... | Jan 23, 2007 |
Leticia Klemetz wrote:
Translation is an art - not only the translating itself, but being able to get a balance in life, between work, social, spiritual, and personal time. Isn't living itself, in a meaningful way, an art that few people achieve?
I like this concept, Leticia.
Take care,
Andrés
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| In support of mothers with toddlers ..... | Jan 23, 2007 |
Williamson wrote:
Translation: a job for mothers with toddlers?
I'm sure this wasn't meant as a condescending putdown but it could very well be conceived as one.
That aside, translation might be the chosen profession of a mother who happens to have toddlers but she would have to organise her time extremely well and build in buffers when agreeing to deadlines because of the (often unpredictable) demands they would place on her time.
Those who actually manage it, deliver professional work and make a decent living deserve nothing short of a medal.
[Edited at 2007-01-23 19:35]
| | | | Williamson
Reino Unido
Local time: 13:20
flamenco al inglés
+ ...
| Fixed freelance assignements. | Jan 23, 2007 |
I never mentioned working at a bank as employee. There is such a thing as freelance assignments for a fixed period of time, usually two to three years. This leaves a freelance IT-person ample time to look for the next assignment. He/she works like an employee, but is paid on an invoice basis at a daily rate of 450-500 euros per day or about 8000 per month (4 days working week) and this for a fixed period (one year-three years) with payment of invoices after 30 days.
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I did not me... See more I never mentioned working at a bank as employee. There is such a thing as freelance assignments for a fixed period of time, usually two to three years. This leaves a freelance IT-person ample time to look for the next assignment. He/she works like an employee, but is paid on an invoice basis at a daily rate of 450-500 euros per day or about 8000 per month (4 days working week) and this for a fixed period (one year-three years) with payment of invoices after 30 days.
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I did not mean mothers with toddlers condescending. Quite a number of profiles of my female colleagues show pictures with babies on their arm or the picture on their profiles are pictures of babies.
Add raising a child to a walk with their husband and translation, I wonder how they manage and who earns the bulk of the family income. Or is translation just a way to earn an extra? Isn't a project always a race against time.
[Edited at 2007-01-23 22:42] ▲ Collapse
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