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Poll: What puts you off the most in a job offer? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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NicC 
Local time: 21:23
German to English
| All of the above | Aug 14, 2010 |
Comments:
Mass e-mails - I only reply if it has been a very slow week (almost never) or if it involves jobs of high interest to me (Science) otherwise I will only respond to e-mails addressed to me.
Rates: I usually reply with - "What are you able to offer" then negotiate from there (if I'm interested in the job at all).
Free samples: I will only provide samples in very specific situations (I have done this to win a private, local client)
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| All of them, equally | Aug 14, 2010 |
In other words, any of them, or more than one, will suffice.
I've never faced rudeness from clients, except after the job had been delivered, and left unpaid beyond the agreed due date.
One agency owner even dared to say he wouldn't be paying as agreed (after the job had been well done and timely delivered) because I didn't have Trados (never required), which I didn't say nor imply that I had. That was the lamest excuse ever!
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| All of the above, plus... | Aug 14, 2010 |
1. Very bad English.
2. Unprofessional tone of the e-mail (here a real example from the recent e-mail I received: "hello!
I hope you are having a great friday " [sic] - that, from a stranger who says he wants to do business with me?! Directly to SPAM folder!
3. A request to fill out multi-page paperwork. I've done it in the past, but I know better now.
4. Not simply offering low r... See more 1. Very bad English.
2. Unprofessional tone of the e-mail (here a real example from the recent e-mail I received: "hello!
I hope you are having a great friday" [sic] - that, from a stranger who says he wants to do business with me?! Directly to SPAM folder!
3. A request to fill out multi-page paperwork. I've done it in the past, but I know better now.
4. Not simply offering low rates, but making it sound like the rates they offer are great. One phone interpreting company is particularly guilty of this: for making a commitment to an 8-hour day, they guarantee they'll pay a minimum wage ($8/hr in California) (wow!) - and the way their e-mails are written, they make it sound like a great opportunity for me. ▲ Collapse
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Robert Forstag
United States
Local time: 21:23
Spanish to English
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| All of the above | Aug 14, 2010 |
I am in agreement with the other posters who have mentioned that all of the issues offered as choices are irritating and/or causes of concern. Most of the requirements cited are also clearly aimed at generating the lowest possible "bid" from the translators who respond.
Re poor Blue Board rating:
This is something I pay a great deal of attention to. Given the general pattern on the BB of absurdly inflated ratings and syrupy comments, I find any kind of negative rating or comm... See more I am in agreement with the other posters who have mentioned that all of the issues offered as choices are irritating and/or causes of concern. Most of the requirements cited are also clearly aimed at generating the lowest possible "bid" from the translators who respond.
Re poor Blue Board rating:
This is something I pay a great deal of attention to. Given the general pattern on the BB of absurdly inflated ratings and syrupy comments, I find any kind of negative rating or comment to be especially significant.
Re mass mailings:
This is an especially irritating trend within the field, even at the level of individual agencies, as Neilmac points out. I am not really interested in receiving such mails, or for that matter in being on the translator lists of agencies that never offer me any work. I can well dispense with notices about the new invoicing system, corporate hires, or office furniture acquisitions of agencies I haven't worked with in years.
Re references:
Agree that these are often a waste of time for both contracting agencies and translators, and are sometimes an avoidable nuisance to those who are asked to take the time to provide them.
Please see my recent post (along with a response from Henry Dotterer) regarding my views of the limited value of the Jobs Board:
http://www.proz.com/forum/prozcom_job_systems/176923-facing_facts:_coming_to_terms_with_the_limitations_of_the_jobs_board.html
[Edited at 2010-08-14 18:20 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Amy Duncan (X)
Brazil
Local time: 22:23
Portuguese to English
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I won't give references. Also, if it's a translation company and they require that you fill out all kinds of forms, sign a contract, or have some complicated method where you have to use a template (or whatever) on their site to do your work. I like to keep my work habits as simple as possible: contact me, send me the job, I do it, I send the invoice, you pay me.
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janen
Local time: 13:23
Spanish to English
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| Wake-up call | Aug 14, 2010 |
My answer was actually references, because that's an automatic no for me.
But another annoyance to add to the list is phone calls at unreasonable times - one of which I received at 6.37 a.m. today, Sunday. I was actually up, but annoyed nevertheless.
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Yaotl Altan
Mexico
Local time: 19:23
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
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Trados, the McDonaldization of translation.
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wonita (X)
China
Local time: 21:23
| All of them, plus... | Aug 14, 2010 |
This job must be done with the best quality because it comes from a very important client... Are you sure you can take this job?
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Textklick
Local time: 02:23
German to English
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In memoriam
Maybe you you missed one, Viktoria - or should I classify it as 'other', because it's a sneaky one.
"There will (definitely) be more work to follow from this customer."
That always smells fishy to me and I generally treat it with the contempt that it deserves (unless of course you know the people you are dealing with very well).
Let's concentrate on the job(s) at hand!  ... See more Maybe you you missed one, Viktoria - or should I classify it as 'other', because it's a sneaky one.
"There will (definitely) be more work to follow from this customer."
That always smells fishy to me and I generally treat it with the contempt that it deserves (unless of course you know the people you are dealing with very well).
Let's concentrate on the job(s) at hand!  ▲ Collapse
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mediamatrix (X)
Local time: 21:23
Spanish to English
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| Other: Subject matter | Aug 15, 2010 |
Religion, politics, genetics, sexology, ... and several thousand other 'fields' I won't touch with a proverbial barge pole.
I am a specialist translator. My specialist fields are listed in my profile. If the client/agency can't read, doesn't care or is otherwise incompetent then they can take their job elsewhere - regardless of whether they're offering 5 dollars or 5 cents a word.
MediaMatrix
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First Last (X)
English to Russian
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| membership required | Aug 15, 2010 |
membership has nothing to do with expertise
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Yaotl Altan wrote:
Trados, the McDonaldization of translation.
This is excellent, Yaotl. You should apply for a patent for this sentence.
Catherine
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| Absolutely all of them, + | Aug 15, 2010 |
Plus the rudeness : I feel it very impolite and very irrespectful that the "potential" client does not even take one minute to let you know that your offer is declined. After all, you spent at least about 20-30 minutes to answer to his/her job offer, prepare a quote, etc.
Respect and politeness are endangered species nowadays.
Have a nice Sunday
Catherine
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| McDonaldization | Aug 15, 2010 |
I don't agree Trados (Wordfast) is bad. CAT tools are of great help for translators and positively affect translation quality (unlike machine translation!).
But I'm strongly against the practice of paying less to translators for repetitions (especially for fuzzy matches) because the skill of using CAT should pay the translator not the parasites of intermediaries!
[Edited at 2010-08-15 10:22 GMT]
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| Business is business | Sep 2, 2010 |
humbird wrote:
As for me nothing ticks me off than this. If they have definitive project at hand, they better have clear budget with which to hire good translator. This practice sure sounds cheap.
Ok but they ARE in the translation business to make money so I don't see anything wrong with requesting our best rates .....that's the job of a good Project Manager...to find the best translator for the job at the lowest cost to his company!
What puts me off most are 1. poor Blueboard rating due to late/missing payments 2. ridiculous rate information (those companies who expect to pay $0.01 to $0.02 per word).
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