Off topic: 800 - 900 words an hour?
Thread poster: Thayenga
Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:27
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
Jan 13, 2017

Just now I received an email - even 2 from the same large company within a couple of minutes - that offered a long term collaboration as translator and proof-reader. The required capacity lies between 2.500 and 18.000 words per week. So far, so good.

However, they expect an hourly output of 800 - 900 words (no typo), and translating that many words in 1 hour is not the only service they require. They expect the same hourly output post-editing MT.

And they, of course, ex
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Just now I received an email - even 2 from the same large company within a couple of minutes - that offered a long term collaboration as translator and proof-reader. The required capacity lies between 2.500 and 18.000 words per week. So far, so good.

However, they expect an hourly output of 800 - 900 words (no typo), and translating that many words in 1 hour is not the only service they require. They expect the same hourly output post-editing MT.

And they, of course, expect the "candidate" to perform an unpaid 500 words' test.

Maybe it's the "perks of old age", but for some reason I don't seem to be able to translate some 900 words in 1 hour and deliver good quality. Let alone post-editing that many words.

Admittedly, this is a mass-mailing offer, and they do point out that they expect the recipient(s) to forward their link to other colleagues in case one's language pair is not included.

P. S. I would have posted this under "Scams", but am not sure this is one. It definitely is "on the lighter/amusing" side of translation.

[Edited at 2017-01-13 23:24 GMT]
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Merab Dekano
Merab Dekano  Identity Verified
Spain
Member (2014)
English to Spanish
+ ...
300 Jan 13, 2017

Thayenga wrote:

Just now I received an email - even 2 from the same large company within a couple of minutes - that offered a long term collaboration as translator and proof-reader. The required capacity lies between 2.500 and 18.000 words per week. So far, so good.

However, they expect an hourly output of 800 - 900 words (no typo), and translating that many word in 1 hour is not the only service they require. They expect the same hourly output post-editing MT.

And they, of course, expect the "candidate" to perform an unpaid 500 words test.

Maybe it's the "perks of old age", but for some reason I don't seem to be able to translate some 900 words in 1 hours and deliver good quality. Let alone post-editing that many words.

Admittedly, this is a mass-mailing offer, and they do point out that they expect the recipient(s) to forward their link to other colleagues in case one's language pair is not included.

P. S. I would have posted this under "Scams", but am not sure this is one. It definitely is "on the lighter/amusing" side of translation.


[Edited at 2017-01-13 18:47 GMT]


One of the two; either they don't have a clue how the industry works or it is some sort of scam.

300 - 400 words of translation output per hour remains the rule unless we get out brains upgraded.

Up to 300 words of unpaid test is still the rule, unless, of course, they decide to pay you your normal rate, in which case the "test" can be as long as your capacity and willingness to collaborate with them last.


 
Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:27
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
The missing clue Jan 13, 2017

I believe that they don't have a clue about the industry.

Since it's a large, well-known and everywhere on the net appearing company, I think they believe that translators are at their beg-and-call, just waiting to work for (not with!) them.

No mentioning was made of the rate they (intend to) offer (I guess they don't expect translators to have their own rates and/or T & C's), but the way I see it, based on what this company is doing and how "much" it's willing to pay t
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I believe that they don't have a clue about the industry.

Since it's a large, well-known and everywhere on the net appearing company, I think they believe that translators are at their beg-and-call, just waiting to work for (not with!) them.

No mentioning was made of the rate they (intend to) offer (I guess they don't expect translators to have their own rates and/or T & C's), but the way I see it, based on what this company is doing and how "much" it's willing to pay to its employees, I presume that the rate is about USD/EUR 0.01/word.
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Ayano Murofushi-Arno
Ayano Murofushi-Arno  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 09:27
English to Japanese
I know which company you are talking about... Jan 13, 2017

Because they are one of my clients.

Not sure why they are saying they expect you to translate 800 - 900 words per hour. I have always been given very reasonable deadlines (i.e. 5,000 words in 2 weeks) and the rates are not bad (if not great) either.

Feel free to email me if you are after some more info


 
Inga Petkelyte
Inga Petkelyte  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 13:27
Lithuanian to Portuguese
+ ...
The same Jan 13, 2017

Yeah, when I saw they wanted the 500-word test for free, Discarded the email immediately.

 
Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)
Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)  Identity Verified
Thailand
Local time: 20:27
English to Thai
+ ...
Prevent industrial deterioration Jan 14, 2017

Thayenga wrote:

I believe that they don't have a clue about the industry.

Since it's a large, well-known and everywhere on the net appearing company, I think they believe that translators are at their beg-and-call, just waiting to work for (not with!) them.



I did not accept job offers in a last few weeks. I got bored when the translation agencies do not understand the translation processes and expect decelerating rate and accelerating translation quality.
I hope Proz community can prevent such ill practice bravely.

Soonthon L.


 
Thomas Pfann
Thomas Pfann  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:27
Member (2006)
English to German
+ ...
Up to you how many words per hour you translate Jan 14, 2017

I suppose every translator on this planet received their email by now. And was invited to forward it to their "network of your friends, colleagues
and/or students and alumni".

Thayenga wrote:

However, they expect an hourly output of 800 - 900 words



No, they don't expect an hourly output of 800 - 900 words. They are saying their projects are usually being "translated/post-edited at an output rate of 800-900 words per hour".

It's not an expectation, but an indication of past experience, of what to expect. (And given the type of content this is about I actually don't consider it unrealistic at all.) Also, this seems to be mainly about post-editing, which of course is supposed to have a much faster output than translation. (Not that I would know - I tried it before and turned out not to be very good at it so I don't offer post-editing anymore but stick to translation.)


 
Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:27
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
PE Jan 14, 2017

Thomas Pfann wrote:

Also, this seems to be mainly about post-editing, which of course is supposed to have a much faster output than translation. (Not that I would know - I tried it before and turned out not to be very good at it so I don't offer post-editing anymore but stick to translation.)


When I started out way back then, I also did post-editing jobs, which normally turned out to be much more time consuming than any translation job. Aside from having to read the text, trying to make some sense of it, and phrasing in so that it sounded halfway like a native (target) language, I usually ended up having to re-translated most of it from scratch. So there was no way that I could have reached even 800 words/hour, having to do the work, well, yes, twice.

Soonthon wrote:
I did not accept job offers in a last few weeks. I got bored when the translation agencies do not understand the translation processes and expect decelerating rate and accelerating translation quality.
I hope Proz community can prevent such ill practice bravely.


The only thing the ProZ community can do is to refuse, better yet, ignore such offers.


 
Ricki Farn
Ricki Farn
Germany
Local time: 14:27
English to German
The way I read it Jan 14, 2017

... they effectively want to pay their translators for x hours and guilt them into working 2x hours for that money, because "everyone else manages 800-900 words an hour". That psychological trick is not new.

ayanohannah, maybe these mass emails are about a different content type than you are doing for that same company?

The way they describe the content, it's a huge gamble for each translator - today it might be about items the translator is familiar with from personal
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... they effectively want to pay their translators for x hours and guilt them into working 2x hours for that money, because "everyone else manages 800-900 words an hour". That psychological trick is not new.

ayanohannah, maybe these mass emails are about a different content type than you are doing for that same company?

The way they describe the content, it's a huge gamble for each translator - today it might be about items the translator is familiar with from personal experience, and tomorrow it might be about items the same translator has never dreamt of using.
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Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:27
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Applied psychology Jan 14, 2017

Ricki Farn wrote:

... they effectively want to pay their translators for x hours and guilt them into working 2x hours for that money, because "everyone else manages 800-900 words an hour". That psychological trick is not new.
...

The way they describe the content, it's a huge gamble for each translator - today it might be about items the translator is familiar with from personal experience, and tomorrow it might be about items the same translator has never dreamt of using.


Either way, the translator has to deliver that many words in an hour, or spend the rest of the required time to complete the task working for free. Especially when the content varies, as you've pointed out, because they have obviously not included any terminology research in their calculation. So this is a definite unilateral win situation


 


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800 - 900 words an hour?






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