Perhaps I should start from beginning- we are situated on a very eastern verge of Europe,
and thus daily receive several invitations from agencies, situated a little more westwards from us, to send them CVs of our translators for potential HUGE jobs and to register online as their "business partners"�
In last few years we have sent out countless such CVs, even accompanied with Diplomas verified by a Notary, none of which has resulted in anything. We never have heard again from... See more Perhaps I should start from beginning- we are situated on a very eastern verge of Europe,
and thus daily receive several invitations from agencies, situated a little more westwards from us, to send them CVs of our translators for potential HUGE jobs and to register online as their "business partners"�
In last few years we have sent out countless such CVs, even accompanied with Diplomas verified by a Notary, none of which has resulted in anything. We never have heard again from these agencies, not even "sorry, we didn't get the job after all", - the only thing I can assume, is that these CVs and Diplomas were used by respective agencies to obtain jobs from authorities demanding them, and then submitting these jobs to whomever.
So for some time we are refusing to send any CVs to anyone, as the experience shows, it's futile.
The same goes for requests by Agencies situated a little to the West from us (and even in the West itself), demanding online registration as a "Partner" at their website. As our experience shows, no serious Agency sets up such an elaborate procedure to find partners, after all ProZ and Internet is invented for some time already,
and speaking purely from our experience, I can issue a warning to all- beware of Agencies, boasting names "Worldwide" and like in their names and demanding online registration. I would like to stress that programming of such a "registration" page costs about EUR 500, and, if I would take fancy, we, without the slightest pain, also could set up such like- including usual in such a cases Global map, showing spread of our partners around the Globe and like.
But why I'm writing all this- just yesterday I've got a call from a ProZ Platinium member,
(duration about 15 minutes at his expense), promises of endless huge jobs, etc, but- mandatory- to register at their site as a "Partner". I initially refused right away, stating that we are a very small company with 4 people in house staff, and if we would agree to fill all these online questionnaires we are invited to, I would have to employ a special employee to do just that.
None the less, in 15 minutes, the person persuaded me to fill their online questionnaire.
OK, I tried to do it. There were many consequent fields, the first one- contact details- OK, no problem, but the first on the second sheet (about 15 sheets in total) started with the question (mandatory field): "when was your company established?"
And the only option to enter the date was by clicking the mouse on the month - backward arrow, staring from today- each mouse click- one month back from today- average response time to a click- 3 seconds, our company was established more than 6 years ago, that is, I would have to sit here and to click mouse more than 70 times just to enter just one of required "Partner" fields�
However hard I try, I cannot classify this as anything, but as downright sneering, fleering� jeering, mocking, scoffing, taunting, bantering, chaffing, and whatever (you are welcome to name missing terms, I'm not a native English speaker, so I cannot find one precise definition), by a potential business partner even before any business relationships were set up.
I wrote my considerations on this matter to the said company. I haven't received any answer from them and I don't think I ever will, so I'm posting here my considerations
(based on experience) - if you're an Agency and are asked for CVs for a special project- don't bother and waste your valuable time on crooks.
If your asked to register as "Partner" by filling online your profile for some "Worldwide company"- you're not risking anything, but you are just wasting your time, as, in our experience, any phoney company can spend some 500 EUROs to set up such a "registration form" on their website, while serious business partners, in our experience, do talk business with you, instead of asking you to register as "Partners" on their phoney homepages.
Uldis
[Edited at 2004-04-09 01:47] ▲ Collapse
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