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Do I have to be connected 24/7 to get a job? Thread poster: mariana24
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mariana24 
Uruguay
Local time: 01:52
Spanish
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Hi,
Something strange happened to me yesterday and I'm still baffled about it.
I was navigating through ProZ.com when I received a message through the page asking me if I was available for a medical translation. I replied immediatly and said yes. After saying yes, I checked the outsourcer, and they had really good feedback from colleagues (professional, payment on time, friendly, etc.). Great! I said to myself. 3 minutes later, another e-mail asking me to send references. I ... See more Hi,
Something strange happened to me yesterday and I'm still baffled about it.
I was navigating through ProZ.com when I received a message through the page asking me if I was available for a medical translation. I replied immediatly and said yes. After saying yes, I checked the outsourcer, and they had really good feedback from colleagues (professional, payment on time, friendly, etc.). Great! I said to myself. 3 minutes later, another e-mail asking me to send references. I send references. 3 minutes later another e-mail proposing rates, do I accept? E-mail back, yes, I accept. AND...tell them that I will be away for the next two hours (I had an appointment with the doctor), but asked them to please write to me anyway if they needed to and I would answer as soon as I came back.
I came back. No e-mail. No e-mail this morning. I wrote them a short message asking if we were still on the project. Nothing.
Was it me? Am I supposed to be connected even when I have to leave my house? E-mail connection through mobile phones is not that easy/cheap where I live, do I have to pay that extra money to be 100% findable all the time? Was I wrong in letting them know I was leaving? I thought it was honest, in case they needed an urgent reply at any point, to let them know I'd be absent for a couple of hours...
It´s funny how I was cheering up another colleague of ours in these same fora only two or three days ago because he felt frustrated with the ups and downs of this full time freelance translation job. Now it seems the time has come to me to need a little encouregement, I just can`t believe I should be a slave of my inbox OR...
Cheers,
Mariana ▲ Collapse
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| 24/7 available? | Jun 8, 2007 |
I would not lose sleep over this.
My guess is someone was too hard (aggressive).
Also, have you in place (working) an online payment system?
Suggestion: Ask for electronic payment instead of waiting weeks, or months for payment by check.
That's all.
A.K.
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Özden Arıkan
Germany
Local time: 06:52
Member
English to Turkish
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| Moved the topic... | Jun 8, 2007 |
...to the forum Business Issues
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| Do you want to get even more confused? | Jun 8, 2007 |
What if I said I received the SAME E-MAIL yesterday asking for 'medical translation' (exact words!)??
Well, I did the same you did: checked the outsourcer and replied immediately confirming availability, and then again, on their second e-mail, accepting their condictions.
No news since then.
Regards,
Leticia.
ps: This is the second time I've written this, let's hope this time it reaches you.
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mariana24
Uruguay
Local time: 01:52
Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER | Thank you Leticia,... | Jun 8, 2007 |
...it has reached me. And.."mal de muchos consuelo de tontos", so they say, but at least I know it probably was not me, which is what made me feel lousy.
I am now curious to know whether they were the same people, but also...what's the purpose of doing that? I wonder, really...
Gracias mil, in a way, you've made my day (which is terrific for a Friday!).
Mariana
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| The same here | Jun 8, 2007 |
Hi,
The same happened to us. We replied and no answer so far. It must be the same agency. But, well...
Have a nice weekend!
Leticia
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 06:52
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| We also have lives | Jun 9, 2007 |
mariana24 wrote:
...tell them that I will be away for the next two hours (I had an appointment with the doctor), but asked them to please write to me anyway if they needed to and I would answer as soon as I came back.
We also have lives, and clients can't expect us to be available all the time. We can, however, ensure that clients are never in the dark as to why we are unavailable. Just yesterday I had a similar thing -- I sent a reply to a query, but said that I will be away for a few hours, and that I will reply when I get back. That's just good manners.
I don't think you should think that in your case you had somehow pissed off the client -- there must be some other explanation (perhaps he had several translators in tow).
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Jan Willem van Dormolen (X)
Netherlands
Local time: 06:52
English to Dutch
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| There client must have dropped them... | Jun 9, 2007 |
My idea is, they had a prospective client who was in a hurry; but the client found another agency that could do the job faster, so they got called off. And then they didn't have the decency to call off the dozen of translators they had contacted for the job.
Don't worry. We don't need agencies like this.
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| Sounds like a mass mailing | Jun 9, 2007 |
Sometimes job requests sent via Proz actually do target a specific translator. However there are lots of 'mass' job mailings sent to 100 people potentially qualified to do the job. Perhaps agencies see this as an alternative to posting a job or as a pre-posting warm-up to test the waters.
Normally I respond to mail just addressed to me and delete the mass sends immediately.
Usually it's clear.Somewhere on the email it says 'this mail was sent to other recipients' or something to th... See more Sometimes job requests sent via Proz actually do target a specific translator. However there are lots of 'mass' job mailings sent to 100 people potentially qualified to do the job. Perhaps agencies see this as an alternative to posting a job or as a pre-posting warm-up to test the waters.
Normally I respond to mail just addressed to me and delete the mass sends immediately.
Usually it's clear.Somewhere on the email it says 'this mail was sent to other recipients' or something to that effect.
Keep in mind it could have been for a "potential" job that the agency doesn't have yet or never got at all.
In any case, don't worry about it. ▲ Collapse
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| I don't think it was a question of being connected | Jun 9, 2007 |
Hi Mariana,
I don't think what happened to you was a question of being connected.
My guess is that they needed someone, contacted several translators and chose one and then didn't say anything to the others. It happens very often.
It happened to me early this week. I was contacted by someone for a huge translation and asked for my rate. I answered with my rate and said I was 100% available and could start the project immediately. I was asked if I could lowe... See more Hi Mariana,
I don't think what happened to you was a question of being connected.
My guess is that they needed someone, contacted several translators and chose one and then didn't say anything to the others. It happens very often.
It happened to me early this week. I was contacted by someone for a huge translation and asked for my rate. I answered with my rate and said I was 100% available and could start the project immediately. I was asked if I could lower my rate a bit - "I will send you the file immediately if you can make it for X" and I said yes because it was already a good rate for such an amount of work (and free of Trados counting).
All this happened in about 15 minutes. Almost 1h later I received a reply stating they had found someone else. I talked to some of my colleagues and the very same happened to them with the very same person and none of them got the job. Maybe they found someone who didn't mind to do it for an even lower price.
However, sometimes it seems you have to be connected 24/7 to get a job. It happens to me as well to receive work proposals and after I answer I get a mesage "Thank you, but the job was assigned to someone else". Grrr.
So don't take it personally, Mariana. ▲ Collapse
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Irene N
United States
Local time: 23:52
English to Russian
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All this sounds like CV/reference collection for bids you might and likely will never see if they win - the actual work will go to 2-centers. This issue has been discussed numerous times before. CV is kinda unavoidable but all they would get from me for references is PM phone numbers in well-known international agencies but never any project or end client names. Like they ever call...
This whole reference business is one big scam. For the life in me, CVs and tests is all they need, ... See more All this sounds like CV/reference collection for bids you might and likely will never see if they win - the actual work will go to 2-centers. This issue has been discussed numerous times before. CV is kinda unavoidable but all they would get from me for references is PM phone numbers in well-known international agencies but never any project or end client names. Like they ever call...
This whole reference business is one big scam. For the life in me, CVs and tests is all they need, but they want more... for no decent reason. The only reference they really use is the word-of-mouth type when they ask their known people about the newcomers.
BTW, those same agencies I work for never ask anyone about references. CVs and mandatory tests... guess what - they don't get lost and pay in time:-)
[Edited at 2007-06-09 12:52] ▲ Collapse
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mariana24
Uruguay
Local time: 01:52
Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER
Thank you all for your kind, encouraging and valuable input, it has been indeed enlightening.
It does help to know that these things are fairly common in our world. The way I see it now, there is a lot going on behind a simple e-mail offering a job (the same e-mail sent to others, clients calling off translators who have accepted, and many more things like the ones you mention) and once more in my life I guess I will have to learn that nothing is as straightforward as it seems. For... See more Thank you all for your kind, encouraging and valuable input, it has been indeed enlightening.
It does help to know that these things are fairly common in our world. The way I see it now, there is a lot going on behind a simple e-mail offering a job (the same e-mail sent to others, clients calling off translators who have accepted, and many more things like the ones you mention) and once more in my life I guess I will have to learn that nothing is as straightforward as it seems. For some reason I find being distrustful extremely difficult.
Thank you.
Mariana ▲ Collapse
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IreneN wrote:
BTW, those same agencies I work for never ask anyone about references. CVs and mandatory tests... guess what - they don't get lost and pay in time:-)
Exactly the same for me!
P.S. I never give any references. Why should I? They all are my other clients and I don't want to introduce them to my potential client (asking me to do it)...
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| Only if you want disorganized clients | Jun 9, 2007 |
The reason for it beats me, but some clients seem to hold the translation job until the last minute, as if some revolution might make the source-language-country take over the target-language-country and change its national language, thus rendering the translation no longer needed.
I see them posting job ads on Proz that sound like this:
- URGENT translation! (Languages: A to B, okay)
- 5 pages [no inkling on subject].
- We need it delivered the next X (X = 2~6) ho... See more The reason for it beats me, but some clients seem to hold the translation job until the last minute, as if some revolution might make the source-language-country take over the target-language-country and change its national language, thus rendering the translation no longer needed.
I see them posting job ads on Proz that sound like this:
- URGENT translation! (Languages: A to B, okay)
- 5 pages [no inkling on subject].
- We need it delivered the next X (X = 2~6) hours.
- Non-paying Proz users may quote only after 12 hours.
- Only certified translators should apply. Proof of certification must be faxed, as well as work samples and letters of reference from no less than two recent clients.
- MUST have Trados; WordFast not acceptable.
- We pay USD 0.50 per line of 50 characters w/o spaces.
- Payment via PayPal 60 days after delivery.
- Input file: PDF - Output file: formatted QuarkXPress
- Contact e-mail: guess_who @ hotmail, yahoo, gmail, etc.
The amazing thing is that such jobs get closed shortly afterwards. I wonder why:
a) shame? regret? self-consciousness?
b) Proz moderators in action?
c) insane people who actually go for it. ▲ Collapse
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mariana24
Uruguay
Local time: 01:52
Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
I can really relate to that, José Henrique...
Thank you, you really made me laugh out loud. In fact, I cried out of laughter with the revolution and change in languages line.
Mariana
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