| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Starting out as a freelancer - necessities and assistance Thread poster: Steve Thomasson
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Biliana @ Four 
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:46
English to Bulgarian
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| ITI membership - my experience | Mar 27, 2009 |
Just a comment on the issue of ITI membership.
It is not necessary to have 4 years experience to become an ASSOCIATE member, all you need is (1) Evidence of a professional interest in translation or interpreting and (2) Submission of one character reference and one professional reference. Yes, it is not FULL membership, but it has its advantages. I have only just entered the word of freelance translation myself and joined the ITI. I have found it useful and, at £76.00, well worth the mon... See more Just a comment on the issue of ITI membership.
It is not necessary to have 4 years experience to become an ASSOCIATE member, all you need is (1) Evidence of a professional interest in translation or interpreting and (2) Submission of one character reference and one professional reference. Yes, it is not FULL membership, but it has its advantages. I have only just entered the word of freelance translation myself and joined the ITI. I have found it useful and, at £76.00, well worth the money. As a modest beginner in the profession, an affiliation to a professional association demonstrates (hopefully) your commitment and desire to be professional. Every little helps at this early stage
I am now off to complete my brand-new ProZ profile ...
With my most sincere and encouraging wishes,
Biliana ▲ Collapse
| | | | Claire Cox
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:46
French to English
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Yes, Biliana is quite right - I thought you didn't need 5 years of experience to be an associate member but I haven't had time to root though my files and find the relevant information! Your £76 also includes subscription to the Bulletin, which is extremely useful for beginners and established translators alike, and allows you to join the ITI subject and language networks, which aren't otherwise accessible. I still haven't got round to applying for full membership due to pressures of work, but ... See more Yes, Biliana is quite right - I thought you didn't need 5 years of experience to be an associate member but I haven't had time to root though my files and find the relevant information! Your £76 also includes subscription to the Bulletin, which is extremely useful for beginners and established translators alike, and allows you to join the ITI subject and language networks, which aren't otherwise accessible. I still haven't got round to applying for full membership due to pressures of work, but associate membership is well worth having and still entitles you to discounted PII.
Going back to the CAT tools issue, I've found that agencies can send me Trados pre-segmented files and I can process them with Wordfast and send back clean and unclean files for the agency to reimport into Trados and update their TM. TMX memories exported from Trados are also recognised by Wordfast. Another of my clients sends me 2-column Déja Vu files which I can also process with Wordfast and send back for reimport into DV. I should think other CAT tools are similarly compatible, but I haven't any personal experience to recommend any.
All the best from one ex-Salford graduate to another. My son is currently doing his AS levels with a view to studying French and Spanish at university and the Salford course still looks excellent!
Claire ▲ Collapse
| | | | Oleg Rudavin
Ukraine
Local time: 23:46
Member (2003)
English to Ukrainian
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| Trados vs. Wordfast | Mar 29, 2009 |
Steve Thomasson wrote:
I have heard from quite a few translators that of all "other" CAT tools apart from Trados, Wordfast is the closest one in terms of compatibility. Obviously when starting out Wordfast would be more appealing as it appears to be considerably cheaper than Trados (hence cutting less into personal finance when starting out - and the new laptop is an unavoidable necessity) but second opinions would be welcome.
Spot on - and yet another advantage of Wordfast it that it can be mastered easily.
| | | | | Maybe I'll just have to wait | Mar 29, 2009 |
Hi Steve,
I was actually directed to your thread from my own. I hope you're doing well (we were in the same Uni. Salford class everyone).
Reading all those things you've actually thought about I'm a bit overwhelmed. I downloaded the trial version of Wordfast, which is pretty good, and much easier than Trados to use. As Claire mentioned it's also compatible with Trados. Maybe you can do as I have and do that and have a play around translating random things you fin... See more Hi Steve,
I was actually directed to your thread from my own. I hope you're doing well (we were in the same Uni. Salford class everyone).
Reading all those things you've actually thought about I'm a bit overwhelmed. I downloaded the trial version of Wordfast, which is pretty good, and much easier than Trados to use. As Claire mentioned it's also compatible with Trados. Maybe you can do as I have and do that and have a play around translating random things you find online.
I also set up a Gmail address. It's free and fairly innocuous. It can also be used with Outlook, unlike other free emails.
Unfortunately many of the other things such as a website, phone line, memberships dictionaries etc. will have to wait. I have spent 7 months trying to just get one job which would help me to start investing. I've now had to take a tutoring job and a bar job just to pay my rent. This also means that I'm simply not online when the good jobs are posted, and don't always have the time to spare to mailshot a hundred companies a week. After another let-down this weekend I think I will just have to give up for a while. I'm not sure whether I can even afford to renew membership to Proz.
I hope that you are more successful. From what I remember you are more pushy than I am anyway. ▲ Collapse
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Emma Gledhill
Switzerland
Local time: 22:46
German to English
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I would think that at your stage, membership of the Institute of Linguists would be more useful than ITI. I concur with earlier comments that ITI membership is worthwhile, but the most useful aspect by far is a listing in the ITI directory. This you cannot get unless you are a full member. However, the Institute of Linguists will accept you as a full member - and hence give you a listing in the Find-a-Linguist directory - with your MA.
I wouldn't necessarily spend money on Trados tr... See more I would think that at your stage, membership of the Institute of Linguists would be more useful than ITI. I concur with earlier comments that ITI membership is worthwhile, but the most useful aspect by far is a listing in the ITI directory. This you cannot get unless you are a full member. However, the Institute of Linguists will accept you as a full member - and hence give you a listing in the Find-a-Linguist directory - with your MA.
I wouldn't necessarily spend money on Trados training, you should be able to teach yourself the main functions. A few hours or days of RTFMing and playing with it - and the truly excellent SDL Trados board on here - will cover most of your needs, I would have thought.
Make friends with Leo - dict.leo.org (no www). And the Kudoz term search on here is marvellous for those translations that just don't fit what dictionaries give.
A second phone line is vital for sanity - as is a separate office in your house with a door you can shut at the end of work. Learn how to forward your desk phone to your mobile and carry your mobile at all times. If it's an iPhone or equivalent, even better. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Steve Thomasson
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:46
Member (2012)
German to English
TOPIC STARTER | summa summarum | Mar 30, 2009 |
I'd not considered the associate ITI membership and strangely forgotten about the IoL so that's a hell of a plus to know. I have also sent off to the Prince's Trust and am awaiting to see what they can do. Meanwhile I'm cleaning the PC up as my only real worry about that is the fairly small hard drive (55GB), but if I'm going with Wordfast (seems the better bet) which is a much smaller program that's less of an issue and one where after a short period of successful trading get a hi-spec laptop. ... See more I'd not considered the associate ITI membership and strangely forgotten about the IoL so that's a hell of a plus to know. I have also sent off to the Prince's Trust and am awaiting to see what they can do. Meanwhile I'm cleaning the PC up as my only real worry about that is the fairly small hard drive (55GB), but if I'm going with Wordfast (seems the better bet) which is a much smaller program that's less of an issue and one where after a short period of successful trading get a hi-spec laptop.
I've heard quite a few conflicting views on benefits / otherwise of ProZ membership but as that and the free Viklund HTML codes also pretty much appears to get me around the website issue and also gets a few other agencies for marketing purposes for that it seems worth it when starting out.
The mobile phone I have does have e-mail functions on it - it is a second-hand one though so I might have to play around with it to figure it out!!
Main focus now is working out the financing / monthly expenditure / other capital. I'm inclined to sell the house and downsize as that gets the starting capital in one fell swoop whilst still keeping a fully-paid for roof over my head if it fails for whatever reason.
Once again, many, many thanks for all the tips and guidance - much appreciated. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Michael Beijer
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:46
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
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| Steve, my main word of advice would be: | Mar 31, 2009 |
Translate. Translate anything and everything you can get your hands on. Only practice makes perfect. No matter how much you prepare, there is only one way to become a translator, and that is to translate.
Translate menus, translate bibles in hotel rooms, translate washing machine manuals, translate emails, translate love letters, translate websites, translate Elizabethan memoirs, translate street signs, translate times tables, translate forum posts, translate Goethe, translate Plato, tran... See more Translate. Translate anything and everything you can get your hands on. Only practice makes perfect. No matter how much you prepare, there is only one way to become a translator, and that is to translate.
Translate menus, translate bibles in hotel rooms, translate washing machine manuals, translate emails, translate love letters, translate websites, translate Elizabethan memoirs, translate street signs, translate times tables, translate forum posts, translate Goethe, translate Plato, translate Family Guy subtitles.
In short, translate, and the rest will fall into place automagically.
Michael ▲ Collapse
| | | | John Rawlins
Spain
Local time: 22:46
Spanish to English
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| Get out of the office | Apr 1, 2009 |
Steve, I strongly recommend that you get out of the office and visit potential clients.
Organising your web presence is a useful task - but remember that on the net you are competing worldwide. Unless you are specialised, you will inevitably be drawn into a downward price spiral.
Many clients still appreciate dealiing with somebody they have met and trust. Go find them, get to know them, and make yourself their translator of choice.
Of course, this is easie... See more Steve, I strongly recommend that you get out of the office and visit potential clients.
Organising your web presence is a useful task - but remember that on the net you are competing worldwide. Unless you are specialised, you will inevitably be drawn into a downward price spiral.
Many clients still appreciate dealiing with somebody they have met and trust. Go find them, get to know them, and make yourself their translator of choice.
Of course, this is easier if you live in a large city.
[Edited at 2009-04-01 09:47 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Emma Gledhill
Switzerland
Local time: 22:46
German to English
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| More thoughts | Apr 1, 2009 |
Steve, I strongly recommend that you get out of the office and visit potential clients.
I concur, but even more important is to go and visit actual clients when you get them, even if they are agencies. Does wonders for raising your profile and you'd be surprised how few people bother. When the client can put a face to your name, who do you think comes to mind first when there's a job to be placed?
On a related note - networking. Any networking groups in your area? Local Chamber of Commerce? Business breakfast groups? This is a long-term strategy but it works. If you go into it with a view to making friends and that any business is a bonus, but obviously with your professional "face" on, then you won't run the risk of being too pushy.
Re your hard drive - unless the whole pooter is completely dead, why not just change the hard drive for a bigger one? I just did that in my laptop (80 GB to 500GB). It could well be cheaper than a new machine (and substantially so on my Macbook)
| | | | Anne-Marie Grant (X)
Local time: 21:46
French to English
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| Alibris Books | Apr 2, 2009 |
I have found this UK bookseller good for new and used dictionaries/text books. I tried to order a few things through Amazon and they wouldn't deliver to a UK address, whereas Alibris have always come up with the goods. They do pester you a lot by email afterwards though!!
| | | | Steve Thomasson
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:46
Member (2012)
German to English
TOPIC STARTER
Anne-Marie Grant wrote:
I have found this UK bookseller good for new and used dictionaries/text books. I tried to order a few things through Amazon and they wouldn't deliver to a UK address, whereas Alibris have always come up with the goods. They do pester you a lot by email afterwards though!!
I'll be going there frequently, had a look last night and although some of the second-hand technical ones seemed a bit old, there were one or two that were most definitely of interest. Thanks for the tip.
Re. the visiting clients point, I've prepared a list of clients, obviously some are a bit far away from Bolton but there's a fair few in the Manchester area. So that would be very feasible.
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