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Poll: How many jobs do you get in an average good week? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How many jobs do you get in an average good week?".
View the poll results »
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Interlangue (X)
Angola
Local time: 02:24
English to French
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| Number of jobs does not mean much | Jun 4, 2010 |
The actual translation work in an average week is about 15,000 words, but I may get the order form(s) a couple of weeks in advance, especially if we are talking about 100,000 words jobs, after which I have a few weeks "without getting any jobs", which does not mean I do not have any work!
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Sabine Schlottky 
Germany
Local time: 02:24
Member (2005)
English to German
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| Rather useless | Jun 4, 2010 |
I do not really get the point of this question and answered "Other" because, as a matter of fact, the number of jobs per week is a rather useless measure, isn't it?
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Tania McConaghy
Sweden
Local time: 02:24
Member (2009)
Swedish to English
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| another version of the question... | Jun 4, 2010 |
...could be whether it is better to have many small jobs or a few large jobs, ie if the total word count is the same. We all have our preferences for job size. I mean, what is the ideal length/size of a job?
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| Number is not important | Jun 4, 2010 |
I prefer getting involved in a steady project for as long as possible, not getting many one-page jobs every week.
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Michael Harris
Germany
Local time: 02:24
Member (2006)
German to English
Interlangue wrote:
The actual translation work in an average week is about 15,000 words, but I may get the order form(s) a couple of weeks in advance, especially if we are talking about 100,000 words jobs, after which I have a few weeks "without getting any jobs", which does not mean I do not have any work!
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Same here, don't see the point: almost all weeks are good for me, but some have one job, some have twenty.
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... and anyway I do prefer long projects!
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C. Mouton
France
Local time: 02:24
Member (2007)
English to French
Sophie Dzhygir wrote:
Same here, don't see the point: almost all weeks are good for me, but some have one job, some have twenty.
I agree. I often get >30000 words jobs, so it can even be 1 per month, so the number of jobs is of no importance at all. The number of words is what counts !
And I also prefer larger jobs (less admin/preparation/delivery tasks, more translation)
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Parrot
Spain
Local time: 02:24
Spanish to English
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| "How many" is not indicative of "good week" | Jun 4, 2010 |
There are weeks when they come in like Tetris blocks that I don't consider good, and invoicing them becomes time-intensive...
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vixen
Greece
Local time: 03:24
English to Dutch
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| Numbers are relative | Jun 4, 2010 |
However, ideally I get 1-3 larger jobs that will keep me busy for a couple of days and a few small jobs to fill up the gaps and/or to accommodate my regular clients.
That is why I voted 7-10 jobs.
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| as others have said | Jun 4, 2010 |
Well the question is confusing:
- the number of jobs I get can be from 1 to 15 in a good week (obviously deadlines can be over several weeks), but getting orders makes the week obvisously good. and 35000 words for one job are better than 15000 for 6 jobs, aren't they
- the number of jobs I do in a very good week? I don't know, it depends on the length.
some times you translate 20000 words for 1, 2, 3 jobs....
So, let's put it this way: a very g... See more Well the question is confusing:
- the number of jobs I get can be from 1 to 15 in a good week (obviously deadlines can be over several weeks), but getting orders makes the week obvisously good. and 35000 words for one job are better than 15000 for 6 jobs, aren't they
- the number of jobs I do in a very good week? I don't know, it depends on the length.
some times you translate 20000 words for 1, 2, 3 jobs....
So, let's put it this way: a very good week is when I am always busy, and I know the following weeks will be busy as well. ▲ Collapse
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John Cutler
Spain
Local time: 02:24
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Jobs vs. words | Jun 4, 2010 |
I've NEVER sat down and averaged out how many jobs I do in a week, probably because I've never had the time or inclination.
I do agree with those who base their calculations on number of words. For me, a good week would be 10,000 words and a great week would be 15,000. Those are all the statistics I need.
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Tatty
Local time: 02:24
Spanish to English
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| Length preference | Jun 4, 2010 |
I prefer translations that are less than 5,000 words long. This way I can think just another day to go and it'll be done. It also means that I can accept jobs from more agencies.
BTW, I don't think it is a useless poll.
[Editado a las 2010-06-04 11:34 GMT]
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 02:24
Spanish to English
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Glad to see it's not just me that finds the question hard to respond to. I thought it was just my usual grumpy reaction to woolly thinking.
In fact, things haven't been "average" for over a year now, as the economic downturn has changed my working habits quite a bit and I now have to look for jobs to fill in where my regular clients have wound down their activities. Some clients are actively translating fewer documents, and many agencies are getting cheap (usually non-native) translations ... See more Glad to see it's not just me that finds the question hard to respond to. I thought it was just my usual grumpy reaction to woolly thinking.
In fact, things haven't been "average" for over a year now, as the economic downturn has changed my working habits quite a bit and I now have to look for jobs to fill in where my regular clients have wound down their activities. Some clients are actively translating fewer documents, and many agencies are getting cheap (usually non-native) translations then looking for professional reviewers/proofers.
Yesterday one client sent me 1800 words, which kept me happy for a couple of hours, and this morning I had to translate about 50 words for the same client - this is neither good, bad or average, it's just the way it goes. ("nor" somehow looks odd in that last sentence, maybe it's just me...)
If I got 2000 words to translate every day I'd be happy with that... so I suppose a 2K job every day from Monday to Friday would be a good/average rate, i. e. 10K a week, but it makes no difference whether it's one 10K job or five 2K jobs.
Also, if I go for 3 days without any work coming in, I too start to get worried, but something always turns up in the end... ▲ Collapse
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