ProZ.com Translation Forums

Real job opportunities? | Last clarifyig note

kd42 — Sat, 07 Nov 2026 11:34:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: kd42
Post title: Last clarifyig note

[quote]Lieven Malaise wrote:
[Bijgewerkt op 2026-11-06 13:47 GMT] [/quote] I agree.

Real job opportunities? | Another clarifying note

Lieven Malaise — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 13:46:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Lieven Malaise
Post title: Another clarifying note

[quote]kd42 wrote:
You are already doing shitty work, like all of us. If you don't earn money while you are asleep, you are a lumpen. (With a shitty work.) [/quote]

I actually love my job with all my heart, even today in the reality of AI and MTPE. Perhaps you could ask AI what "projection" means. That might also be very clarifying.

[Bijgewerkt op 2026-11-06 13:47 GMT]

Real job opportunities? | A clarifying note

kd42 — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 13:30:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: kd42
Post title: A clarifying note

[quote]Lieven Malaise wrote: [quote]kd42 wrote: rates [quote] it means: **Never say never.**[/quote] [/quote]I will never work for bottom-feeders doing the shitty work you describe.[/quote] You are already doing shitty work, like all of us. If you don't earn money while you are asleep, you are a lumpen. (With a shitty work.)

Real job opportunities? | As long as you can ...

Daryo — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 06:32:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Daryo
Post title: As long as you can ...

[quote]Zea_Mays wrote:

[quote]kd42 wrote:

[quote]Zea_Mays wrote:
Folks, these type of jobs - provided that they are actually that widespread (which I doubt, never heard about such garbage) - wouldn't be of any interest fro pros, so you shouldn't care.[/quote] Your language pair is a bit behind mine, but the AI development in it is more intense. I would not be very sure.
It is a lottery now, some will keep earning enough, some will need to change profession or do a side job. [/quote]
No lottery - just follow two principles:
- provide high quality
- only work with serious clients
Plus know how to market your skills. [/quote]

I couldn't agree more about those basics.

The potential problems could start if and when there is not enough serious clients to be found, however hard you keep looking for them.

Real job opportunities? | The point

Lieven Malaise — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 21:25:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Lieven Malaise
Post title: The point

[quote]kd42 wrote:
Now about "Luckily I don't have to, because I work for decent customers that pay decent rates"

[quote]Prompt:
==================
Please explain to someone from West Europe, quite self-confident and a bit slow, the meaning of the Russian saying "От сумы и от тюрьмы не зарекайся", in plain English.[/quote]
[quote] Response
==================
"От сумы и от тюрьмы не зарекайся" (*Ot sumy i ot tyurmy ne zarekayisya*) is a classic Russian proverb that translates literally to: **"Never swear against poverty (the beggar's sack) and prison."**

In plain English, it means: **Never say never.**

### What It Means

The saying is a stark reminder of life's unpredictability. No matter how wealthy, successful, educated, or secure you feel today, fortunes can change overnight.

* **"The beggar's sack" (сума):** Represents sudden destitution, bankruptcy, or losing everything you own.
* **"Prison" (тюрьма):** Represents sudden disgrace, legal catastrophe, or falling completely from grace.
* **"Never swear/pledge" (не зарекайся):** Means you should never arrogantly assume that "it could never happen to me."

### The Cultural Context

Historically, Russia's social and political landscape has been notoriously volatile—marked by sudden political shifts, economic collapses, wars, and unpredictable legal systems. Because of this, the culture developed a deep skepticism toward absolute security.

While Western European cultures often emphasize personal planning, insurance, and the idea that hard work directly shields you from ruin, this proverb offers a dose of sobering humility. It whispers: *Don't be too proud of your success; the wheel of fortune turns for everyone.*[/quote]
[/quote]

That's all fine, but you are missing the point entirely: I'm not implying that I'm in a safe place where nothing can happen to me. I'm saying that I will never work for bottom-feeders doing the shitty work you describe.

I will gladly change jobs before that happens. Now that's not hard to understand, is it?

Real job opportunities? | Hell is almost frozen

kd42 — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 18:07:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: kd42
Post title: Hell is almost frozen

[quote]Lieven Malaise wrote: [quote]kd42 wrote:
You missed the point, the brave new world is here. [/quote]I didn't miss anything. Hell will freeze over before I accept working in the conditions and at the rates you describe. It's way below my quality standards.
Luckily I don't have to, because I work for decent customers that pay decent rates, be it for conventional translation or MTPE. Imagine that. [/quote]
You miss it out.
And the discussion is not about you. We speak in general here. If I tell about a colleague, it is for the sake of illustration.

Now about "Luckily I don't have to, because I work for decent customers that pay decent rates"

[quote]Prompt:
==================
Please explain to someone from West Europe, quite self-confident and a bit slow, the meaning of the Russian saying "От сумы и от тюрьмы не зарекайся", in plain English.[/quote]
[quote] Response
==================
"От сумы и от тюрьмы не зарекайся" (*Ot sumy i ot tyurmy ne zarekayisya*) is a classic Russian proverb that translates literally to: **"Never swear against poverty (the beggar's sack) and prison."**

In plain English, it means: **Never say never.**

### What It Means

The saying is a stark reminder of life's unpredictability. No matter how wealthy, successful, educated, or secure you feel today, fortunes can change overnight.

* **"The beggar's sack" (сума):** Represents sudden destitution, bankruptcy, or losing everything you own.
* **"Prison" (тюрьма):** Represents sudden disgrace, legal catastrophe, or falling completely from grace.
* **"Never swear/pledge" (не зарекайся):** Means you should never arrogantly assume that "it could never happen to me."

### The Cultural Context

Historically, Russia's social and political landscape has been notoriously volatile—marked by sudden political shifts, economic collapses, wars, and unpredictable legal systems. Because of this, the culture developed a deep skepticism toward absolute security.

While Western European cultures often emphasize personal planning, insurance, and the idea that hard work directly shields you from ruin, this proverb offers a dose of sobering humility. It whispers: *Don't be too proud of your success; the wheel of fortune turns for everyone.*[/quote]

Real job opportunities? | And brush your teeth

kd42 — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 17:59:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: kd42
Post title: And brush your teeth

[quote]Zea_Mays wrote:No lottery - just follow two principles:
- provide high quality
- only work with serious clients
Plus know how to market your skills. [/quote] You are tutoring someone who survived the USSR, disintegration of the USSR, many other almost lethal things, of which you read in Wiki or saw on TV, and, recently, catastrophic (in the technical sense) imploding of the En-Ru market.
It is a lottery, you are simply immature.

Real job opportunities? | Hell no

Lieven Malaise — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 17:41:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Lieven Malaise
Post title: Hell no

[quote]kd42 wrote:
You missed the point, the brave new world is here. [/quote]

I didn't miss anything. Hell will freeze over before I accept working in the conditions and at the rates you describe. It's way below my quality standards.

Luckily I don't have to, because I work for decent customers that pay decent rates, be it for conventional translation or MTPE. Imagine that.

Real job opportunities? | just follow 2 rules

Zea_Mays — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 14:49:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Zea_Mays
Post title: just follow 2 rules

[quote]kd42 wrote:

[quote]Zea_Mays wrote:
Folks, these type of jobs - provided that they are actually that widespread (which I doubt, never heard about such garbage) - wouldn't be of any interest fro pros, so you shouldn't care.[/quote] Your language pair is a bit behind mine, but the AI development in it is more intense. I would not be very sure.
It is a lottery now, some will keep earning enough, some will need to change profession or do a side job. [/quote]
No lottery - just follow two principles:
- provide high quality
- only work with serious clients
Plus know how to market your skills.

Real job opportunities? | Lucky

Peter Motte — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 13:06:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Peter Motte
Post title: Lucky

[quote]kd42 wrote:

[quote]Unless she's over 60 now. [/quote] She is. Ha-ha! (3 times) [/quote]

Well, she might be lucky.

Real job opportunities? | She is

kd42 — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 12:49:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: kd42
Post title: She is

[quote]Unless she's over 60 now. [/quote] She is. Ha-ha! (3 times)

Real job opportunities? | No

Peter Motte — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 12:31:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Peter Motte
Post title: No

[quote]kd42 wrote:

[quote]Peter Motte wrote: [quote]kd42 wrote: [quote]Peter Motte wrote:And how long will that go on? Till her pension? Or only a year or two? [/quote] It is here to stay. [/quote] You misunderstood my question. I meant: how long will she be able to make an interesting profit from it? [/quote] Till her pension.
[/quote]

I doubt whether she'll get that kind of jobs till her pension. She'll be obsolete and superfluous long before. Unless she's over 60 now.

Real job opportunities? | Wait a bit

kd42 — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 11:23:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: kd42
Post title: Wait a bit

[quote]Zea_Mays wrote:
Folks, these type of jobs - provided that they are actually that widespread (which I doubt, never heard about such garbage) - wouldn't be of any interest fro pros, so you shouldn't care.[/quote] Your language pair is a bit behind mine, but the AI development in it is more intense. I would not be very sure.
It is a lottery now, some will keep earning enough, some will need to change profession or do a side job.

Real job opportunities? | irrelevant

Zea_Mays — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 11:19:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Zea_Mays
Post title: irrelevant

[quote]kd42 wrote:

[quote]Peter Motte wrote: [quote]kd42 wrote: [quote]Peter Motte wrote:And how long will that go on? Till her pension? Or only a year or two? [/quote] It is here to stay. [/quote] You misunderstood my question. I meant: how long will she be able to make an interesting profit from it? [/quote] Till her pension.

Or maybe the standards will fall so low that AI slop will be used unedited, in which case she will probably learn plumbing. [/quote]

Folks, these type of jobs - provided that they are actually that widespread (which I doubt, never heard about such garbage) - wouldn't be of any interest fro pros, so you shouldn't care. Talking about it is only a waste of time and suggests they are worth our attention. They're not!

[Bearbeitet am 2026-11-05 11:19 GMT]

Real job opportunities? | Till her pension

kd42 — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 11:02:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: kd42
Post title: Till her pension

[quote]Peter Motte wrote: [quote]kd42 wrote: [quote]Peter Motte wrote:And how long will that go on? Till her pension? Or only a year or two? [/quote] It is here to stay. [/quote] You misunderstood my question. I meant: how long will she be able to make an interesting profit from it? [/quote] Till her pension.

Or maybe the standards will fall so low that AI slop will be used unedited, in which case she will probably learn plumbing.

Real job opportunities? | Completely ridiculous

Peter Motte — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 10:34:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Peter Motte
Post title: Completely ridiculous

Just read: "$0.007 USD to $0.009 USD per word"
That's completely ridiculous. NOBODY can do the job at such rates. Using AI is not going to make it profitable.

Real job opportunities? | You misunderstood

Peter Motte — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 10:01:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Peter Motte
Post title: You misunderstood

[quote]kd42 wrote:

[quote]Peter Motte wrote:And how long will that go on? Till her pension? Or only a year or two? [/quote] It is here to stay. [/quote]

You misunderstood my question. I meant: how long will she be able to make an interesting profit from it?

Real job opportunities? | The future is here

kd42 — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 08:27:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: kd42
Post title: The future is here

A nice short animation by Steve Cutts
[url removed]

I also recommend to watch "Happiness" and "Man", they are nice and sobering, although using rats as an example of destructive species is a mistake, I know rats very well, they are superior to man.

Real job opportunities? | Forever

kd42 — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 07:44:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: kd42
Post title: Forever

[quote]Peter Motte wrote:And how long will that go on? Till her pension? Or only a year or two? [/quote] It is here to stay.

Look at toys, for example.
Old toys were solid, rather expensive, used by a few generations. Dolls had names, and not only dolls. Very few had many of them.
Modern toys are cheap, affordable, mostly stupid, they are produced in huge quantities (together with equal amount of toxic waste) so that parents can supply their kid with a new distraction so that he/she leaves them alone for a while. They pile up, nobody cares.

Same about translation, as it was about taxis, delivery service, and recently -- audiobooks. Nobody gives a damn if the AI voice misplaces the stress once in a while, the ROI is what matters. Same about translation.

The consequences may be disastrous or may be negligibly light, I don't bother to think about it, not within my life.

Real job opportunities? | For a while...

Peter Motte — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 19:26:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Peter Motte
Post title: For a while...

[quote]kd42 wrote:

[quote]Lieven Malaise wrote:
I would need to edit either 1800 or 3600 words per hour on average to make an acceptable living. Ridiculous.[/quote] You missed the point, the brave new world is here.
A colleague says that an old client switched 100% to MTPE.
They send 10k to check within 3 hours, she runs her homegrown checks, reads the data, corrects severe errors, very few of them. Completes within 1,5 hours, delivers slightly late, apologizes and says there was too much work.
The client feeds the postedited data to AI, gets a QA report with 75 severe and 128 minor errors, with proposed corrections and explanations.
The translator sends the severe errors in QA report to Claude Sonnet, asks to leave around 25, or more if justified (the prompt is long). Claude returns with 18 items, the are transferred back into the "translation", some of them are the initial variant, as is was prior to correction by the human.
The "translation" is delivered with some explanations, the daily earnings are considerably greater than when translating 2k the good old way.

The secret here is not to give a damn, exactly like everyone else in the loop.
[/quote]

And how long will that go on? Till her pension? Or only a year or two?

Real job opportunities? | You are looking in the wrong direction

kd42 — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 17:39:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: kd42
Post title: You are looking in the wrong direction

[quote]Lieven Malaise wrote:
I would need to edit either 1800 or 3600 words per hour on average to make an acceptable living. Ridiculous.[/quote] You missed the point, the brave new world is here.
A colleague says that an old client switched 100% to MTPE.
They send 10k to check within 3 hours, she runs her homegrown checks, reads the data, corrects severe errors, very few of them. Completes within 1,5 hours, delivers slightly late, apologizes and says there was too much work.
The client feeds the postedited data to AI, gets a QA report with 75 severe and 128 minor errors, with proposed corrections and explanations.
The translator sends the severe errors in QA report to Claude Sonnet, asks to leave around 25, or more if justified (the prompt is long). Claude returns with 18 items, the are transferred back into the "translation", some of them are the initial variant, as is was prior to correction by the human.
The "translation" is delivered with some explanations, the daily earnings are considerably greater than when translating 2k the good old way.

The secret here is not to give a damn, exactly like everyone else in the loop.

Real job opportunities? | They are shameless

Harishankar Shahi — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 16:17:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Harishankar Shahi
Post title: They are shameless

Every now and then I receive AI companies email for data, image, voice blah-blah. And the pay they offer is much absurd than a tip to any server. I think we all hear about Onefarma, a favorite place of these weirdos, there rates are — $3.7, $3.4 per hour.

Well, these things have been in our world from a long time, so I don't understand why Proz isn't taking any step to transform its plateform into a kind of Pro-Human Liguists' platform? Like a place where anyone can come or connect who like human work not useless machine work.

It could give both, us and the probable clients, a way to find each other.

Real job opportunities? | I avoid Outlier

kd42 — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 12:34:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: kd42
Post title: I avoid Outlier

[quote]Sarolta Lőrincz wrote:
My question for you is: is there anyone who has managed to work on at least one project with companies such as: Alignerr, Label, Crossing Hurdles, SME Careers, Cactus, Mercor, micro1, Outlier and so on.[/quote] I worked for Outlier ages ago, it was a complete mess: no communication, vague rules changing all the time, lazy and/or stupid and/or frightened PMs, webinars conducted by some guy whose pronunciation is so horrible that it takes you a couple of minutes to realize that he speaks English. Now their pay has dropped dramatically as well. The payment is subject to "good result" which is often impossible because the data is unsuitable for the task or the rules are idiotic. Or the platform simply froze two minutes before submission deadline. (I only skim the discussions of my former colleagues once in a while.)
I do not respond to their job alerts.

Real job opportunities? | Another one who doesn't want to pay a minimum fee

Peter Motte — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 20:38:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Peter Motte
Post title: Another one who doesn't want to pay a minimum fee

I'm in contact with a new client, and he doesn't want to pay a minimum fee.
I told him that in that case, I wouldn't take on jobs of which the pay would be lower than my minimum fee. I accepted such things in the past for some clients, but they gave me big jobs too. I doubt whether this one is ever going to do that.
I'm already rejecting small jobs for another new client.
As an independent, we have to take a firm stand.

After all: they don't want to pay minimum fees because they want to compete with each other. If we accept that, we pay their competition costs.

[Edited at 2026-10-30 20:40 GMT]

Real job opportunities? | Losing money

Peter Motte — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 14:46:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Peter Motte
Post title: Losing money

[quote]Sarolta Lőrincz wrote:

[quote]Lieven Malaise wrote:

If you are serious about freelancing, then you need an hourly rate that you have to earn on average to have a sustainable income. Those AI companies and other bottom-feeders offering ridiculous rates make it impossible to earn that amount of money. So how could they be an option?

The only option is finding customers that pay you enough money to make it. And if those customers are impossible to find, the only viable option is to put all your energy into finding another job.

Working oneself into poverty should never be an option.

The times are challenging and I don't know how much longer I will be able to do this fulltime, but before the final whistle I will have worked exactly 0 minutes for bottom-feeders. Because it's pointless if you want to survive in this business. So why wasting any energy that you could use to steer your working life in a better direction? [/quote]

Thank you for your thoughts.
Of course I agree that we should work for fair rates and only for serious costumers, or to find another job if these don't work out. That's a classical approach. But what if there are no more costumers, fair rates and not even other jobs, because the economy hit rock bottom.[/quote]

But you can't accept jobs at such a low rate that it isn't even possible NOT to lose money on it.
If there isn't anything good, than we have a serious problem. Working at low wages, won't solve that problem.

I also think we shouldn't think they offered rates are accepted because there are quotes.
Eg: there are two offers today on which I see 3 and 4 quotes for my combinations. Each time one of them is my quote. But I've never accepted the price offered. I've always send my price. And I even never mentioned a special offer to have more chances.
If the offers are not accepted, maybe the jobs will never be done. I think a lot of those job offers are never done because they never find somebody who's willing to work at such prices.

I would like to mention that I accepted an offer some months ago for a series of reviews. The price looked good, but I've been doing them now since a few weeks, and I notice it takes me much more time than I expected. If the rates are high, such things are not a problem. But if they low so that they look feasable, it can turn out they aren't feasable at all. I will ask that client a raise.

[Edited at 2026-10-30 14:50 GMT]

[Edited at 2026-10-30 14:54 GMT]

Real job opportunities? | Customers and other jobs. Where.

Sarolta Lőrincz — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 14:22:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Sarolta Lőrincz
Post title: Customers and other jobs. Where.

[quote]Lieven Malaise wrote:

If you are serious about freelancing, then you need an hourly rate that you have to earn on average to have a sustainable income. Those AI companies and other bottom-feeders offering ridiculous rates make it impossible to earn that amount of money. So how could they be an option?

The only option is finding customers that pay you enough money to make it. And if those customers are impossible to find, the only viable option is to put all your energy into finding another job.

Working oneself into poverty should never be an option.

The times are challenging and I don't know how much longer I will be able to do this fulltime, but before the final whistle I will have worked exactly 0 minutes for bottom-feeders. Because it's pointless if you want to survive in this business. So why wasting any energy that you could use to steer your working life in a better direction? [/quote]

Thank you for your thoughts.
Of course I agree that we should work for fair rates and only for serious costumers, or to find another job if these don't work out. That's a classical approach. But what if there are no more costumers, fair rates and not even other jobs, because the economy hit rock bottom.
So yes, we are aware of how things should be ideally, but reality is other, that's why we are searching everywhere and sharing our experiences to help each other.

Real job opportunities? | dignity never once payed my bills. money did.

Sarolta Lőrincz — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 14:03:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Sarolta Lőrincz
Post title: dignity never once payed my bills. money did.

[quote]Zea_Mays wrote:

[quote]Sarolta Lőrincz wrote:

[quote]Zea_Mays wrote:

Why on earth do professional translators even consider working for those peanut payers?
Here's what AI says about such firms: Yes, legally and operationally, these platforms are classified as digital sweatshops, "ghost work" hubs, or algorithmic piecework platforms by labor economists, human rights organizations, and investigative researchers.
While they lack physical brick-and-mortar factories, they rely on a global internet-based gig economy model that mirrors the core exploitative dynamics of historical sweatshops. [/quote]

Maybe because we are running out of options?! :) [/quote]

Is working for less than what a cashier earns really an option?
You'd earn way more and feel more dignified offering pet sitting, and that's no joke. [/quote]

Some of us were not born in privileged places. Bold to assume that people everywhere in the world afford to pay for pet sitting.
If you invested time and energy into a field, you don't settle for pet sitting anyway. It would be more humiliating than to work in my field for less money.
Not to mention that everybody is struggling. We here in Europe are constantly funding others' wars and immigrants, and now Ai took over of lot of people's job, not just of translators'. So these people don't have money to buy products, to travel etc., consequently every sector is struggling.
I am happy for lucky people, most of us ain't that lucky, so we are searching for options, not for being lectured by the privileged ones.

[Edited at 2026-10-30 14:04 GMT]

Real job opportunities? | .

Lieven Malaise — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 13:50:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Lieven Malaise
Post title: .

[quote]Peter Motte wrote:
And again there was an awfully bad paid job offer here, and I applied but sent them my rates.

It's not because they ask it, they get it. If they don't get it, the job might go to better paying agencies.
Gas prices went up for everybody. [/quote]

I think I just read it: 0.01 to 0.02 per word for MTPE, isn't it? Unbelievable that Belgian translators would be prepared to work for that pittance. I would need to edit either 1800 or 3600 words per hour on average to make an acceptable living. Ridiculous.

[Bijgewerkt op 2026-10-30 14:07 GMT]

Real job opportunities? | My rates

Peter Motte — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 13:40:00 +0000

Forum: Getting established
Topic: Real job opportunities?
Poster: Peter Motte
Post title: My rates

And again there was an awfully bad paid job offer here, and I applied but sent them my rates.

It's not because they ask it, they get it. If they don't get it, the job might go to better paying agencies.
Gas prices went up for everybody.