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Seven years' experience but can't find freelance work?
Thread poster: mattsmith
Mark Benson (X)
Mark Benson (X)  Identity Verified

English to Swedish
+ ...
My apologies for the ambiguous wording Jun 5, 2013

Siegfried Armbruster wrote:

I don't understand the statement above. But there is no case "Matt vs. Siegfried". Matt wondered why he only gets low paid jobs, and I answered him that I would not offer him a job at all


To my understanding, though, Matt wonders why he can't get any jobs at all.

You seemed to say that you wouldn't give him any jobs because his rates are too low.

The fact is, however, that you wouldn't give Matt a job because he, as most translators, isn't qualified for the projects you have to offer. Please note the difference.

From my own perspective, which is that of a (more often than not struggling, but happy) freelance translator with no ambitions of going into outsourcing (but rather to focus on the quality of my own activity), Matt would most likely be qualified to translate a great number of other projects, where the rate he asks don't really seem unreasonable to me in any direction.

I simply thought that the maxim of not offering jobs to translators who ask too low rates sounded somewhat curious and wanted to clarify the above point.

My intention was to encourage Matt, who already has invested 5 years in education and 7 years into a career, to work as a freelancer.



[Redigerad 2013-06-05 14:58 GMT]
 
Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz
Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz  Identity Verified
Poland
Local time: 17:37
English to Polish
+ ...
Thanks for the information Jun 5, 2013

Siegfried Armbruster wrote:

We did not talk about the market in Poland, but I can tell you that medical translators in the UK, Germany, Switzerland and France charge less than specialized legal or financial translators in these countries.

Big pharma is in the hands of (trans)perfect (mo)raving lions, who pay peanuts and don't care about quality. Fortunately the market for pharma and medical translations is much bigger.


[Edited at 2013-06-05 14:15 GMT]


 
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Seven years' experience but can't find freelance work?







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