| Pages in topic: [1 2 3] > | Seven years' experience but can't find freelance work? Thread poster: mattsmith
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mattsmith
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:59
German to English
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I have seven years' in-house experience of translating from German (A language) and French (B language) into English. I mainly translate marketing, telecoms, law and finance. I also have a university degree in German and an MA degree in Translation. I am now looking to go freelance. I consider my suggested rates to be pretty competitive.
However, I have recently sent my CV and covering letter to several agencies, carefully selecting ones on Proz with a good blue-board rating, including on... See more I have seven years' in-house experience of translating from German (A language) and French (B language) into English. I mainly translate marketing, telecoms, law and finance. I also have a university degree in German and an MA degree in Translation. I am now looking to go freelance. I consider my suggested rates to be pretty competitive.
However, I have recently sent my CV and covering letter to several agencies, carefully selecting ones on Proz with a good blue-board rating, including ones that have recently posted advertisements saying they are looking for staff, and also agencies I have heard of through my current job. Unfortunately, and rather shockingly, I have had no responses from any of them at all!
I actually had more responses from the agencies I applied to seven years ago when I was fresh from university with no professional translating experience, when I seem to remember quite a few agencies wrote back to me, some offering me dribs and drabs of work, albeit at very low rates, which is why I went in-house.
How many agencies does a fledgling freelancer like me with considerable experience have to apply to before they get work?
Or is the market very quiet / extremely competitive at the moment or something?
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
[Edited at 2013-06-03 19:38 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Why should I give you a job | Jun 3, 2013 |
mattsmith wrote:
I am now looking to go freelance. I consider my suggested rates, of 0.07 per word, to be pretty competitive.
I might be blunt, but why should I give you a job.
a) We consider applications with the rates you are asking as completely unacceptable - much too low, a sure sign for problems.
b) Your profile has no content that will in any way convince me to give you a job, in fact it has no content
My recommendation, read the forum posts here, participate in a few webinars on how to use ProZ etc, and do your homework i.e. beef up your profile etc.
| | | | | My two Pfennige | Jun 3, 2013 |
Matt, you sound like an all-right fellow that can actually write and do so without any mistakes or awkwardness whatsoever, unlike the business standard nowadays, which makes it doubly sad to hear that you can't find freelance work. Especially at 0.07 per word with seven years of in-house experience.
The ratio of applications to functional relationships is never really impressive for freelancers. You shouldn't expect more than 10% of the agencies to reply and be interested. In fact, ... See more Matt, you sound like an all-right fellow that can actually write and do so without any mistakes or awkwardness whatsoever, unlike the business standard nowadays, which makes it doubly sad to hear that you can't find freelance work. Especially at 0.07 per word with seven years of in-house experience.
The ratio of applications to functional relationships is never really impressive for freelancers. You shouldn't expect more than 10% of the agencies to reply and be interested. In fact, a single-digit percentage would be more like it. On the other hand, you never know who will write back and when. Some guys you've never contacted or even heard about can also pop out of nowhere with a real job.
If I were you, I'd do two things:
1. Put together some really first class marketing material, brand and what-have-you. Not just Proz and LinkedIn (which does need to be top-notch), but also a nice-looking personal website (some ideas, and all of them are Wordpress themes really, dozens of which you can find free of charge if you have the time to play with things). Do things now that you would be hard-pressed to find the time to do later, such as nicely worded and aligned offers (cash in on favours from marketing consultants if you're owed any). Start a blog, start writing about whatever you're good at, preferably involving issues that actually matter to potential clients while bringing in some novel value for your colleagues instead of the typical regurgitated blog feed.
2. Put some more trust in the German, UK and US markets (and if the German market says you're good enough to translate into German, then do it). Google them up, check out their websites, confirm that they're accepting offers from freelancers, mail them and nail them.
Also, don't fall for the temptation to fill your schedule. You will need to reject offers while being unable to raise your rates yet. That way, you will be pressured to become a low-wage outsourcer yourself, paying other guys even less to do work that you will forward to larger agencies... after proofing it without getting paid for it, yourself. Just don't do that. Do anything else (e.g. teaching, proofreading, freelance writing) until you're ready to dump those interim side occupations, or just read and write for your professional development, anything that helps you survive the period when you're new to the market. Expand your network. Find new channels. Post in places to be visible. Pass some exams and get some additional certifications (sworn translator, DipTrans, association membership, certification in a subject field), which help justify somewhat higher rates than would otherwise be the case, sign up for a Ph.D. course (Germans really respect doctoral degrees). But don't lower your rates.
Good luck. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Sheila Wilson 
Spain
Local time: 12:59
Member (2007)
English
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| It is quiet, but... | Jun 3, 2013 |
Maybe those seven years are in some ways working against you at the moment. It may not be so, but maybe you need to think about your way of marketing yourself now. Notice, it's 'marketing' now, not job-seeking. Maybe you've just updated your CV with your latest experience, but it's still a job-seeker's' CV rather than a freelancer's (which of course shouldn't be called a CV at all, but you can't win every battle)? Maybe your 'covering letter' (a job-seeker's term) is just that, rather than a bus... See more Maybe those seven years are in some ways working against you at the moment. It may not be so, but maybe you need to think about your way of marketing yourself now. Notice, it's 'marketing' now, not job-seeking. Maybe you've just updated your CV with your latest experience, but it's still a job-seeker's' CV rather than a freelancer's (which of course shouldn't be called a CV at all, but you can't win every battle)? Maybe your 'covering letter' (a job-seeker's term) is just that, rather than a business proposal? Maybe you have nowhere to refer potential clients to apart from your very empty ProZ.com profile?
Do any of those ring true? If they do, then that's a start - start thinking like a freelancer, an independent businessman.
If not, don't get too down-hearted. After all, you haven't received any rejections, have you? It's a long time since I sent an unsolicited CV, but I remember they seemed to land in black holes, yet I received jobs (or at least contact) from some of them some months or even years later. They won't contact you until they actually have a job for you.
But with seven years in an agency under your belt, maybe you should think about approaching direct clients (for double your quoted rate, at least, I would think). Maybe you have some contacts you could legitimately follow up, though I guess you'd have to be careful about that as you no doubt signed a clause about abusive use of employer contacts for the purposes of competition. ▲ Collapse
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| Profile traffic | Jun 3, 2013 |
As I write, your forum post is 90 minutes old, and has already had 64 views. Many of those viewing the post will have clicked on your profile, wanting to know more about your education, experience and skills. But your profile is empty... not a great impression.
You are part of the ProZ community... use it to your advantage! Participating in forum discussions and answering KudoZ brings a lot of traffic to your profile.
As my granny would say, "you reap what you sow"...
| | | | | Nothing there! | Jun 3, 2013 |
Write a decent profile and put up a picture! Nobody wants to employ The Invisible Man!
Strewth... I hope your profile isn't a reflection of your ability!
Steve K.
| | | | | Or triple your current rate? | Jun 3, 2013 |
Then everyone (incl. Siegfried) will know how good you must be, and work will come pouring in.
That seems to be the thinking here among some members: If you're "cheap", you can't be good.
Others will suggest you must charge rates that allow you to finance your lifestyle, irrespective of the quality of work you deliver. (If you're charging high rates, you must be good.)
Both views are bollocks, IMO.
I say: Charge as much as the best if you're as go... See more Then everyone (incl. Siegfried) will know how good you must be, and work will come pouring in.
That seems to be the thinking here among some members: If you're "cheap", you can't be good.
Others will suggest you must charge rates that allow you to finance your lifestyle, irrespective of the quality of work you deliver. (If you're charging high rates, you must be good.)
Both views are bollocks, IMO.
I say: Charge as much as the best if you're as good as they are. Charge less accordingly.
We/Context (outsourcers) look for affordable quality. Quality first, affordability second. If two candidates offer equal quality, then we look at their rates...
FYI. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 04:59
English to German
+ ...
In memoriam | There is more to it, though | Jun 3, 2013 |
Cilian O'Tuama wrote:
Then everyone (incl. Siegfried) will know how good you must be, and work will come pouring in.
That seems to be the thinking here among some members: If you're "cheap", you can't be good.
Others will suggest you must charge rates that allow you to finance your lifestyle, irrespective of the quality of work you deliver. (If you're charging high rates, you must be good.)
Both views are bollocks, IMO.
I say: Charge as much as the best if you're as good as they are. Charge less accordingly.
We/Context (outsourcers) look for affordable quality. Quality first, affordability second. If two candidates offer equal quality, then we look at their rates...
FYI.
From my experience as an outsourcer:
Translators who are used to low rates often adopt a certain "sweatshop mentality". They automatically seem to assume that each and every job is to be done as fast as possible at "sufficient" quality and that there will be some cleaning woman, aka poor proofreader, who will take care of any mess. Research appears to be negligible and fast typing is key. No, thanks. Those translations will cost you more than a any job done right in the first place. The most cost-efficient projects are done by translators who take pride in their work and who consider top-notch quality the only acceptable standard and who charge accordingly.
When I outsource, I take care of the editing myself. Dealing with cheap jobs is not feasible because there is one heck of an expensive proofreader at work.
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Mark Benson (X)
English to Swedish
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Siegfried Armbruster wrote:
a) We consider applications with the rates you are asking as completely unacceptable - much too low, a sure sign for problems.
If our original poster can substantiate:
7 years of successful in-house employment
Ability to translate both from German and French
Specialization in marketing, telecoms, law and finance
MA in translation studies from UCL
What do you see as a problem, except for the rates in and of themselves?
While I commend willingness to pay translators good money for good work, I would be very interested to learn why you don't take advantage of market conditions in order to pay less, or what problems you consider low rates a sign of.
Would you consider insisting on higher rates from the candidate yourself?
It's interesting to note that some agencies don't even charge their clients 0.07€ per word.
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Mark Benson wrote:
What do you see as a problem, except for the rates in and of themselves?
Well, Matt's lowish rate is probably based on his 7 years of experience at this particular agency. What can you learn at an agency that pays 7 cents? Not much more than how to cash in on translators, I suppose.
Apart from that, twenty years ago, 7 cents was seven cents. Not much, but it was 7 cents. Nowadays, the first thing Matt's former colleagues will tell him is that they pay all their translators 5 cents. Standard procedure. So Matt will happily accept 6 cents, a whole cent more than other freelancers! And that's before the TFtT discount...
Cheers,
Hans
[Edited at 2013-06-04 04:29 GMT]
| | | | | Where to find German-English work. | Jun 4, 2013 |
Hi Matt,
Sorry to hear of your troubles. We've all been there at some point or another. There are agencies these days offering me less than when I started 12 years ago, but fortunately I am in a position where I can afford to reject such offers that do not conform to my rate standards.
So as to not pose a conflict of interest to Proz, if you'll contact me offline, I can give you a suggestion or 2 on German-English work and where to find a steady flow of it.
... See more Hi Matt,
Sorry to hear of your troubles. We've all been there at some point or another. There are agencies these days offering me less than when I started 12 years ago, but fortunately I am in a position where I can afford to reject such offers that do not conform to my rate standards.
So as to not pose a conflict of interest to Proz, if you'll contact me offline, I can give you a suggestion or 2 on German-English work and where to find a steady flow of it.
I am bombarded with work from German on a daily basis, and I'm sure I can point you in a direction or two to get a piece of the pie.
Not everybody all contact me at once now!!!!!!
BC ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Email to agencies is dead | Jun 4, 2013 |
Unfortunately emailing agencies is no longer a sensible way of contacting them, since most of them are suffering the permanent attack of spammers and "email blast services" (another name for spammers) who swamp everybody with freelancer applications, a few legitimate, many fake. Agencies have learnt to completely disregard email applications. Legitimate emails from individual freelancers are only interesting for CV gatherers and database growers.
The best you can do is to keep recei... See more Unfortunately emailing agencies is no longer a sensible way of contacting them, since most of them are suffering the permanent attack of spammers and "email blast services" (another name for spammers) who swamp everybody with freelancer applications, a few legitimate, many fake. Agencies have learnt to completely disregard email applications. Legitimate emails from individual freelancers are only interesting for CV gatherers and database growers.
The best you can do is to keep receiving training and education in translation, keep improving your profile so that interested agencies can find you and contact you instead, raise your rates so that possible customers do not consider that you are low-quality, and... focus your marketing on other ways of getting customers, for instance good old visits or calls to agencies nearby and/or calls to companies in your area that could need your services. ▲ Collapse
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mattsmith
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:59
German to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
... thanks for all of your constructive suggestions!
[Edited at 2013-06-04 07:59 GMT]
| | | | | It's a numbers game | Jun 4, 2013 |
mattsmith wrote:
However, I have recently sent my CV and covering letter to several agencies, carefully selecting ones on Proz with a good blue-board rating, including ones that have recently posted advertisements saying they are looking for staff, and also agencies I have heard of through my current job. Unfortunately, and rather shockingly, I have had no responses from any of them at all!
Whenever you start a new business, you need to start off with sales and marketing. I don't know how long you've been writing to agencies, nor how many agencies you've written to, but what I would say is "keep on going".
It's a numbers game and you need to build a pipeline for yourself. You'll see that once you start getting busy, you'll only get busier. I don't think that your rate is low enough to warrant questioning your ability/the quality of your work and I'm quite interested to see that others would think so. It just shows what a varied marketplace it is out there.
There are literally millions of agencies all over the world. Don't limit yourself to your home market. You'd be surprised to find out the unusual places that work can come from such as Singapore or Suriname (as an example).
Some people have taken a full year to break into the freelance market and have gone on to be very successful and happy freelance translators. You just have to keep your head down, keep going and don't give up. You'll eventually get a response if you contact enough people.
Good luck!
| | | | | Off-the-record: Millions? | Jun 4, 2013 |
Marie-Helene Dubois wrote:
There are literally millions of agencies all over the world.
I don't think so. There are just over 45,000 companies registered in Proz.com, and I'd say this is a very representative sample. If --my completely arbitrary estimate-- about 1/4 of the translation agencies have a profile in Proz.com, I don't see how there could be several million agencies in the world.
I am curious now: what is the source of your estimate?
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