| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Offer of the day (low rates) Thread poster: Mirko Mainardi
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Just got this notification (in Italian):
"Looking for translators to add to my group of collaborators. We're not an agency.
€0.03 EUR to €0.04 EUR per word
Further payment details: The offered rate is €0.04 for new words and €0.02, €0,01 for 100% matches that need to be reviewed.
Membership: Only (paying) ProZ.com members may quote
Medical
Preferred specific fields: Medical: Cardiology, Medical: Pharmaceuticals, Medical: Instru... See more Just got this notification (in Italian):
"Looking for translators to add to my group of collaborators. We're not an agency.
€0.03 EUR to €0.04 EUR per word
Further payment details: The offered rate is €0.04 for new words and €0.02, €0,01 for 100% matches that need to be reviewed.
Membership: Only (paying) ProZ.com members may quote
Medical
Preferred specific fields: Medical: Cardiology, Medical: Pharmaceuticals, Medical: Instruments, Medical (general)
Required native language: Italian
Subject field: Medical (general)
Required software: SDL TRADOS, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Office Pro
Additional requirements: 5 years of experience min. in the field"
Simply shameful.
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2019-04-29 15:48 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Saw that one | Apr 28, 2019 |
But I did not apply because it is not my specialty field.
It's really demoralizing. 😔
| | | | | Prompt payment! High volume! | Apr 28, 2019 |
Of course the rate will be justified by payment at the speed of light (no, faster; payment will be in your account before you even accept the job) and volumes of work so high you need to wear a diaper because you've no time to leave your computer even to take a leak.
And being the medical field, the quality will be so impeccable we should start bracing ourselves for a tsunami-like wave of patient injuries, litigation or worse, or healthcare professionals unlucky enough to get their ... See more Of course the rate will be justified by payment at the speed of light (no, faster; payment will be in your account before you even accept the job) and volumes of work so high you need to wear a diaper because you've no time to leave your computer even to take a leak.
And being the medical field, the quality will be so impeccable we should start bracing ourselves for a tsunami-like wave of patient injuries, litigation or worse, or healthcare professionals unlucky enough to get their hands on such "translations" scratching their heads and going "Eh???"
I got one such translation to review recently, and it looked like the Manson family got there before me. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Reviewing 100% matches | Apr 28, 2019 |
Mirko Mainardi wrote:
100% matches that need to be reviewed.
That's a bit of a worry in itself, when even the agency thinks something that should be correct probably isn't...
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Laura Gentili 
Italy
Local time: 22:13
Member (2003)
English to Italian
+ ...
La cosa più agghiacciante è vedere i commenti positivi sulla BB. Deduco che ci siano colleghi specializzati nel settore medico, con almeno cinque anni di esperienza, Trados ecc. felici di lavorare per 4 centesimi a parola.
Laura
| | | | | Imo, the saddest aspect of all ... | Apr 28, 2019 |
... is that this "offer" is anything but unusual. It's now commonplace on Proz. It seems to be the go-to place to find lots of eager beaver translators willing to working for peanuts, even in formerly specialised fields like legal, medical, technical etc. And many if not most of these spectacular "offers" are restricted to paying members. A real incentive to become a paying member again -not.
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 23:13
Member
English to Turkish
| What about translating from Italian? | Apr 28, 2019 |
Apparently Italian agencies (or in this case an LSP) pay lower rates to the willing Italian native speakers, but what about the British or American translators who translate from Italian to English? They must be working with Italian agencies and I don't think most of them would be willing to work for anything less than 0.10 EUR per word. Do Italian agencies afford to pay such rates to the native English, German, French speakers? If so, this sounds like a double standard.
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Some Italian agencies pay the price we translators ask. I translate from Italian into Portuguese and my rates start at 0.10 €…
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| For me the saddest aspect of all... | Apr 28, 2019 |
Is the fact that the posting says “we’re not an agency”, I do wonder what they are: is this notification coming from a translator? OMG!
| | | | Mirko Mainardi
Italy
Local time: 22:13
Member
English to Italian
TOPIC STARTER | Just for the record | Apr 28, 2019 |
Fiona Grace Peterson wrote:
Of course the rate will be justified by payment at the speed of light (no, faster; payment will be in your account before you even accept the job) and volumes of work so high you need to wear a diaper because you've no time to leave your computer even to take a leak.
Payment terms were 45 days net, by bank transfer, so not exactly FTL... no mention of volumes, just "long term collaboration".
And being the medical field, the quality will be so impeccable we should start bracing ourselves for a tsunami-like wave of patient injuries, litigation or worse, or healthcare professionals unlucky enough to get their hands on such "translations" scratching their heads and going "Eh???"
Exactly. That's why I thought this was particularly worrisome (in addition to the rate itself, I mean). And yeah, also the almost perfect score on the BB (based on 7 reviews), as Laura mentioned.
| | | | | | Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 14:13
Dutch to English
+ ...
| Saving heartache | Apr 28, 2019 |
Is saving heartache what we should be after in life? Just shut our eyes and the problem will go away? Or should we, as translators, be aware of what goes on in our industry and try to maintain some standards? And what can Proz do in that regard?
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Michael Newton
United States
Local time: 16:13
Japanese to English
+ ...
| Offer of the day | Apr 29, 2019 |
"long-term collaboration" means "give me the Calcutta rate".
| | | | Jo Macdonald
Spain
Local time: 22:13
Italian to English
+ ...
| Oooooooooooooh | Apr 29, 2019 |
.....hope it's not confirmed yet though, I love the buzz of waiting to start an exciting new, rewarding job, the longer the better, can't accept anything else in the meantime, have to be freeeeeeeeeeee
Wait a minute...........
€0.03 EUR to €0.04 EUR per word
Additional requirements: 5 years of experience min. in the field"
Great news, not going to be much competition on this one as all of us are too busy queuing up at the bread line after 5 years scrapin... See more .....hope it's not confirmed yet though, I love the buzz of waiting to start an exciting new, rewarding job, the longer the better, can't accept anything else in the meantime, have to be freeeeeeeeeeee
Wait a minute...........
€0.03 EUR to €0.04 EUR per word
Additional requirements: 5 years of experience min. in the field"
Great news, not going to be much competition on this one as all of us are too busy queuing up at the bread line after 5 years scraping those 3-4 cents outta the muck.......
Have to go, someone at the door, must the tax man or maybe the landlord with those nice bailiffs who look like they eat rusty nails for breakfast, I'll just go very quiet and pretend I'm not in, shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh fer now. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Answering with a question | Apr 29, 2019 |
A brief reply to Tina. Apologies for the lack of quote but it’s fiddly on a mobile.
If threads like this are, as you suggest, performing a public information service, who do we think is uninformed?
There have been posts about low rates as long as I can remember. I find it difficult to believe there is a single translator on the planet (unless they live under a rock) who is unaware of this issue.
The very title of the post, “Offer of the Day” suggests... See more A brief reply to Tina. Apologies for the lack of quote but it’s fiddly on a mobile.
If threads like this are, as you suggest, performing a public information service, who do we think is uninformed?
There have been posts about low rates as long as I can remember. I find it difficult to believe there is a single translator on the planet (unless they live under a rock) who is unaware of this issue.
The very title of the post, “Offer of the Day” suggests this occurs not only daily but several times a day. So it is not news.
Of course Mirko has a right to post it. Why ever not? But I question its efficacity all the same, if its aim is to “maintain standards”. Given all the thousands of similar posts out there, standards should have been maintained all along, but we all know about downward pressure...
On the wider issue, this does indeed reflect a changing market, which I agree is worrisome.
But I firmly believe that we as individual freelancers need to deal with it ourselves.
ProZ.com is a platform. It doesn’t dictate the market. Associations are great when a government decides, for example, to cut funding for court interpreters, and they serve to inform members and bring them together. But they can’t intervene in every deal.
Meanwhile, the “industry” is just an amorphous blob. It’s not listening to us.
So while I am a huge supporter of colleagues sharing experience online and see enormous benefits in that, when it comes to the tens of millions of transactions between clients and individual freelancers, I fear we are pretty much alone and need to accept that.
I can’t say “Hey Mirko, help me out here,” if a FR>EN client tries to pull the wool over my eyes. I need to act on my own behalf.
What ProZ.com does via the link I posted above is offer you a tool to do just that. That’s all.
And yes, in my opinion, that would save heartache. Which is no bad thing. ▲ Collapse
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