How best to interpret length of experience in profile De persoon die dit onderwerp heeft geplaatst: Sarah Maidstone
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Sarah Maidstone 
Duitsland
Local time: 03:29
Lid 2020
Duits naar Engels
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This is going to sound like a daft question, but I'm not sure how best to accurately reflect my years of experience in my profile. I'm also unsure of how much this matters, as in, is this a criterion used by outsourcers when searching?
After graduation, I worked as a staff translator for two years and a technical writer for a further two years. I then continued to work and study for a further 18 years, including studying in my target language and working in my source language. At th... See more This is going to sound like a daft question, but I'm not sure how best to accurately reflect my years of experience in my profile. I'm also unsure of how much this matters, as in, is this a criterion used by outsourcers when searching?
After graduation, I worked as a staff translator for two years and a technical writer for a further two years. I then continued to work and study for a further 18 years, including studying in my target language and working in my source language. At the beginning of this year, I returned to translation as a freelancer (I know, not the best time to be getting into the industry).
My question is firstly, does it matter at all? If not, I could just leave the field in my profile blank.
If it does matter, do I enter just my translating experience, or translating and writing (I also offer writing services), or do I include all or some of the time that I was working in industry using both languages on a daily basis (although I fully realise that working in two languages and actually translating are not the same thing)?
I'd be grateful for your opinions! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lincoln Hui
Hongkong
Local time: 10:29
Lid
Chinees naar Engels
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| Whatever benefits you the most | Mar 6, 2020 |
As long as you're not outright lying, no one can fault you for using the earliest starting date that you can get.
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Does it matter? Yes, it does: work experience is as important, if not more important than qualifications and training. I agree with Lincoln: enter what benefits you the most without lying.
| | | | Sarah Maidstone
Duitsland
Local time: 03:29
Lid 2020
Duits naar Engels
+ ...
ONDERWERPSTARTER
… for your replies. Presenting myself in the best possible light without bending the truth is what I'm aiming to do. The thing is, I'm trying to work out what would be a fair representation of my experience, reduced into a number in the "length of experience" box.
At the moment, it's set to reflect purely my time as a staff translator and writer, plus the time since I've started freelancing. My specific question is whether or not it would be disingenuous to include more?
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Lincoln Hui wrote:
As long as you're not outright lying, no one can fault you for using the earliest starting date that you can get.
And then explain in About Me or even in CV (briefly) but do not leave it out. Every useful bit counts
| | | | Samuel Murray
Nederland
Local time: 03:29
Lid 2006
Engels naar Afrikaans
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Sarah Maidstone wrote:
I'm not sure how best to accurately reflect my years of experience in my profile.
I suggest including your years of technical writing in your years of "translation" experience. Doing non-writing or non-translating work in your second language is not "translation experience", but technical writing is close enough. Remember, not all "translators" here are merely translators.
Is this a criterion used by outsourcers when searching?
No, clients can't search for translators based on years of experience, but they can see the years of experience on your profile page. And yes, certainly, the years of experience is a factor in deciding to use a translator.
Sarah Maidstone wrote:
At the moment, it's set to reflect purely my time as a staff translator and writer, plus the time since I've started freelancing. My specific question is whether or not it would be disingenuous to include more?
Ask yourself, if a client were to ask you to be more specific about your years of experience, would the client consider your subsequent reply to be a believable reflection of the figure that you had entered? Would you be able to defend the figure and feel happy about how you defend it?
Look, the figure is just a rough indication anyway. I'm sure someone out there can even make a case for you not having a single year's experience, due to the large gap between now and your previous experience. The fact is that "new" translators who may have gotten very high grades at university still lack certain skills that real translators only pick up over time. Figures above 6 or 7 are all equal, in my opinion.
[Edited at 2020-03-06 12:51 GMT]
| | | | Sarah Maidstone
Duitsland
Local time: 03:29
Lid 2020
Duits naar Engels
+ ...
ONDERWERPSTARTER
Thanks to all of you who've taken the time to answer. I think Samuel has hit the nail on the head. I'm going to leave it on the lower side so that I don't have to justify anything, and maybe work on getting some more sample translations to upload (most of what I've done so far isn't appropriate due to confidentiality) just in case anyone ever gets that far in looking at my profile
| | | | | A small correction | Mar 6, 2020 |
No, clients can't search for translators based on years of experience
They can actually, if they use ProZ Find.
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Samuel Murray
Nederland
Local time: 03:29
Lid 2006
Engels naar Afrikaans
+ ...
Alistair Gainey wrote:
Samuel wrot:
No, clients can't search for translators based on years of experience
They can actually, if they use ProZ Find.
Is that just a mock-up or does it actually work (and is it actually being used)? When I search for my language combination, it says that there are 600 members in total, and that I do not appear in the top 1000 results.
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Is that just a mock-up or does it actually work (and is it actually being used)? When I search for my language combination, it says that there are 600 members in total, and that I do not appear in the top 1000 results.
I don't know whether it's being used, but when I search for your combination I get far fewer members and you're right up there. It looks like you selected English-English instead - that gives 600 native speaker members.
| | | | DZiW (X)
Oekraïne
Engels naar Russisch
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| Depends on Exp/Quality | Mar 7, 2020 |
How does a mere number of years correlate with confidence, usefulness, stability, gained/preserved in/tangible value, customization, prestige, and so on? A smart prospect will ask: What’s in it for me? So be ready to substantiate.
In fact, it’s just a part of pre-negotiations as probing: if you can explain it to your prospects why DOE/DOQ matters (features => advantages => benefits; FAB), then the rate is ok, otherwise they can safely ignore such a non-bu... See more How does a mere number of years correlate with confidence, usefulness, stability, gained/preserved in/tangible value, customization, prestige, and so on? A smart prospect will ask: What’s in it for me? So be ready to substantiate.
In fact, it’s just a part of pre-negotiations as probing: if you can explain it to your prospects why DOE/DOQ matters (features => advantages => benefits; FAB), then the rate is ok, otherwise they can safely ignore such a non-businessperson, demanding infamous ‘discounts’ and more.
Unlike intermediaries, many end clients aim at the middle range of 5-20 years of exp, cutting out ‘too young/unskilled’ and ‘too coarsed/stale’ candidates. Frankly, freelancers's rates don't correlate nicely with age years. As my direct clients admitted, they consider neither 'youngsters' without references/portfolio, nor ‘overqualified’ candidates without any recent (2-3 yrs) refreshment or training. Freelancers are taught to omit everything that is not directly related to their fields, so one can easily miss some big deals or regular customers. ▲ Collapse
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