Rob Prior wrote:
If the proz community is serious about the rates issue, the best thing it could do would be to drop the reverse auctioning of jobs on the website where everything goes to the lowest bidder and new members of the profesion often see it as the primary way to get work. Just sayin'...
If our quoted rates were displayed publicly, and particularly if the text of the quote wasn't displayed, then I'd agree with you that this would encourage lower and lower bids. But that isn't what is happening: our bids are totally secret. And nowadays, only paying members have the option to see the poster's budget, and even then we can quote higher.
I know that an awful lot of those who post jobs on the public board simply want the lowest quote from among those who seem to have some chance of producing half-good quality. But that certainly doesn't apply across the board as I get a few good clients each year from that source. I'm absolutely certain that my rate is nowhere near the lowest at 0.10-0.12€ per word or 30€ per hour, but I still get chosen from time to time (when they bother to reply at all). So, not a great way of finding work, but worth spending a few minutes quoting on the more interesting ones. Of course, there are far more good jobs to be had from direct client contacts through your ProZ.com profile.
To be honest, I'm not sure that well-paid translation work is any more scarce now than it was 10 years ago. But that well-paid work is being swamped by the deluge of poorly-paid work that didn't exist 10 years ago. Once upon a time, if you couldn't afford a professional translator's rate then you didn't get translated; now everyone feels they have the right to a translation, and so they do, from a free one of very dubious quality to a top quality one that's far from free. It's our job to (a) make clients aware of the difference, where possible, and (b) make sure our services come to the attention of those who want good quality and are prepared to pay for it. As Tom in London says: I refuse all work that doesn't pay me the rate I want (which is a very fair rate for the high-quality translations I provide). The good clients keep coming back. The bad ones stay away.
Login to reply/comment 
Translation news
