Poll: In general, I prefer... Penyiaran jaluran : ProZ.com Staff
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| | | No preference | Apr 29, 2017 |
As I said before (another very similar quick poll), I have no preference whatsoever, but what I really, really, like is having a long term project with a comfortable deadline and in parallel handling a good bunch of shortish projects…
| | | | neilmac
Sepanyol
Local time: 18:41
Bahasa Sepanyol hingga Bahasa Inggeris
+ ...
As long as they don't all come at the same time, in a flustered rush of "urgency", with excruciatingly brief deadlines, I don't mind. However, in the real world, longish translations, say 10,000 and over, can end up getting in the way of shorter texts, depending on whether or not the deadlines clash.
And it's different. Although I get a feeling of satisfaction delivering a short job really quickly, I also feel good (relieved?) after finishing a long translation. Most of my longer tr... See more As long as they don't all come at the same time, in a flustered rush of "urgency", with excruciatingly brief deadlines, I don't mind. However, in the real world, longish translations, say 10,000 and over, can end up getting in the way of shorter texts, depending on whether or not the deadlines clash.
And it's different. Although I get a feeling of satisfaction delivering a short job really quickly, I also feel good (relieved?) after finishing a long translation. Most of my longer translations tend to be in academic fields like education, history, or sociology, while my business translations rarely exceed 10K words in a single document, and in fact most business texts I translate are much shorter. Let me just check; it's the end of the month, and out of seventeen business translations, two of them were roughly 4K and one was just over 6K. Another 3 or 4 had between 1000 and 1500 words, and the rest were all shorter. However, I enjoyed (or suffered) them all equally, no preferences really due to length. A couple of the jobs were awkward due to formatting issues...
[Edited at 2017-04-29 08:48 GMT]
[Edited at 2017-04-29 08:49 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Muriel Vasconcellos (X) 
Amerika Syarikat
Local time: 09:41
Bahasa Sepanyol hingga Bahasa Inggeris
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Like Teresa, I enjoy having longer jobs with loose deadlines so I can work in shorter ones along the way, but even if the deadline is tight, I basically prefer the longer ones. I basically don't like really short jobs. Too much hassle to invoice them.
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EvaVer (X)
Local time: 18:41
Bahasa Czech hingga Bahasa Perancis
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| Short but... | Apr 29, 2017 |
not too short, let's say between 1 and 10 pages. When there is one sentence to translate, I will spend more time on administrative processing of the job and on discussions with the client than on the job itself.
| | | | Toby Wakely
Sepanyol
Local time: 18:41
Ahli (2009)
Bahasa Sepanyol hingga Bahasa Inggeris
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| long but not too urgent | Apr 29, 2017 |
In general I prefer longer jobs. I find I can pick up pace as I become more and more familiar with the subject matter of the text. Also, they give more financial stability, important in such an unstable profession as translation can be, as well as help build up TMs.
| | | | Ricki Farn
Jerman
Local time: 18:41
Bahasa Inggeris hingga Bahasa Jerman
| Medium-sized and recurrent | Apr 29, 2017 |
I love customers who send 1-3 days' work at a time, on a regular basis. More than 3 days spells boredom, less than one day means waste through a "patchwork" workflow, and non-recurrent is a waste of content/terminology research.
Now to find a butterfly net that catches me just this type of customers
[Edited at 2017-04-29 13:12 GMT]
| | | | Gianluca Marras
Itali
Local time: 18:41
Bahasa Inggeris hingga Bahasa Itali
Define the size of a job please!
In my field for example a small size job is between 2500 and 7000 words, a medium size job is between 7000 and 15000 words and over 15000 words it is a large job.
According to that, I prefer medium-size jobs, because thanks to CAT tools I can manage them in a reasonable time and I can accept more jobs.
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Julian Holmes
Jepun
Local time: 01:41
Bahasa Jepun hingga Bahasa Inggeris
The better
Because I can get more involved in the project and learn more about what I am translating. The more I get involved in a project, the better my translation will become and the quicker my turnaround will become. This is a win-win situation for all parties concerned.
As translators, we are in the 'knowledge business.' The more we know, the more proficient we become. This is something that cannot be gained by lots of 'ships in the night' type of one-off jobs. A nice 4- ... See more The better
Because I can get more involved in the project and learn more about what I am translating. The more I get involved in a project, the better my translation will become and the quicker my turnaround will become. This is a win-win situation for all parties concerned.
As translators, we are in the 'knowledge business.' The more we know, the more proficient we become. This is something that cannot be gained by lots of 'ships in the night' type of one-off jobs. A nice 4- or 5-month long project is a must if you want to prove your worth in a particular field. FWIW ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 13:41
Ahli (2014)
Bahasa Inggeris hingga Bahasa Portugis
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| Is this a choice at all? | Apr 29, 2017 |
This is not the kind of choice a professional translator should think about.
As a mechanic, do you prefer to fix old cars or new cars?
As a doctor, do you prefer male or female patients?
As a translator, do you prefer small, medium or large jobs?
Of course you can have your preferences. But it's a really meaningless preference, once it's not a choice at all.
| | | | Bruno Veilleux
Kanada
Local time: 12:41
Bahasa Inggeris hingga Bahasa Perancis
| I favor medium jobs | Apr 30, 2017 |
Mario Freitas wrote:
Is this a choice at all?
For me it is. Working full time for several weeks becomes excruciating for me, so I don't bid on very large jobs regardless of how interesting they seem. It's also why I avoid jobs where you're asked to commit to a certain number of words/hours every week until further notice. I need to be able to stop for several days if I need to, and with large jobs I can't do that with the peace of mind that everything I had committed to has been delivered. I do like medium jobs that extend over 3-10 days, though, for the same reasons already mentioned in this thread, and clients that have frequent smaller projects as opposed to one large job with a less manageable deadline.
| | | | Ventnai
Sepanyol
Local time: 18:41
Bahasa Jerman hingga Bahasa Inggeris
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I prefer medium, but I don't mind short jobs for regular clients. What I really don't like are long jobs with many different files, because it is more difficult to make changes with regard to terminology or other aspects.
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Armorel Young
Local time: 17:41
Bahasa Jerman hingga Bahasa Inggeris
is always best - a big job to maintain a steady work flow combined with small jobs that you slot in for interest and variety.
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