A few weeks ago, we needed to find a Portuguese-English translator. If you ever need to find a translator, there are several options open to you, and one of them is the many translation platforms available online. However, if you do want to find a linguist on one of these, you must take your time.
But first, what are these platforms?
Sometimes I get asked “if you need a translator for Urdu, where do you find them? Do you have a list?” Well, as you can imagine, with some 6500 languages in the world and several translators per language, that would be one giant list. Plus, there are translators who stop translating and others who start their career every day, so it would be impossible to keep said list updated.
I like to refer to these platforms as Facebook for translators. They are places where translators create a profile, explain their academic background and experience and get hired by clients.
Who can you find in these platforms?
- Freelance translators
- Translation companies
- End client companies
- End client individuals (although I’m sure there aren’t many)
Benefits?
Well, the advantages of these platforms from the client’s point of view are clear: if you need a translation/revision/interpretation, etc. and you’re not sure where to find a suitable candidate to perform this job, this can be a fantastic place to start. There are thousands of linguists who specialise in the most diverse areas, with many different rates, academic backgrounds and work experience.
For language professionals, this could also be the perfect place to start. Some of the biggest translation companies in the world are represented on these platforms and this is where they get their freelancers from. And not only for translation – freelancers can find offers for proofreading, interpreting, subtitling and other language services. Some platforms can also set professionals up with good deals on translation software.
Downsides?
It’s not all roses… If you’re looking for a linguist on one of these platforms, please take note: you must take your time and take a good look at their experience. You’re going to get a lot of quotes for the jobs you post. Some will be good, some will not. You’ll have linguists quoting your jobs who probably shouldn’t work with that language pair and others who will offer prices that are way too high (or too low) for the service. Make sure to pick the best and take your time to go through the 1000 (don’t worry, I’m exaggerating) CVs you’ll receive.
If you’re trying to find a job as a freelancer, there are some things you perhaps need to know too:
Price: these platforms tend to be pricy. Some ask you for a yearly membership in order to be able to quote on jobs, some have a balance you can top-up and pay-per-quote. There are several business models and prices. Try to find out which suits the current status of your business.
Time: like any social media profile, you need to add all your details to these platforms. This may be time consuming at first, but then it’ll simply be a matter of updating it.
Clients: in the same way clients will receive quotes from some non-qualified linguists (because anyone can register), you’ll also get offers from some potentially bad clients for the same reason. Take your time to analyse your potential client before accepting any jobs.
Time to tell you a story: the other day I was looking for a PT-EN translator to help me with a big project and I went to one of the biggest online platforms. After only 1 hour of having posted the job, I had a couple dozen CVs in my inbox to go through.
As I was looking through those CVs, I found some fantastic linguists with a lot of experience in the market and some amazing references at the average market prices. However, I also got offers from linguists that would perform the job for 0.01€/word — yes, you read right, one cent — and other quotes for 0.2€/word. I was astonished by this discrepancy. First of all, how could a translator work for 1 cent per word? How would they pay their bills? And then 20 cents? Who would pay such amount in this market for a general text?
There should be a way to control the job postings and quotes. I’m sure the people behind these platforms are constantly thinking of ways to improve them, and this could be a good place to start. I’m also pretty sure that they are aware of this problem and that new solutions will emerge. Perhaps there could be, at least, a minimum quote…
All of this in order to tell you: whether if you’re looking for a translator or for a client, make sure to take your time selecting the offers and quotes that show up in your inbox.
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