| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18] > | Moving on from freelance translation, starting a new career Thread poster: James Greenfield
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Lingua 5B 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 16:02
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Regarding courses, especially online and cheap courses, I can illustrate with SEO.
They will teach you some definitions and postulates, you will pay them, but this skill and industry is so dynamic, the course will be of little value. Plus, the succesful industry masters will high rate of conversions will not share their industry secrets in a cheap course. They may in an expensive business consulting (also questionable). Thus this course may end being a waste of time and money.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 16:02
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Then you misunderstood SEO | Feb 15 |
Christopher Schröder wrote:
One thing I noticed when looking into getting more copywriting work was that everyone wants you to write for SEO, which basically means blathering on in an irritatingly verbose and repetitive way to work in various key words and set phrases way more often than would be natural.
(A bit like how Tory politicians in the UK have been trained always to call it "Putin's war" rather than "the war", and "our wonderful NHS" rather than "the NHS", and use catchphrases like the "war on motorists" and all those other slow-drip brainwashing techniques.)
So, to me, writing for SEO is the opposite of good writing and a red flag for moving further in that direction. I simply don't want to do it.
(Same with MTPE. It's not a refusal to adapt. I just don't want to waste my life doing that.)
So it's not just a matter of apathy and inertia.
SEO is about reach, sales and conversions, not nice or readable writing.
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Lingua 5B wrote:
Christopher Schröder wrote:
So, to me, writing for SEO is the opposite of good writing
SEO is about reach, sales and conversions, not nice or readable writing.
Same thing, no? I see no misunderstanding.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:02
Member (2008)
Italian to English
I was thinking of googling to find out what SEO stands for, but then I decided not to bother.
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 16:02
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Charlie Bavington wrote:
Lingua 5B wrote:
Christopher Schröder wrote:
So, to me, writing for SEO is the opposite of good writing
SEO is about reach, sales and conversions, not nice or readable writing.
Same thing, no? I see no misunderstanding.
The writing may be repetitive, boring or dull, but convert better.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 16:02
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Tom in London wrote:
I was thinking of googling to find out what SEO stands for, but then I decided not to bother.
We all know you will read and analyze it thoroughly, like you always do when you reject and cancel tech products.
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FWIW, and a bit OT, but apparently it's all about answer engines now, not search engines.
| | | | | More meandering ramblings | Feb 15 |
Dan Lucas wrote:
If you still have the emotional and financial wherewithal to be able to say "I don't want to do X, or Y, or Z" then I would argue that you must be in pretty comfortable circumstances. If that is the case, there is nothing wrong (potential boiling frog situations aside) with being selective and indeed, continuing to do exactly what you have been doing!
True. For me, it's more about contingency plans than an acute emergency. Given my age, I stand a good chance of keeping on doing what I do until retirement.
I suppose there may be some who are leaving the profession because they are getting very little work, but surely it would be a lot easier to drum up more work than start over. So leaving the profession now will normally be a pre-emptive strike. Or is it jumping the gun?
Another good reason to stick with translation is that it will inevitably take a long time to build up the levels of expertise (and so earnings) that we've achieved over the past 10, 20, 30 years as translators. That sets the bar even higher for leaving the profession.
As for all this talk of transferable skills, presumably people mean things like computer literacy and bookkeeping which we have at a pretty basic and probably entirely self-taught level, and woolly things like time management, writing and research skills that anyone can claim to have. How much mustard will that cut with potential employers?
All this makes the "hard pivot" unattractive unless you can find something you really, really want to do.
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Charlie Bavington wrote:
The drawback is that I get the feeling at this point (anecdotally) that the public* perception of AI is that it probably doesn't really need any post editing, particularly into English. It can be deceptively impressive-looking. Especially if it is prompted properly to use certain terminology, etc.
*public including direct clients
I agree with that. But I'm not a "purist" and I have never been. For me, it's just a job. Granted, a job I enjoy, but I don't mind post-editing... it's better than working in a lead mine... 
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Christopher Schröder wrote:
As for all this talk of transferable skills, presumably people mean things like
Subject matter expertise also. For example, I know a specialised medical translator now working for a medical firm, and another who used to do international development translations (inter alia, in this case) who got a FT job for a development agency. Both English mother-tongue now working in source lang countries, incidentally. Undoubtedly their language skills are transferred to their new role (if not translation per se).
| | | | Jane Martin (X)
Local time: 15:02
Spanish to English
I was just discussing this with a friend (also a translator) yesterday and out of interest we compared our income from last November and December to our income for this year. For both of us it has dropped quite dramatically. I have moved into proofreading and now earn about a 1/3 of my income from proofreading academic papers for a university and I also have a job in a local National Trust property (not using my languages at all). Much as I love translating, I cannot see it surviving as a well-p... See more I was just discussing this with a friend (also a translator) yesterday and out of interest we compared our income from last November and December to our income for this year. For both of us it has dropped quite dramatically. I have moved into proofreading and now earn about a 1/3 of my income from proofreading academic papers for a university and I also have a job in a local National Trust property (not using my languages at all). Much as I love translating, I cannot see it surviving as a well-paid and respected profession while machine translation is becoming so good - and of course much cheaper than paying a translator. I also dislike PEMT - I have tried (and failed) to embrace this new way of working. I am lucky in that I am approaching retirement but I would not advise youngsters to enter this profession now. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Translating SPCs doesn’t make you a pharmacist | Feb 15 |
Charlie Bavington wrote:
Subject matter expertise also. For example, I know a specialised medical translator now working for a medical firm, and another who used to do international development translations (inter alia, in this case) who got a FT job for a development agency.
I get that to a degree, but the level of familiarity you develop as a translator won’t equip you to do much, if anything, in the actual field. You’d still have to start almost from scratch.
My partner works in the civil service where people regularly jump between relatively unrelated jobs if they’re management, but not subject matter experts.
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| On being too hasty | Feb 15 |
Jane Martin wrote:
I was just discussing this with a friend (also a translator) yesterday and out of interest we compared our income from last November and December to our income for this year. For both of us it has dropped quite dramatically.
That's a very small sample period. It might not mean anything. I had a really slow period last summer/autumn which made me panic and blame AI, but the usual spring flood this year has made it clear that it was just one of those things.
I still feel vaguely uneasy about the future but reasonably secure for now.
I'm totally with you on MTPE, by the way. I'd rather scan groceries or pack biscuits. I guess I see myself as an artist lite.
Of course, the obvious alternative career is writing fuction*. At least then I can write whatever I want.
*Freudian mistype? Maybe erotic fiction is my future.
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Christopher Schröder wrote:
Charlie Bavington wrote:
Subject matter expertise also. For example, I know ....actual examples
I get that to a degree, but the level of familiarity you develop as a translator won’t equip you to do much, if anything, in the actual field.
I have to beg to differ a little. I've given actual examples were precisely that has happened.
Absolutely not the case for everyone, ofc.
Perhaps when you said "you", you really did actually mean me
I which case, it's a fair cop, with the notable and somewhat niche exception of credit insurance. Otherwise if one has always preferred to take work in a variety of fields, as I have, I absolutely take your point. If, in constrast, you are like my two chums, perhaps you might cut the mustard out in the big bad world. We are all different.
| | | | | Guilty as charged :-) | Feb 15 |
Charlie Bavington wrote:
I have to beg to differ a little. I've given actual examples were precisely that has happened.
Absolutely not the case for everyone, ofc.
Perhaps when you said "you", you really did actually mean me
In which case, it's a fair cop, with the notable and somewhat niche exception of credit insurance. Otherwise if one has always preferred to take work in a variety of fields, as I have, I absolutely take your point. If, in constrast, you are like my two chums, perhaps you might cut the mustard out in the big bad world. We are all different.
Sorry, not meaning to contradict you, but when you said "working at a firm/organisation" I assumed it was in a fairly junior position. Are you saying those translators went into senior/highly specialised roles? In which case, I'd be very interested to know how.
I could have a decent stab at investing but I couldn't walk straight into a hedge fund (unless it was to look pretty on reception). What I could do is walk into a job as a bookkeeper at £15 an hour, but I'd then have to study hard to qualify as a junior accountant and climb the greasy pole to make partner, and frankly I CBA.
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