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Is there a list of companies that ask for a test translation and never contact back the translator?
Thread poster: Didi18
Zibow Retailleau
Zibow Retailleau  Identity Verified
Mauritius
Local time: 19:00
English to Chinese
+ ...
One thing I don't understand Nov 17, 2020

Didi18 wrote:


So the timeline goes like this: I applied, was interviewed by two different people, offered the job over the phone, I accepted over the phone (have nothing in writing), THEN they sent the test which turned out not to be a proofreading job but a direct translation, and I never heard back from them again after I sent the finished test translation back.



Hi Didi. When you saw that it was actually a translation test instead of a proofreading one, why did you go ahead with it? This alone needed to be cleared up before proceeding in my eyes. And if I'm not mistaken, you haven't agreed on a translation rate yet? If so, it means that you took a test without knowing if it would be worth the effort.

[Edited at 2020-11-17 13:32 GMT]


Didi18
Kay Denney
expressisverbis
Mervyn Henderson (X)
 
jyuan_us
jyuan_us  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 11:00
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
Titleless Nov 17, 2020

Didi18 wrote:
So the timeline goes like this: I applied, was interviewed by two different people, offered the job over the phone, I accepted over the phone (have nothing in writing), THEN they sent the test which turned out not to be a proofreading job but a direct translation, and I never heard back from them again after I sent the finished test translation back.


Usually, they should have sent you the test before "offering you a job," not the other way round.


Didi18
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
@Didi Nov 17, 2020

Didi18 wrote:
The two companies I wonder about are not translation agencies but tech companies. ...
Is this a scam or normal?

I have no experience of tech companies but I very much doubt it’s a scam.
My experience of large companies in general is that they are rigidly dependent on systems and procedures which don’t always work.
I’d just take a deep breath and move on.


Zibow Retailleau
Mervyn Henderson (X)
Didi18
Kay Denney
Christine Andersen
expressisverbis
 
Didi18
Didi18
United States
Local time: 08:00
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Timeline clarification Nov 18, 2020

Hi,

The job was to proofread MT output for six months, and when one of the interviewers called that they were offering me the job for an hourly wage for 15 hours a week, I accepted. Then the interviewer said they needed to confirm with their client and would send me a test. If the client approved, then I would sign an NDA and start working.

The test turned out to be a straight translation, not a proofreading job. The translation was for items to be sold on Amazon withou
... See more
Hi,

The job was to proofread MT output for six months, and when one of the interviewers called that they were offering me the job for an hourly wage for 15 hours a week, I accepted. Then the interviewer said they needed to confirm with their client and would send me a test. If the client approved, then I would sign an NDA and start working.

The test turned out to be a straight translation, not a proofreading job. The translation was for items to be sold on Amazon without the names of the items.

Why did I do it after noticing it was not a proofreading job but a straight translation? Sometimes I can be definitely not the brightest light on the porch, and this was one of those times. It's a big company and they are located close to where I live. They have offices in many countries. I think the headquarters are in China. Basically; they are not a flight by night business so I thought it was OK for me to follow their instructions.

After such a long time not hearing back from them even though I emailed them twice, now I wonder if I was scammed or if this is normal.

I wish the Blue Board had a section to write about experiences like this one.
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Christine Andersen
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 16:00
French to English
. Nov 18, 2020

Sadek_A wrote:

Elena Feriani wrote:
It is normal, though, that some don't provide feed back, because they probably receive a lot of tests every day and have no interest in giving feedback to people that they're not going to hire.

Sorry, but it is NOT normal at all, for the following reasons:
1- Whoever is in charge of grading the tests must justify their (pass/fail) decisions to the company for which the tests are being graded.
2- It's those who will be hired that do NOT need a feedback, because their only feedback would be "you're hired".
3- I was in charge of grading tests for one of the industry players. Part of my task was to provide precise, detailed justification for all the (fail) decisions I made.


As an in-house translator I had to check all sorts of translator tests. I could be sent 20 tests to be assessed by the end of the week, and it was on top of my usual output.

To get them done quickly and easily, I would first check three things: whether the spell check had been run just prior to sending, a technical term, and a tricky pitfall (often a mistake in the source text that would need to be flagged, or which could lead to ambiguity). I would only look in more detail if all three of these points were OK. The spell check criterion was a surprisingly accurate indicator of quality, I suppose it meant that the translator was thorough and careful. I don't think that a translator would be happy to learn that his translation had been rejected within half a minute, so feedback was not normally provided. I may have weeded out excellent translators with this method, but there were always enough excellent translators that got through to the detailed analysis stage, so tough. The agency's job is not to explain mistakes or train translators who claim to be professional, it's to select a person they can work with to mutual benefit. We also took into account whether the translator was polite and pleasant, because nobody wants to work with a jerk,

Once I had to select a translator for a highly technical job. The work involved annual reports and press releases for a tech firm, so the translator needed to be well versed in finance as well as that particular line of tech, and capable of producing smooth, natural prose (I know I know we should all be able to do that but I found that technical translators in particular rarely bother to polish their prose).

All the annual reports were available online in both languages. We did not redact the client's name in th test. I'm not sure if we specified that translators would have to use the same terminology, but would have done so had any translators asked whether they should do so. After all, we could have been seeking a new translator due to quality issues with the previous one. It was not the case here.

I was asked to provide feedback for one translator who was upset at not being selected, so I ran a comparison of his translation with the version delivered to the client and highlighted all the technical terms that were wrong (reassuring him that non-technical differences like nevertheless instead of nonetheless had not been taken into account). The next day I received a 3-page missive detailing why our version was wrong and his was right. Sorry mate, I don't have time to argue further, someone else provided an impeccable translation and they're already working on their first job for us.

Please don't be that translator!


Mervyn Henderson (X)
Christine Andersen
Zibow Retailleau
Marina Taffetani
Didi18
 
Robert Rietvelt
Robert Rietvelt  Identity Verified
Local time: 16:00
Member (2006)
Spanish to Dutch
+ ...
@Kay Yes, but......... Nov 18, 2020

[/quote]

...... The next day I received a 3-page missive detailing why our version was wrong and his was right. Sorry mate, I don't have time to argue further, ......

Please don't be that translator!
[/quote]

..... did he had a point?

For starters, nothing personal meant (I am not talking about you), but didn't we all have the experience that the proofreader demonstrable "raped" your translation, simply because he/she wasn't qualified en
... See more
[/quote]

...... The next day I received a 3-page missive detailing why our version was wrong and his was right. Sorry mate, I don't have time to argue further, ......

Please don't be that translator!
[/quote]

..... did he had a point?

For starters, nothing personal meant (I am not talking about you), but didn't we all have the experience that the proofreader demonstrable "raped" your translation, simply because he/she wasn't qualified enough to correct your work? Agency believes incapable proofreader and you loose a potential client/job.

In those cases I could be that translator!
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Sadek_A
Didi18
Becca Resnik
 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 16:00
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Just a comment on multilingual jobs Nov 18, 2020

If you see a job requiring translations into several languages, don´t drop it immediately.

Of course it may be a scammer offering peanuts, but not necessarily.

It may be a job for an end client selling the same product in many different countries. I translate into English, and did a lot of work at one time for a Swedish client who sold products all over the EU, and needed marketing and product details in practically every language in the EU. My translations served as a
... See more
If you see a job requiring translations into several languages, don´t drop it immediately.

Of course it may be a scammer offering peanuts, but not necessarily.

It may be a job for an end client selling the same product in many different countries. I translate into English, and did a lot of work at one time for a Swedish client who sold products all over the EU, and needed marketing and product details in practically every language in the EU. My translations served as a source for colleagues who could not read Swedish. I have delivered translations to be translated into Chinese or other non-EU languages as well.

You can consider why the agency does not already have regular translators in all those languages, and check the type of text and the terms and conditions, but there may be perfectly good reasons why multilingual translations are needed.

I will stop before I stray further from the original topic!
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Zibow Retailleau
Didi18
Ingvild Karlsen
 
Sadek_A
Sadek_A  Identity Verified
Local time: 19:00
English to Arabic
+ ...
..... Nov 18, 2020

Kay Denney wrote:
The spell check criterion was a surprisingly accurate indicator of quality, I suppose it meant that the translator was thorough and careful.

No, in today's world, it means MS-WORD is thorough and careful.
Kay Denney wrote:
I don't think that a translator would be happy to learn that his translation had been rejected within half a minute, so feedback was not normally provided.

No offence, but could the "half minute" thing be linked to the age of the proofreader/grader? The proofreader/grader might, perhaps, be feeling so full of themselves (not necessarily you!); impatient (again, not necessarily you!); or even just tired (this one could very well be you, as per your "I could be sent 20 tests to be assessed by the end of the week, and it was on top of my usual output.")?
Also, I can't imagine you accepting to be proofread/graded by someone else in just half a minute! Or, would you be accepting?
Kay Denney wrote:
I may have weeded out excellent translators with this method, but there were always enough excellent translators that got through to the detailed analysis stage, so tough.

Did you mean to say "tough luck" for the weeded-out excellent translators? Okay, if the same makes you feel good, I'm happy for you, but this is NOT how I treat the translators I'm grading. They went through the hassle, and they definitely deserve my unbiased, undivided attention!
Kay Denney wrote:
The agency's job is not to explain mistakes or train translators who claim to be professional, it's to select a person they can work with to mutual benefit.

You're not an agency, are you? That's rhetorical, I don't need an answer! It's the (successful) agency's best interest to invest in the people they come across. Part of that investment is a kind(er) treatment. But, perhaps, this is just my mentality, and it's different with you, I respect that.
Kay Denney wrote:
We also took into account whether the translator was polite and pleasant, because nobody wants to work with a jerk,

Sure. But, can a company that's NOT polite nor pleasant really score HR that are polite and pleasant? It's a 2-way street, give to get!
Kay Denney wrote:
Please don't be that translator!

Is this directed at me? I don't know you, and I'm sure I've never contacted, nor will I be contacting, you for a job! I can't help but see this particular statement as a poor taste. It should've been something like "Please, test-takers, don't be that translator!". Two words, yes, but they changed the whole meaning!
Have a good one, nonetheless (or, nevertheless)!


 
IrinaN
IrinaN
United States
Local time: 10:00
English to Russian
+ ...
Not really, Sadek Nov 18, 2020

Sadek_A wrote:

Kay Denney wrote:
The spell check criterion was a surprisingly accurate indicator of quality, I suppose it meant that the translator was thorough and careful.

No, in today's world, it means MS-WORD is thorough and careful.


Пол - 1. floor 2. sex
Пал - smoldering ruins or fields
Пил - drank (to drink, past tense)
Пел - sang (to sing, past tense)
Пул - pool (transliterated and newly accepted term for, say, pool of translators, reporters; same pronunciation)
Под - under
Пыл - passion (colloq.)

Say, word No. 1 is a correct word in the given text. All other words have typos as related to the context, just 1 wrong character in each but those are all correct and properly spelled individual words. Russian spellcheck will never catch it MS WORD is incapable of analyzing the subject.


Kay Denney
Mervyn Henderson (X)
 
Sadek_A
Sadek_A  Identity Verified
Local time: 19:00
English to Arabic
+ ...
Maybe, Irina Nov 18, 2020

IrinaN wrote:
Say, word No. 1 is a correct word in the given text. All other words have typos as related to the context, just 1 wrong character in each but those are all correct and properly spelled individual words. Russian spellcheck will never catch it MS WORD is incapable of analyzing the subject.


I, and others (both current & future readers of this thread), would be in a better position understanding your point if you've given the examples in English, or in Arabic (in my case).

However, the point that was being raised by Kay is that she takes spelling as an initial qualification of the candidate; and, it was my counter-point that a candidate can ace that qualification with the help of MS-WORD or similar software.

Allow me to follow your example:

Irina is defending Kay's point by undermining MS-WORD in the process.
كاي تدافع عن برنامج مايكروسوفت وورد عبر التشنيع بنقاط آيرينا

The Arabic spelling provided above is 100% correct; but, do you know what the back-translation says?

"Kay is defending MS-WORD by shaming Irina's points".

Now, was that what the original English text said, despite the correct Arabic spelling?

Do we consider this applicant qualified? Or, do we need to be extra cautious with him/her, by spending perhaps more than just half a minute?


 
Mervyn Henderson (X)
Mervyn Henderson (X)  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 16:00
Spanish to English
+ ...
How did this come about? Nov 18, 2020

Did they contact you, or did you contact them?

Edit: Sorry, cancel that - you say later you "applied".

It might simply mean they're stringing together a load of free tests to make up a translation at no cost, and the rest of it, possible jobs, is a con. You can usually tell if a test translation really is a test, because if it is, they won't particularly mind if you take your time, but if they say they want it back double quick (because their reviser is apparently on th
... See more
Did they contact you, or did you contact them?

Edit: Sorry, cancel that - you say later you "applied".

It might simply mean they're stringing together a load of free tests to make up a translation at no cost, and the rest of it, possible jobs, is a con. You can usually tell if a test translation really is a test, because if it is, they won't particularly mind if you take your time, but if they say they want it back double quick (because their reviser is apparently on the edge of his seat to check it as soon as possible), then it's not legit.



[Edited at 2020-11-18 18:36 GMT]

[Edited at 2020-11-18 18:43 GMT]

[Edited at 2020-11-18 18:44 GMT]
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Didi18
expressisverbis
 
Didi18
Didi18
United States
Local time: 08:00
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Yes, Mervyn, that's what they said Nov 18, 2020

Mervyn Henderson wrote:

Did they contact you, or did you contact them?

Edit: Sorry, cancel that - you say later you "applied".

It might simply mean they're stringing together a load of free tests to make up a translation at no cost, and the rest of it, possible jobs, is a con. You can usually tell if a test translation really is a test, because if it is, they won't particularly mind if you take your time, but if they say they want it back double quick (because their reviser is apparently on the edge of his seat to check it as soon as possible), then it's not legit.



[Edited at 2020-11-18 18:36 GMT]

[Edited at 2020-11-18 18:43 GMT]

[Edited at 2020-11-18 18:44 GMT]


Hi Mervyn,

Yes, that's what they said. They said they needed the translation the next day to show it to the client, who would decide then if I was going to be hired at the agreed upon wages.

I didn't think much of them wanting the translation for the next day. I thought they wanted to see if I can do a good job within tight deadlines. That was then.

However, after reading some of the posts here, and after not hearing from them in months even after I emailed them twice asking what had the client decided, I wonder if this was a legitimate post offering or a scam.

I wish Blue Board had a section for situations like this one, in which translators can post about their experiences. If the company does it frequently, it may save another translator from wasting their time and money, since they could be using their time to apply and/or complete a paying job.

I still don't know if this was a scam or if I didn't pass the test.

[Edited at 2020-11-18 20:55 GMT]


expressisverbis
 
IrinaN
IrinaN
United States
Local time: 10:00
English to Russian
+ ...
@Sadek Nov 18, 2020

I don't believe that we are looking at the issue from the same angle. Language is not important for my point. I chose short words in Russian because it is easy for anyone to distinguish characters and visually determine that each has 2 same characters and 1 different. I don't think I could do the same looking at Arabic:-), whereas my choice of Russian is not a barrier for stressing my point.

In a sentence about a singer I can make a typo in ***sang*** (пел, a verb) and end up wi
... See more
I don't believe that we are looking at the issue from the same angle. Language is not important for my point. I chose short words in Russian because it is easy for anyone to distinguish characters and visually determine that each has 2 same characters and 1 different. I don't think I could do the same looking at Arabic:-), whereas my choice of Russian is not a barrier for stressing my point.

In a sentence about a singer I can make a typo in ***sang*** (пел, a verb) and end up with the **floor** (пол, a noun) instead but my Russian spellchecker will not alert me as it couldn't care less what the word or the entire sentence means. However, it will recognize A word that exists in Russian in this grammatical form and, as such, is spelled (NOT used) correctly. That's all it can and will do. Ergo, unless I do my proofreading after MS-WORD does its job, I have a good chance to send it to the proofreader "as is" and the proofreader will not be alert as well until h/s will read every sentence with human eyes and catch me red-handed. It is unacceptable to rely solely on a spellcheck in Russian.

Also, I'm not sure what did you want to argue by offering an example of your back translated sentence? 100% correctly spelled words put together, producing a wrong outcome? My point exactly:-) but maybe I'm still missing your point.

[Edited at 2020-11-18 22:52 GMT]
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Mervyn Henderson (X)
Mervyn Henderson (X)  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 16:00
Spanish to English
+ ...
Scam or no job Nov 19, 2020

Didi18, it's one of the two, and in any case you aren't getting anything out of it at all, and apparently haven't been for months, so next time think less about whether it's for the Mexican market, and more about why they're asking you to do a test translation, and especially a test translation in record time, with the end customer's tongue supposedly hanging out to see if you reach their exacting, under-pressure, high-quality standards. Of course there are urgent jobs, but in general the more u... See more
Didi18, it's one of the two, and in any case you aren't getting anything out of it at all, and apparently haven't been for months, so next time think less about whether it's for the Mexican market, and more about why they're asking you to do a test translation, and especially a test translation in record time, with the end customer's tongue supposedly hanging out to see if you reach their exacting, under-pressure, high-quality standards. Of course there are urgent jobs, but in general the more urgent the job, the crappier the outfit. Think of the immense scope these people have for trying it on with all the CVs reaching them.

Forget Blue Board. It is what it is. These forums are for discussing what you want to discuss.

There. I've kept it fairly brief. Of course, I could have done it differently. I could have quoted blocks of your text and added in my own unhelpful, piece-by-piece, off-at-a-tangent, lofty, man-of-the-world analyses which have little to do with the price of fish, but that tends to annoy people.
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Zibow Retailleau
Christopher Schröder
expressisverbis
 
Matthias Brombach
Matthias Brombach  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 16:00
Member (2007)
Dutch to German
+ ...
OT Nov 19, 2020

Mervyn Henderson wrote:

There. I've kept it fairly brief. Of course, I could have done it differently. I could have quoted blocks of your text and added in my own unhelpful, piece-by-piece, off-at-a-tangent, lofty, man-of-the-world analyses which have little to do with the price of fish, but that tends to annoy people.


It doesn´t, because at least I follow threads whenever they are spiced with your analytic thoughts and which are a pleasure to read. I miss writers in the German thread who would have at least some of your writing skills and I´m definitely not one of them. Keep on, Mervyn, a lot of people like your posts here.


Zibow Retailleau
expressisverbis
 
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Is there a list of companies that ask for a test translation and never contact back the translator?







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