Professionals are hard to find

Josephine Cassar wrote:

I don't know how you contact translators but do you send mass emails starting hello, or hello Dear or just Dear..?
I never reply to some such email. It's not really because I do not trust the translator who sends such an email but because I think the translator sending the email will choose the first translator who replies, at least that's what I find. Or it's a translator who is just contacting other translators to find their rate or their CV, etc. But I generally do reply when someone sends me a request or an email with my name as it means they specifically searched for me or found me so i bother too, to at least reply.

Lieven Malaise wrote:

So I think a lot of translators will only respond if they have an immediate interest in doing so.

[Edited at 2023-09-25 06:06 GMT]

Philip Lees wrote:


When you say you "use this site", what exactly do you mean?

If you're contacting translators individually about specific jobs, based on their profiles and activity on the site, then I agree you should expect a prompt and courteous response.

If, on the other hand, you're just posting jobs using the ProZ job broadcasting system, then you should be aware that a lot of the more experienced translators using the site routinely ignore such mass job postings because they so rarely lead to anything useful.

Juno Bos wrote:

Do translators not trust other translators? Do you need to be an agency to refer work to a colleague? Or am I doing everyting wrong?

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida wrote:

I’ve never posted a job on Proz (for fear of being flooded with hundreds of replies), although I outsource work from time to time. As I said before I have a small group of trusted translators with whom I have been working for ages. If they happen to be not available or interested in a particular job, I prefer selecting a small number of translators in the directory and contact them directly. I have always been answered, some more quickly than others.

But there is another side to the coin! When I’m contacted, I’m always very prompt to answer any potential client (even more so if it is from a peer). Only yesterday (Sunday), I received an email at 09:07 a.m. which was answered twenty minutes later with my availability and rate. Did she acknowledge my mail and thank me? Of course, not…

Juno Bos wrote:

Don't get me wrong, I am seriously trying to find out what I do wrong from my side as well.

Zea_Mays wrote:


As a Proz member you get a lot of job requests.
These are often mass messages sent through the directory search feature,
and less often through the profile messaging feature.
The former are impersonal and clearly mass enquiries with lousy rates
in 99,9% of the cases, and I rarely reply to them,
the latter are usually personal and more often in line with my areas of work,
and the requester generally gets a reply from me.

If the offer is not something I am immediately interested in,
my approach is sometimes similar to that described by Lieven Malaise:

Kevin Fulton wrote:

A number of years ago when my daughter was attending university in Montréal, she needed to have some documents translated into French and certified (by my estimate, a 2-3 hour job). Rather than go through an agency I decided to contact OTTIAQ-certified translators individually. I sent several email queries and left voicemail messages on answering machines, offering a good rate, cash on delivery with a reasonable deadline. I identified myself as a fellow translator, hoping that professional courtesy would at least elicit an acknowledgement, if not an acceptance. I was kidding myself. Eventually I found someone, but it was an unnerving experience even dealing with the person who eventually accepted the job.