Survey Results Analyzed

I've noticed that every obscure experience or piece of information you've ever encountered in your life is likely to become relevant at some point in your translation career.

Well, running the first online translators' survey was like that for me. It took me back to childhood holidays spent in the town of Dubbo, in the Australian Outback. There, my parents, Dr. Leon and Judith Simons, respectively a professor of medicine and a statistician, were laying the groundwork for their landmark long-term health research project, the Dubbo Study. After rapidly exhausting Dubbo's few entertainments, we children soon retreated to the project's air-conditioned headquarters on the town's main street where we found unexpected satisfaction in sorting hundreds of survey forms and helping our parents collate the data. Though I had no idea who the respondents were, I found the disembodied snippets of personal information fascinating.

My own attempts to design this survey and analyze the results are certainly that of an amateur and I don't present them as conclusive, but they certainly are interesting and I think that each person can draw conclusions that are relevant for themselves.

To view the final results, click here.

First, I want to state that I think that respondents were generally accurate in their answers with the exception of the question about monthly income. People are naturally hesitant to reveal such information. In fact, out of 138 respondents, 33 skipped the question altogether.

One of the most important questions for me was the one which asked if work volume/earnings had changed in the past nine months. While it is clear that the world is experiencing an economic crisis, no one is sure how deep the impact has been in Israel or whether it is affecting the local translation industry. The survey results seem to indicate that while the majority of translators reported that their income had stayed the same or increased, 42% have been negatively affected by the downturn to some degree. I assume that this means that the industry as a whole has only slightly declined, probably primarily in certain specializations and therefore not effecting all translators. On the other hand, a slight drop during a major recession is probably an indication of general robustness in the industry. Translation is generally a great field to be in!

More amateur analysis to come from me soon. In the meantime, everyone is encouraged to view the results and draw their own conclusions. You can filter the results, as well as view individual response sheets, so that you can focus your interest on particular language pairs, specializations, etc. Feel free to post comments on this blog!

Congratulations to all our Graduates!

The pilot session of the WritePoint Translation Course concluded this week and by all accounts the program was a fantastic success. The group was smart, motivated and talented and was a pleasure to teach. Now they are moving out of the "hothouse" and into the world of professional translation. About half of the class has already begun paid translation work and all are busy using all the tools and resources they gained in the course to build their new careers.

Right now, I'm busy editing and evaluating their final projects. In order to graduate from the course, each student must complete two real translation projects for real clients. Students have the option of choosing projects recruited by my company or finding clients for themselves (we discuss ways of finding clients extensively during the course).

Projects that the recent graduates completed included websites, academic papers, press releases, news and feature articles, book excerpts and PowerPoint presentations. The majority have produced translations of a very high standard, and their clients are very satisfied.

One student, who chose a project for a client she found herself, received the following response in an email:

"We received all the translations. You did a truly amazing job - perfect in all aspects. We appreciate your effort, professionalism, and efficiency very much... We will definitely be happy to work with you again and refer you to other people."

This does not surprise me that much. Last week I received an email from Adv. Michael Prawer, who taught the legal translations module, who had been reviewing some student assignments: "I must say that for non-lawyers (and even for lawyers) those whose work I have corrected did excellent jobs."

Congratulations to all the graduates. You all worked very hard and we had a great time.

Translators' Survey - Follow the Results

The first online survey of translators in Israel is off to a great start, with more than 100 respondents so far.

You can follow the results as they develop by viewing this link.

The survey is still open so these results are not final and it would be good to encourage more translators to participate. There is obviously a heavier emphasis on Hebrew-English right now, since the lists that I sent it to are apparently haunted primarily by native English speakers. Feel free to forward the link below to Hebrew lists.

There is a way to cross-tabulate the results to show trends, for example there is a clear indication that academic translation is the best-paying specialty by far. However, this will take some work for me so I’ll do it after the survey is closed.

FYI the surveymonkey site is secured by Verisign to protect the privacy of people who participate in the surveys. You do not have to provide any identifying details or an email address to take part.

I hope that you find these results useful and interesting.

If you haven’t yet participated, click the link below:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=6xgHp8nNEdIsKGwCe54oCw_3d_3d

First Online Survey of Translators in Israel!

I invite all working translators to participate in the First Online Survey of Translators in Israel.

This survey is designed to benefit translators and the translation industry by providing accurate answers to important questions about our profession that have not previously been addressed.

The 10-question, multiple-choice survey will assess the relationship between education levels, translator training, professional experience, specializations and the current economic downturn, and translators' rates and earnings.

We urge you to participate and to forward the link to all your colleagues. The more translators who participate, the more accurate and revealing will be the results. The main focus is on Hebrew-English and English-Hebrew translators, but other language pairs are also surveyed here.

The results will be made free to the public.

To participate, click here.

It's Not a Job, It's a Business

When searching for a career path, literate-writer types have quite a few options to consider - journalism, marketing writing, technical writing, grant and fund-raising writing, editing, proofreading, and, if you have the language skills, translating.

These jobs can be performed in an "in-house," salaried framework or on a freelance basis - except that translating is only very rarely in-house. This has a lot of implications for us as professional translators. I was recently discussing this with a person interested in my course, who was also considering studying technical writing.

"A translator leads a fundamentally different lifestyle than a technical writer," I told her, pointing to such factors a regular work hours, having a boss, working as part of a team and commuting to an office. When I point these factors out to potential students it's always interesting to see how one person views some or all of the above factors as major pros, while another sees them as major cons.

"It's Not a Job, It's a Business," I told her.

As soon as those words left my mouth, I was struck by the truth in them.

If you're looking for a major dose of translators' common sense, I recommend Corrine McKay's book How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator.

"Most translators enter the field because they love languages and writing, not because they love marketing and bookkeeping, but many translators' businesses fail because they lack basic business skills," writes McKay, a US-based French-English translator.

McKay's book is full of tips and resources for the business side of the translation game, most of which she learned the hard way. We have this in common, as well as a belief that if trainee translators are given guidance in this area at the beginning, they will avoid many common pitfalls and will be more likely to succeed.

Translators have to stop thinking of themselves as "working from home," and starting recognizing themselves for what they truly are - small business owners.

We are businessmen and businesswomen, no less than those corporate jet setters steering their compact luggage units straight to the business-class counter at the airport. We are business people, constantly networking and searching for new opportunities and markets. We have to sell, negotiate, and close that deal. We seek to increase efficiency and cut costs, and, of course, see our profits rising annually.

But what about translating... didn't we get into this game in order to translate. Well, yes, it's very important to translate and do it very well. But if you recall my post about The Big Three, that is only one factor in your success.

Like any business, translation is a game with an element of risk. If that excites you, welcome to the club. If that scares you silly... well I know better than to write anyone off... just keep reading.

Pro-Bono Translation - Everybody wins...

You know that funny feeling you get when the phone rings and even before you see that the caller ID reads "Anonymous," you're already sensing that it's a telemarketer from some worthy non-profit organization. Should you pick up???

Don't get me wrong, I want to feed hungry children with cancer as much as anyone. Yet there is just something about the medium of telemarketing that makes me so uncomfortable.

Having worked extensively writing and translating for non-profits I have much to say on the matter, but this is not the forum for that discussion. We're here for some Translation R&R, and I want to propose that the best way that you can help your favorite worthy cause is to perform translations for them on a volunteer basis. It can be very beneficial for your career too...

We all know not all the money we donate to NPOs actually reaches the people they are trying to help (and with telemarketers its a fraction of that fraction). So if you want to help an organization in a direct and meaningful fashion, save your pennies to pay your bills and donate in kind. By producing well-written, readable fundraising and informational materials for them in your target language, you could well be helping to stimulate donations worth tens of thousands of dollars.

You will also be saving them from the dread clutches of the HCCTs ("Have Computer, Can't Tranzlate" - our new in-house term for "them"). These folks will charge them low rates to produce agonizing, embarrassing translations that make prospective donors either squirm or guffaw, potentially costing the worthy NPO tens of thousands dollars.

Volunteering for NPOs can be good for your career, as well as your soul. Certainly for a beginner, it will generate valuable experience and genuine content for their portfolio.

In addition, volunteer work frequently leads to paid work, though not always in the way you might expect. The cash-strapped NPO you're volunteering for may never be able to hire you, but the director may well recommend you to his friends or just the fact that your name is out there as a translator can lead to opportunities.

Volunteer translation, or should I say pro-bono translations (we're professional, right?), are a good investment for all translators, not just rookies looking to make their name. As I said, it's a donation that probably worth much more than you can afford monetarily. It establishes you as a professional whose interest in translation is not purely mercenary.

Everybody wins.

Except the telemarketers...