Suggestion: NON-specialties on profile Thread poster: José Henrique Lamensdorf
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All outsourcers - and Proz too - ask me about my specialties in translation, but none so far has asked me about my NON-specialties... subjects that I am completely unable to translate, because I don't understand them in ANY language.
My specific case involves two areas: medicine and finance. Of course I can translate such material if it's intended for laypeople like me. If I fail to understand, something must be missing there. However if it's targeted at practicioners in such areas,... See more All outsourcers - and Proz too - ask me about my specialties in translation, but none so far has asked me about my NON-specialties... subjects that I am completely unable to translate, because I don't understand them in ANY language.
My specific case involves two areas: medicine and finance. Of course I can translate such material if it's intended for laypeople like me. If I fail to understand, something must be missing there. However if it's targeted at practicioners in such areas, I'm out!
It's not unique. I know an extremely competent legal translator who will immediately recite my name and phone number upon hearing the word "video". She told me that if she wants to watch a DVD, she'll ask her husband to put it in the "machine".
So, just as every translator has their specialty areas, it's fair to guess that some of us have areas they don't know squat about.
My suggestion would be to include in the Proz profiles a fourth category.
Now there are:
- specialty fields
- working fields
- interest fields
The fourth (new) one would be:
... indicating the areas a translator would not be willing to deal with for technical or any other reasons.
The expected benefit is that outsourcers having jobs in these areas wouldn't be specifically seeking that translator because they liked the rest of their profile, typically Connect jobs.
I was about to submit a support ticket, but I thought that having other Prozians' ideas first might be more productive. After all, I might be wrong. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 01:44
Dutch to English
+ ...
| Just some thoughts | Jun 17, 2009 |
True, maybe there are fields that you would never touch under any circumstances and it would prevent people from sending you those jobs. On the other hand, clients who don't know the language of the text they want translated may not have a clear idea of what field it is or the difficulty level. That way you could be missing out on jobs that you could have handled quite well. I think I would always want to see the text first and then decide. If I can't do the job myself, I often try to refer the ... See more True, maybe there are fields that you would never touch under any circumstances and it would prevent people from sending you those jobs. On the other hand, clients who don't know the language of the text they want translated may not have a clear idea of what field it is or the difficulty level. That way you could be missing out on jobs that you could have handled quite well. I think I would always want to see the text first and then decide. If I can't do the job myself, I often try to refer the client to a Proz colleague who does specialize in that field.
[Edited at 2009-06-17 18:24 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | The older I get... | Jun 17, 2009 |
...the more I know I ignore! I would need to add more and more areas to the non-specialty list as I get to know more and more!
| | | | Laurent KRAULAND (X) 
France
Local time: 09:44
French to German
+ ...
| A sign of professionalism | Jun 17, 2009 |
Hello to all,
I would welcome such a NON-specialties field somewhere in my profile, it would save my and the outsourcer's time.
Although I only was contacted once for an actual job through ProZ, I also had some Connect offers which I could not reply to (typically: finance, medicine) but which were obviously interesting.
I think such a feature would benefit to all.
Laurent K.
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José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote: Now there are:
- specialty fields
- working fields
- interest fields
The fourth (new) one would be:
Hi all,
I think Off-limits fields would be ambiguous if compared with Interest fields. Personally I don't think there is much difference between these. For me Interest fields can mean either fields I expressed my interest in (i.e. I find them interesting and maybe someday I'll take on advancing in them) or fields I read some materials on but have not yet accumulated enough skill to start translating. So, my question is how can you properly distinguish between them?
Also, with all these innovations coming so fast, it is easy for an outsider to get lost in here. All these directories, KudoZ, fields, points...I mean this may seem a little bit overwhelming if you are not a regular user of the site. The other day I encouraged some of my local colleagues to sign up, and they ended up either saying "Sorry I'd better stick to local agencies" or registering but not using the site any more. Just my experience.
Andrei
[Edited at 2009-06-17 20:12 GMT]
| | | | | Exactly my thought | Jun 17, 2009 |
Andrei Yefimov wrote:
with all these innovations coming so fast, it is easy for an ousider to get lost in here. All these directories, KudoZ, fields, points...I mean this may seem a little bit overwhelming if you are not a regular user of the site. The other day I encouraged some of my local colleagues to sign up, and they ended up either saying "Sorry I'd better stick to local agencies" or registering but not using the site any more. Just my experience.
Andrei
Please stop innovations, at least for a while...
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