Poll: In a month, I usually complete...
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
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Feb 17, 2018

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "In a month, I usually complete...".

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Gudrun Maydorn (X)
Gudrun Maydorn (X)  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 18:02
English to German
+ ...
What a silly question! Feb 17, 2018

The number of projects says nothing at all about the size of the projects or the amount of time worked on them. Some may work on dozens or hundreds of very short texts while some others may be working on a single project that keeps them busy all month.

 
EvaVer (X)
EvaVer (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 18:02
Czech to French
+ ...
Depends on the definition of "project" Feb 17, 2018

I have about 20 lines in my ledger every month, but some are stable clients where I only open one line per month and complete translations (some of them very small) as I go (recording them in the client's account). If I called every half-page bit a project...
To answer Gudrun: the number, while saying nothing about the size etc., is not irrrelevant. It says something about how your business is diversified (the number of active clients is a better indicator of that, but on the other hand, a
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I have about 20 lines in my ledger every month, but some are stable clients where I only open one line per month and complete translations (some of them very small) as I go (recording them in the client's account). If I called every half-page bit a project...
To answer Gudrun: the number, while saying nothing about the size etc., is not irrrelevant. It says something about how your business is diversified (the number of active clients is a better indicator of that, but on the other hand, a client may be one you hear from once per year.) To take an extreme example: if you work on a single project, albeit a huge one, for several months, your business will be very fragile.

[Edited at 2018-02-17 08:31 GMT]

[Edited at 2018-02-17 08:32 GMT]
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neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 18:02
Spanish to English
+ ...
I don't usually keep count Feb 17, 2018

If I want to know how many "projects" or translations I've done in any particular month, I can look in my work folders for that month for each client. Then, to find out an average, I suppose I could do the calculations…
However, as it happens, I already have enough on my plate trying to maintain a life/work balance without adding extra tasks like these to the equation.


 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 10:02
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
I do mostly really big projects Feb 17, 2018

My main clients tend to give me very large projects. They want to keep their in-house translators freed up for day-to-day work. My last one took me 6 weeks. I did squeeze in a few other assignments when I got ahead of my daily quota, but never as many as 10 in a month.

Long ago I remember translating a ginormous project of about 800 words ( https://tinyurl.com/ya8wk8oh). Each disease was assig
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My main clients tend to give me very large projects. They want to keep their in-house translators freed up for day-to-day work. My last one took me 6 weeks. I did squeeze in a few other assignments when I got ahead of my daily quota, but never as many as 10 in a month.

Long ago I remember translating a ginormous project of about 800 words ( https://tinyurl.com/ya8wk8oh). Each disease was assigned to me separately. But that probably doesn't count.

[Edited at 2018-02-17 09:50 GMT]
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Philippe Etienne
Philippe Etienne  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 18:02
Member
English to French
Averaged Feb 17, 2018

Between 198 and 319 jobs/year between 2011 and 2017.
Averaged per month, it means 16 to 26 each month, the immense majority from long-standing agency customers. Although I can see that job values have varied between €12,900 and €10 between 2011-2017, it indeed says nothing about how much or little I work.
On the other hand, a word rate says nothing about the time of day.

It would be interesting to know whether the average full-time translator does scores of smaller
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Between 198 and 319 jobs/year between 2011 and 2017.
Averaged per month, it means 16 to 26 each month, the immense majority from long-standing agency customers. Although I can see that job values have varied between €12,900 and €10 between 2011-2017, it indeed says nothing about how much or little I work.
On the other hand, a word rate says nothing about the time of day.

It would be interesting to know whether the average full-time translator does scores of smaller jobs in greater quantity (like 1 every working day on average) or only a handful of larger jobs (like one every week). I'd rather be in the latter group, but it's not the case.

As far as I am concerned, a 2-word job is a project/job/assignment, because I have to meet a deadline, deliver, invoice and follow up payment. And be accountable for it all. According to the way I use Translation Office 3000, a project/job/assignment is an entry on a sheet, with a deadline and a non-zero price, associated to a PO number (or an go-ahead e-mail), even delivered in installments.

Philippe
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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 17:02
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
10-20 Feb 17, 2018

Usually I receive from my clients between 10 and 20 projects each month. I said receive because some of these projects are large and span over several months. According to my ledger I completed 157 projects last year, 150 in 2016, 167 in 2015 and 266 in 2014.

 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 14:02
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
About 40 Feb 19, 2018

I have a big & regular client that sends me lots of small projects (100 - 500 words) almost every day. Otherwise, this number wouldn't reach 20.

 


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