Poll: Is there one part of your job you wish you were better at?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
May 25, 2019

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Is there one part of your job you wish you were better at?".

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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 15:15
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Yes May 25, 2019

I’m not very good at marketing myself and I wish I could be better. Fortunately most of my customers come to me by word of mouth from colleagues, friends or other clients or through Proz directory and they already have an idea of what I can offer. It looks like past the first step everything falls in place as I have been working with some customers for a long while. For the rest, I tend to leave to others more capable than myself all those things I don’t like doing (accounting, taxation, com... See more
I’m not very good at marketing myself and I wish I could be better. Fortunately most of my customers come to me by word of mouth from colleagues, friends or other clients or through Proz directory and they already have an idea of what I can offer. It looks like past the first step everything falls in place as I have been working with some customers for a long while. For the rest, I tend to leave to others more capable than myself all those things I don’t like doing (accounting, taxation, computer issues).Collapse


Josephine Cassar
Natalia Pedrosa
Gulnara Krokhaleva
Mariana Perussia
Iren Bencze
Anna Herbst
Ehsan Mirzaei
 
Jan Truper
Jan Truper  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 16:15
Member (2016)
English to German
Yes May 25, 2019

All parts. Stasis is death.

Elizabeth Tamblin
Philippe Etienne
Kaisa I
Noelle Crist-See
 
Jennifer Forbes
Jennifer Forbes  Identity Verified
Local time: 15:15
French to English
+ ...
In memoriam
Yes, technical and computer-related matters May 25, 2019

I wish I understood computer-related problems better and knew how to resolve them - or even prevent them happening!

Vera Schoen
Josephine Cassar
Kay Denney
Noelle Crist-See
 
Philippe Etienne
Philippe Etienne  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 16:15
Member
English to French
Yes May 25, 2019

Colours.
My brain wiring is such that I have to think to come up with the right term for a colour. I don't have such problems with numbers, paintings, car brands or tree names.
When I see "green" in an English text, I visualise exactly what the colour "green" looks like in my mind (grass, Heineken, insurance slips, Land Rover), but I can't automatically say "vert" (the French for "green"). If I don't think, the colour I say or write could be anything from red to violet.
It's on
... See more
Colours.
My brain wiring is such that I have to think to come up with the right term for a colour. I don't have such problems with numbers, paintings, car brands or tree names.
When I see "green" in an English text, I visualise exactly what the colour "green" looks like in my mind (grass, Heineken, insurance slips, Land Rover), but I can't automatically say "vert" (the French for "green"). If I don't think, the colour I say or write could be anything from red to violet.
It's one of the many defects I have noticed in my head.

It seems that it can happen. In a TV program I watched eons ago, a brain-damaged person (car crash) hadn't recovered the relation between an animal name and the image of it. When he saw a sea horse, he knew it was a sea horse, but couldn't put the right noun on it. He could say anything from butterfly to rhino.

I also wish I had better psychic skills to determine whether prospective agencies are serious about assigning me projects or just want my details to rot in some database.

Philippe
Collapse


 
Susanna Martoni
Susanna Martoni  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 16:15
Member (2009)
Spanish to Italian
+ ...
Yes May 25, 2019

- Marketing myself. I am really reluctant towards marketing and sales but I know it is very important.

- Voice over. That seems a very interesting segment but I have no experience nor knowledges about it.


Noelle Crist-See
 
Marie Karlsson
Marie Karlsson
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:15
English to Swedish
+ ...
Yes May 25, 2019

Marketing myself to gain better clients. I would also like to work towards getting into a new field of specialism: horses and equestrian sports.

 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 16:15
Spanish to English
+ ...
Yes May 26, 2019

Admin. I've never been great at things I don't really like doing.

Kay Denney
 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 08:15
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Yes May 26, 2019

As I get older, and because there are more temptations out there, I find that I'm more easily distracted than I used to be. I need better discipline, so I don't end up working late at night to keep up my daily quotas.

Marija Eidukevičiūtė
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 16:15
French to English
numbers May 26, 2019

Philippe Etienne wrote:

Colours.
My brain wiring is such that I have to think to come up with the right term for a colour. I don't have such problems with numbers, paintings, car brands or tree names.
When I see "green" in an English text, I visualise exactly what the colour "green" looks like in my mind (grass, Heineken, insurance slips, Land Rover), but I can't automatically say "vert" (the French for "green"). If I don't think, the colour I say or write could be anything from red to violet.
It's one of the many defects I have noticed in my head.

It seems that it can happen. In a TV program I watched eons ago, a brain-damaged person (car crash) hadn't recovered the relation between an animal name and the image of it. When he saw a sea horse, he knew it was a sea horse, but couldn't put the right noun on it. He could say anything from butterfly to rhino.

I also wish I had better psychic skills to determine whether prospective agencies are serious about assigning me projects or just want my details to rot in some database.

Philippe

I feel the same way but about numbers. Of course counting in French is horrendously difficult

https://www.facebook.com/LADbible/videos/666291220492414/

My challenge for this year is to keep below the threshold for paying VAT, otherwise I might end up having to calculate percentages again.


 


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Poll: Is there one part of your job you wish you were better at?






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