The concept of online job boards is great. Clients who need a translator (writer, graphic designer, etc.) can post their project and get a bunch of bids, then pick the person they like best. Translators (etc.) can connect with pre-sold clients: clients who already know what they need and are ready to pull the trigger once they find the right person.
In reality, the situation is more complicated. The standard job-board setup encourages a race to the bottom. Clients get tons of bids, or don’t really understand the service they’re buying, and thus latch onto factors that they understand. Typically those are price and speed. Factors on which experienced professionals really don’t want to compete. But yet, the phenomenon continues, with typical job-board rates going lower and lower. To be clear, I’m not conducting a finger-pointing exercise here: when you take a soup pot and throw in ingredients such as:
- The language industry (in the US, at least) having no barrier to entry
- Clients needing/wanting a fast and easy way to connect with translators
- Clients seeing a way to potentially find a good translator who’s not expensive
- More and more people seeing freelance work as a viable “real” career path
- More clients needing more content translated on tighter deadlines
- Beginning translators needing a point of entry into the industry
- More part-time and hobbyist translators who don’t want or need to earn a full-time living from translation
- More translators using productivity enhancements such as TM, MT, and speech recognition, and figuring that they can charge less per word and earn the same hourly rate
It’s not hard to see where the perfect storm comes from. And despite each new job board’s assurance that it’s going to do things differently, we have yet to see a real sea change in that market. I definitely hear from freelance translators who have found good clients on job boards, but I feel like that’s the exception rather than the rule. But my question in this post is, is there a better way? Is there a way to connect clients with translators online without creating a reverse auction situation? Answer: I think so.
I think so, because the freelance writing world seems to be moving in that direction. Here’s a recent post from one of my favorite non-translation blogs, Carol Tice’s site Make a Living Writing. In this post, Carol looks at four “content mills” that seem to be focusing more on quality, value for money, and best-fit-for-the job, rather than “how low can you go.” After I read this post, I poked around and saw other freelance writing job sites like this, using strategies such as:
- Having the site’s staff select a small number of writers (like five) to quote on each job, based on their backgrounds and profiles. This frees the client from sifting through hundreds of proposals, getting overwhelmed, and just going with the cheapest/fastest person.
- Pre-screening the writers who are allowed to have profiles on the site; not taking beginners or people who do not freelance full-time. Translation job boards could do this by having a “premium” section, taking only translators who are certified, have a Master’s in translation, or at least X years of experience with references, for example.
- Requiring clients to meet a minimum rate in order to post their jobs. Some of these writing sites explicitly say, “no jobs below X dollars per hour.” Some translation job boards could easily do this, because they already know the average rate that translators on their sites charge (no jobs below the average rate, for example).
- Making it totally clear that they exist to connect quality-conscious clients with professional writers. Showing that they add value by screening the writers, or by selecting specific writers who would be good for the client’s job. This is more of a mindset shift than a tangible factor, but I think it’s important.
- Requiring clients to name their price up front, rather than seeing how little someone will bid on the project.
This is a thorny issue. I tell students on a regular basis, “You’re not going to put the globalization genie back in the bottle, so you need to find a way to compete on quality, service, specialization knowledge, and a personal relationship with your clients.” The fact that clients can shop worldwide for translators is not going away anytime soon. But I think that it’s time to look at the job board model and ask if there’s a better way to do things.
Readers, over to you!
This is an excellent point, Corinne. We cannot wish away machine translation, job boards, and any bilingual person claiming to be a translator. What we can do is shape these processes according to best practices and promote these best practices among our clients and colleagues. I would love to see a job board like that!
Thanks, Maria! Glad you enjoyed the post.
Corinne, I took a look over the job board precipice once and almost fell in.
As you say, there are far more effective, human approaches to forging the client-professional bond; such, however, take time and deliberate energy. But the end result is worth the effort. A new paradigm in the translation profession that embraces these truths would be welcome.
Thanks, Paul! By the way, I have zero (literally, zero) interest in running a translation job board, so this idea is up for grabs 🙂
A quibble: “no jobs below the average rate” is an obvious non sequitur.
Paulo, can you clarify?
Probably he meant that average rate implies there are rates below and above, and limiting to the average would automatically increase the average.
Thanks, Edith! That’s helpful. Just to clarify, what I’m suggesting is that many of the large sites already have average rates for various language pairs, so simply saying “No English to Spanish jobs below X cents per word” would be a good place to start.
True, Corinne, and the current average rate can be used to establish such minimum rates (though for many language combinations the average rate itself is rather low).
I still think approaching “real humans” is the best way to go. More work, of course, but still. Having said that, the job board approach is just another option, another possibility. Use every tool you can find in your toolbox.
Thanks! Yes, I agree: job boards are *a way* to find clients, and I think it’s important to diversify your client-finding techniques. Just wondering if there’s a better way to run the job board model.
Has anyone tried the technology-assisted matching, like TM Town (https://www.tm-town.com/), before or after ProZ bought them? I always thought their approach is risky to translators, i.e. upload your TMs and then trust them not to abuse the trust. Would it be worth exploring a different underlying technology eliminates that risk, creates better
matches, and uses some/all of Corinne’s strategies?
Interesting, thanks Tom!
Thanks for the post, Corinne. I think that it is quite possible to create a job board that will take into account the best business practices both for translators and clients, however, big players are less prone to change anything. Proz and other similar websites, established more than 10 years ago, did not change much since 2005 or so. Things like pre-screening and setting a minimum bid rate can work, but in spite of those obviously reasoned limitations there are hundreds of job boards standing pat… that is really sad.
Anyway, thanks for sharing these ideas. I added it to my SMM posting schedule.
Thanks, Simon! Glad you enjoyed the post.
We agree with every you are saying in your post.
Even so, the issue with a “job board” is that even if you are limiting the number and quality of applicants, you are still putting them into a very competitive situation that encourages them to lower their prices and go through a quotation process.
Job boards somehow feel like groveling. We want translators in the lead.