Freelancer translators vs. translation agencies
While I am my company’s in-house translator, I am also our “in-house agency” for European languages. I am exclusively working with freelance translators. I am always wondering, if I just got extremely lucky with my translators or if that’s just the way it is.
My pros:
- I like to know I get the same translator every time
I guess that is one of the most important points and something you know if you are a translator and probably learned if you are working in the business long enough. I have worked with agencies before, and I have received varying quality even in the same field, which is unacceptable - I get better quality
It’s somewhat implied by the above bullet. IMHO, it’s a simple fact that repeat business increases the quality. Our translations are kinda sorta the same - about colors. I am sure a lot of things have to be looked up, but if everything goes to the same person - as they learn about our business, the value of their translation for us increases. - I get fast response and turn-around times
It is just nice to know that I can count on fast replies and that I can get small translations back fast - usually within a day for < 100 words and those one sentence translations are returned almost instantly. If not, I almost know they are not at their desk and will reply when they are back. Honestly, email is generally a very fast and reliable medium. Please don’t ask me to confirm every email - and that works both ways. I believe it is safe to assume that you receive my emails and I have received your emails - It is less formal
Usually, I can send out translations with just a couple of sentence. We need no purchase orders, I never need to specify dates (unless it is super urgent), formats, payment mode etc. I send an email with the file and the word count and if I know/care about, the desired return date. I don’t expect a reply unless it can’t be done within a reasonable amount of time (and “reasonable” depends on the size of the project) - I get bilingual files
Bilingual files allow me to have a TM which saves me money on translation work. I don’t think it is a problem since I always work with the same people, so I don’t have a TM created by dozens of different translators - It is cheaper
Of course it is, we are cutting out the middle man. I know that agencies offer services, but usually I don’t need those services - so why pay for them?
Interestingly, I believe that many of the things that are advantageous for me, are also advantageous to them:
- They deal with the same “PM” every time
They learn my style and they know what I expect and it saves them the time to set guidelines every time - They get fast response
Just as much as I appreciate a fast reply, they probably appreciate fast responses to their questions and inquiries the same - It is less formal
I am pretty sure this goes both ways - just as I hate to waste time, you can spend your time on better things that replying with the “Thank you for your inquiry. I appreciate your business and ….” - They don’t have to format files
When working with Trados and Word, Trados can do a horrible number on your files and the formatting. I often find I am spending hours on formatting files, so I believe I save money on “words”, and the translators can spend their time translating instead of fixing bad MS Word format. Since I just want the bilingual file back, that part is all taken care of on my end - It is faster (as in more words/hour)
Just as I get better and more consistent translation, it becomes easier to do translation in topics you know in-depth. Not having to research brandnew topics saves a lot of time. Yeah, it is interesting to learn new things but it is also nice to have a “safe haven”
What is your experience with in-house translators? Do you prefer working with agencies or in-house clients? Why? What are your expectations when working with a direct client vs. working with an agency?
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5 Responses to “Freelancer translators vs. translation agencies”
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Changed the title - it sounded OK when I wrote it last night but now in the bright morning light, I don’t think it was all that.
As a freelance, let me say this: I prefer dealing with agencies (professional agencies, that is). It saves me the trouble of dealing with direct clients, who are becoming increasingly more difficult (and, quite frankly, moronic).
Sure, you can usually get a higher rate from direct clients, but the cut agencies take are quite worth the headaches I thus avoid by letting the agency deal with the end client.
Also, more specifically, the agencies I work for usually convert PDF files or fax copies to WORD files for me before sending me the source text. To me, this is a considerable benefit.
I have been a full-time freelance translator since 1992 – after managing a translation company for 12 years. Looking at it from both sides, I definitely prefer working with agencies. In my opinion, the potential higher rates (if the direct clients don’t bypass agencies to save money) aren’t worth the hassle of the inevitably necessary client education efforts, file prepping nightmares, formatting demands, and so forth… I’d like to concentrate on what I like to do and do best: translating.
Interesting - when reading mailing lists people always seem to prefer direct clients. But I absolutely understand the issues. I always see what type of files I receive for translation and how much time and what kind of tricks it takes to prepare those files.
In your experience, are those clients more sales people? Does it matter if the PM is a translator? Most clients probably simply have no clue how it works. Every file I send out, I have to translate myself, so I probably have more interest in having files prepared properly so everything goes smooth. If it is smooth for me, that means its is smooth for the translators.
We talked about it at the ATA I think, my worst scenario was a translation of a Mac application. I had over 40 string files in a folder structure 10 deep - and all files had the same name, localizable.strings. I ended up creating a parser in Passolo to extract the strings. Passolo was able to pick and monitor all files from the subfolders, and export the strings. Whenever I got an updated batch of string files from SVN, Passolo found the changed files and made updates easy.
But yeah, I believe most would have just zipped the folders and left it up to the translator. I do have to admit, that I actually like this part of my work just as much.
I’ll have to join Werner and Michael in expressing a preference for agencies in most cases. I do have direct clients, and most of these relationships are absolutely uncomplicated, but occasionally things get strange, like the time I had a “translating secretary” call me up at midnight, tearfully begging me to fix a job she had botched, which I had tactfully offered to edit weeks before or a more recent case where the insane formatting (which included non-translatable information embedded in the middle of sentences) caused the work to take five times longer than it should have, after which an “in-house expert” with a minimal knowledge of English tried to rewrite the whole thing, causing us to spend another 20 hours of review time documenting that all but two minor changes (in 70 pages) were complete nonsense.
I am a master of saying “no” these days when the calendar is full and taking on more work would endanger my health, but “no” is simply more difficult with most direct clients. In many cases they will go away after calling a few times when one is too busy, and if they do come back, it is usually with a mess to clean up. Many direct clients also have difficulties understanding the line between freelancers and agencies - perhaps because of all the freelancers trying to play the outsourcing game - and we often get requests for language combinations with which we have no competence. Even referrals are dangerous here - I hear complaints about fully half the translators I recommend for other languages, whereas I hear nothing but praise about the people I recommend for my own language combination. I find that agencies usually understand and respect these limits better and are better able to cope with a recommendation based on a personally unverifiable perception.
I also enjoy some of the special partnerships that arise with small agencies that might be possible with direct clients having an in-house translation department but certainly are not for others. A lot of the ones I work with really do care about delivering high-quality service to their clients, and we often carry on exchanges of technical advice at midnight with that goal in mind. We share ideas for doing better business, solving tricky TagEditor problems, handling data migration and interoperability issues with different CAT tools, etc.
Overall, agencies save me time and allow me to focus on what I enjoy most. And the also offer me the advantages of “outsourcing” my marketing work. They are out there busting their butts to round up interesting accounts with texts that I enjoy, and I don’t have to pay them a base salary or give them space in my office. I employed a PM/secretary/assistant for a while to give me some of the same relief that my agency partners do, and I had to put up with her constant skyping with her friends and SMS messaging with her kids. No thanks! With the right agencies, the business model works extremely well and offers a degree of security and opportunities for risk distribution that are difficult to achieve with a direct clientele.