transl. offices

[toska^]

About two years ago, from the newspaper I got the e-mail adress of the office
in Olsztyn that needed translators. The office dealt with technical and
scientific translations. I wrote an e-mail and they sent me a test to check
my ability to translate scientific texts. I was to translate a text on bio-
technology from Polish into English. Although it was difficult I managed to
do it successfully, however it took plenty of time and effort. I got their
reply: they evaluated my translation as good and they sent me the aplication
form to fill and the conditions of our future co-operation. After that they
wrote "You are registered in our database..." and I've never heard of them
since then. What do you think?

[Gość: nat]

Judging on my experience with the agencies in London:
- testing procedure sounds real enough and pretty much standard
- they tend to have a large number of people on their books for every language.
Since they don't pay a retainer, it costs them nothing to add you to their
database, just in case they might need you one day
- they have no jobs in your area of expertise or they are short of work in
general. Olsztyn is not exactly a thriving scientific centre

Then again, it might be a bit of a rip off. If they use a number of people to
do their translations for free while being tested, they will never need to pay
for any work.

Get a friend to e-mail them with a request to translate a text on the same
subject that they have tested you on and see if they contact you to do the job.

Purely out of curiosity, what are the going agency rates for translations in
Poland?
Good luck and don't give up.

[kluba11]

toska^ napisał(a):

> About two years ago, from the newspaper I got the e-mail adress of the office
> in Olsztyn that needed translators. The office dealt with technical and
> scientific translations. I wrote an e-mail and they sent me a test to check
> my ability to translate scientific texts. I was to translate a text on bio-
> technology from Polish into English. Although it was difficult I managed to
> do it successfully, however it took plenty of time and effort. I got their
> reply: they evaluated my translation as good and they sent me the aplication
> form to fill and the conditions of our future co-operation. After that they
> wrote "You are registered in our database..." and I've never heard of them
> since then. What do you think?
Contact :

From: "DOLORESDMC" <[e-mail]>
To: <[e-mail]>
Subject: Fw: translation companies
Date: Wednesday, July 10, 2002 8:32 PM

Anna-

Here is the list of translation companies. Feel free to call me at anytime.
Thanks for the call this afternoon it made my day....
Keep in touch and take care of your cats, rat and yourself.

God bless
Dolores Kollmer
Sr. Employment Specialist
Dayle McIntosh Center
[phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
---

[Gość: sisi]

Hi.
I have done it twice so far. One of them was in Warsaw, one in Bydgoszcz.
Neither has paid a penny. It's called learning the hard way.
I have to plead guilty to another sin - in autumn I sent my CV and reference
companies list to a Torun-based 'now opening' translation office, who obviously
(not to me at the time of the blunder) were building up a data base of
prospective clients. Here the hard way means some of the companies turned to
them because of dumping prices (ca. 15 zl/page).
As nat said, however, there are also fair offices that use this evaluation
method extensively and do pay for the test pages, regardless of the output
(well, you know...;-).