Poll: Which of the following factors do you feel most impacts your freelancing work or opportunities? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Which of the following factors do you feel most impacts your freelancing work or opportunities?".
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| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 14:58
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
| Professional experience | Oct 24 |
The older I get, the more sure I am about it. You need the necessary talent to become really succesful and having a degree can be helpful, but the one thing that really matters is professional experience. Even after 24 years I've still got the feeling that I'm becoming better and faster. It's actually a nice feeling because everything gets way easier. The rare moments I struggle would be due to a badly written source, but that's never the translator's responsibility.
Nice side effec... See more The older I get, the more sure I am about it. You need the necessary talent to become really succesful and having a degree can be helpful, but the one thing that really matters is professional experience. Even after 24 years I've still got the feeling that I'm becoming better and faster. It's actually a nice feeling because everything gets way easier. The rare moments I struggle would be due to a badly written source, but that's never the translator's responsibility.
Nice side effect: becoming faster means you can accept more work. So you're not only increasing your income, but you also become more available to customers, and it is my experience that a higher availability leads to even more job offers. ▲ Collapse
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Education + Professional experience
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Since the vast majority of my work comes from established clients, my track record of providing good work in the past is probably my most important asset. Without that, my opportunities would quickly dry up.
For new clients, it's a combination of years of experience and my educational background in my specialist subjects. Having a clear specialism definitely helps me stand out from the crowd.
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Age vs professional experience
I must add that I'm beginning to feel a certain incongruity when it comes to age and professional experience. I know that clients favour those with professional experience, but I'm beginning to feel that, after a certain number, age can have a negative impact.
Having children
If I didn't have children and, because of them, a need to supplement my income, I probably wouldn't have gone into translation. I just have them to thank...
... See more Age vs professional experience
I must add that I'm beginning to feel a certain incongruity when it comes to age and professional experience. I know that clients favour those with professional experience, but I'm beginning to feel that, after a certain number, age can have a negative impact.
Having children
If I didn't have children and, because of them, a need to supplement my income, I probably wouldn't have gone into translation. I just have them to thank...
Gender identity
I've never felt that clients prefer me because I'm a woman, but the areas I specialise in aren't necessarily ‘male’. Perhaps my female colleagues who work in male-dominated sectors, for example mechanical engineering or construction, have a different perspective…. ▲ Collapse
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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida wrote:
Gender identity
I've never felt that clients prefer me because I'm a woman, but the areas I specialise in aren't necessarily ‘male’. Perhaps my female colleagues who work in male-dominated sectors, for example mechanical engineering or construction, have a different perspective….
In a field like engineering I think men have a much easier time being taken seriously than women - even men who have no qualifications or experience at all outside of translation. Sadly, people still see engineering as something that men do.
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