ProZ.com Blog

This guest post was written by the National Accreditation of Educational Translators and Interpreters of Spoken Languages. NAETISL will be holding its Inaugural Conference online, from June 25-26, 2021.

Are you new to the translation industry? Would you like to work as a translator, but you are unsure about how to get started? Do you have questions about ProZ.com, the platform, the community, the tools available? Then this post is for you. Just keep the following in mind, and you'll find your way in the ProZ.com translation workplace in no time:

« ProZ.com is different than what you may be expecting »

The following questions and answers will show you why.

How do I answer job offers at ProZ.com? That question came up in the ProZ.com Facebook group recently and I'm borrowing the well-crafted answer from Lu Leszinsky to include on this blog.



Highlights:
1. Browse jobs that interest you
2. Confirm you meet quoting requirements
3. Click on submit quote

Where are the jobs?
When an outsourcer needs to hire for an open position or find talent to fill expected needs, jobs might be posted at ProZ.com. Language jobs posted to the world's largest community of freelance translators, interpreters, subtitlers and other language professionals are listed under a section called "Browse jobs" (to get there, mouse over the "Jobs & directories" option on the top menu, then click on "Browse jobs", or simply bookmark this link: https://www.proz.com/language-jobs).



Jobs listed in that page can be filtered by a number of criteria, including language pairs, fields, and word count.

Use the "Jobs where I meet the requirements" switch to filter jobs where you meet the criteria to submit a quote.

Make sure your profile includes necessary information
In order to be able to quote on a job, your profile information must match exactly the job's requirements.

So, for example, if you offer interpreting services, but you haven't reported "interpreting" in your profile as a service you offer, you won't be able to submit a quote.



In other words, it's not enough to offer a service or work in a given field. If that service or field (or software, credential, etc.) is not reported in your profile, the system has no way of knowing that you meet the job poster's needs, and so the "Submit quote" button will be disabled. You can update your Profile at any time here: https://www.proz.com/settings.

Submitting quotes
Job posters can choose to receive quotes in a number of ways, the most common ones are (1) online via ProZ.com, where you complete an online form with your rate, your proposed completion date, your message, etc. and the poster accesses your quote also online, and (2) via email, that is, if you meet the job's criteria, you are shown the poster's email address and you can use it to send your quote via email.

Other quoting methods include URL (the poster specifies a webpage where you can submit your quote), phone, fax and postal mail -- not so common these days though.

In sum, to quote on jobs, start by browsing jobs that may interest you, confirm that you meet quoting requirements (these are shown on the job and summarized at the top of job postings) and if you do, click on "Submit quote" to get started. If your quote is accepted, the job poster will let you know.

You may also find some useful information on this blog post on "How to write an effective job quote". 

As a freelancer, one of many benefits is the freedom that it allows. However, at one point or another, most freelancers fall into the trap of overworking themselves and feeling unable to take a vacation. The numerous benefits of taking time off have been well documented: relaxing, connecting with family, and giving ourselves that much-needed mental break. If you want to go on vacation but don't know where to start,  try taking these four steps.

It’s 480 years old and is one of the largest cities in the Americas. Santiago de Chile (St James of Chile), to give it its full name, was founded in 1541 by the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia, and has been the capital since colonial times. With a downtown core of 19th-century neoclassical architecture and winding side-streets, dotted by art deco, neo-gothic, and other styles. Santiago's cityscape is shaped by several stand-alone hills and also the soaring, if unimaginatively named, Gran Torre Santiago, the tallest skyscraper in Latin America.

This guest post was written by the Portuguese Association of Translators and Interpreters (APTRAD). APTRAD will be holding its First International Audiovisual Translation Conference online, "Paths to an Accesible World" from September 8 to 11, 2021.

As part of the work we perform for the professional development of our members and to improve the quality of the market in general, APTRAD, the Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters working to and from the Portuguese language in all its variants, will be hosting its First International Audiovisual Translation Conference online, from September 8 to 11, 2021.

Ulrike Michiels, Trados savvy professional trainer, joins Paul Urwin, the Head of ProZ.com Training, to discuss CAT tool basics. Ulrike explains what a CAT tool is and how using a CAT tool can help a translator to increase speed and improve consistency. She also explains what's included in the upcoming Trados workshop.

How often do you look at reviews before doing or buying something? Most of the time, right? Nearly everyone will investigate a business or product before making a purchase, including your freelance language services. Public feedback inspires trust via its transparency.

What do you do when you’re a rebellious tomboy growing up in a conservative country dominated by the Catholic Church, with education run mostly by nuns and priests, 25% unemployment, the shadow of the Troubles looming further to the North, and a national tradition for exporting its people?

ProZ.com head of training Paul Urwin discusses "Transcreation Essentials" in the latest episode of the ProZ.com podcast. Urwin interviews Nina Sattler-Hovdar, one of the best know global transcreators, and creator of ProZ.com Spotlight Training course "Learn how to get started and prosper in transcreation".

Did you know that you can include a logo on invoices sent through ProZ.com? Adding a logo to the invoice is one way to personalize this ProZ.com membership tool for your needs.

A web widget is an independent application that can be embedded into a web-page, blog, or profile on a social media site and that will enable the display of information (your client feedback) or the call for an action ("Follow me").

As we’ve seen throughout our series of Translation Postcards, you can find translators in historic villages, towns and cities all over the world, but few of us live in a place that boasts over 3,400 years of recorded history.  Home to Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum, Athens (Αθήνα) is widely referred to as the cradle of Western civilisation and the birthplace of democracy, largely because of its cultural and political impact on the European continent, and in particular the Romans.

Is your email inbox kept as a to-do list? Often, people leave “to-do” emails in their inbox until they are completed. After completion, the email is categorized or deleted, thus removing it from the inbox.