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how to get my first job here?
Thread poster: Rosannelei
Post removed: This post was hidden by a moderator or staff member because it was not in line with site rule
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Well it all kicked off here... Jul 29, 2020

It would be nice if offending messages were deleted from public view but still available to members, or at least those who have posted in the thread, so we can see what was said.

Clearing the lot just spoils the entertainment.


expressisverbis
Jan Truper
Philippe Etienne
Jorge Payan
Christopher Wallace
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 07:27
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Moderator finally brought out of hibernation Jul 29, 2020

Chris S wrote:
Clearing the lot just spoils the entertainment.


It used to be that threads degenerated into banter only after the second page of serious answers, and mud-slinging used to wait until page 4 of 5 at least, but these days a lot of posters seem to suffer from wanttofightitis. There are off-topic forums and one can post off-topic threads for members who desire chatter and "serious" debate above all else. People who yearn for being roosters in a fight should take their mutual entertainment to such dedicated threads.

After all, posts in "Getting established" and related forums are likely to be from either new or relatively new translators or translators who are genuinely looking for answers, not kitty claws.

[Edited at 2020-07-29 07:40 GMT]


expressisverbis
Philippe Etienne
Jorge Payan
WS McCallum
 
expressisverbis
expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 06:27
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
As I see it Jul 29, 2020

Chris S wrote:

It would be nice if offending messages were deleted from public view but still available to members, or at least those who have posted in the thread, so we can see what was said.



It would be nicer if analytical messages that do not add anything really useful to, or answers the asker's question were deleted or reworded.
While I agree with some of those analytical statements, in order to raise awareness for certain problems (problems we can see it everywhere, in virtual or real lives), this can put new members off.
This is how I see it, but I might be wrong.


Philippe Etienne
David Lin
 
Philippe Etienne
Philippe Etienne  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 07:27
Member
English to French
I forgot to tick Email tracking Jul 29, 2020

I found it odd not to receive any notification of new posts on this thread. My mistake. It looks like it converted into a war zone.
I hope that nobody got hurt and that the OP (Original Poster) wasn't put off too much. In real life, all of us are charming and well-mannered people.

Philippe


expressisverbis
Eric Azevedo
 
Lincoln Hui
Lincoln Hui  Identity Verified
Hong Kong
Local time: 14:27
Member
Chinese to English
+ ...
More on how to fail and self-awareness Jul 29, 2020

I'm going to tell a little story. Don't worry, this is on topic...a little bit.

A few years ago there was a very...active member on, er, some forums. By "active", I mean this person practically used the forums as her personal blog, posting about every little thing she encountered. It was obvious that she was not very successful, and frankly, it was obvious why.

One time, she posted that she did a 400-word test and thought she did a great job, and she was shocked when it
... See more
I'm going to tell a little story. Don't worry, this is on topic...a little bit.

A few years ago there was a very...active member on, er, some forums. By "active", I mean this person practically used the forums as her personal blog, posting about every little thing she encountered. It was obvious that she was not very successful, and frankly, it was obvious why.

One time, she posted that she did a 400-word test and thought she did a great job, and she was shocked when it was rejected by the agency. She asked the agency why, and the response was that there were a lot of Simplified characters mixed with Traditional Chinese characters. Apparently, she never imagined that would be a problem, because she didn't know Traditional Chinese characters at all, and thought that all she had to do was press the convert button in her software and it would take care of itself. She finished by saying, ok, today I learned that I shouldn't take Traditional Chinese jobs.

Fast forward to a year later and she started another thread, her last on the forums. Here is how it went: She wrote an email to a friend, telling the friend that she had finished translating a 300-word letter, with the help of Google Translate. Except she sent that email to the client who requested that translation. You guess how the client responded.

This is what she wrote about herself, six months before that mind-blowing post:
"It's so hard to find [clients who pay] high prices. I've been trying for almost a year and I'm still mainly doing low-priced jobs. That CAD $0.14 client isn't giving me jobs anymore either. I'm such a wonderful person with a great temperament, and I'm so careful and meticulous with my translations. How could they fire me? I was helping them out of the goodness of my heart, how could they blame me? They wouldn’t even listen to my explanations!"

I’m not paraphrasing; this is verbatim. Can you guess what her profile looked like? Do you think it was a wonderful, professional, convincing profile, or do you think it was…out there?

That’s the common denominator of people who constantly talk about how bad things are for them - a total lack of self-awareness. It’s truly gallows humor (or perhaps just humor) when you talk about people who not only need others to show them the door, but to show them how to open the door and how to walk through it as well, and lo and behold, case in point right there.

Success is subjective. Failure is objective. In my other career I have learned a lot by watching people who are not good, and take it to heart to do things a different way. You won’t necessarily get anywhere by emulating people who are successful, because different circumstances and different aptitudes are going to affect your mileage. But the universal rule is to look for people who are failing, and run full-speed in the opposite direction.

Oh, and for the OP? Don’t translate into English, your English is not good enough.

[Edited at 2020-07-29 13:37 GMT]
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Jean Dimitriadis
Christopher Schröder
David Lin
Dan Lucas
Rita Pang
Kaspars Melkis
Philippe Etienne
 
James Heppe-Smith
James Heppe-Smith  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 09:27
German to English

Moderator of this forum
And probably run its course Jul 30, 2020

Yes, moderators do have other things going on sometimes which mean they are not able to follow every thread as it develops, and this means we rely on other forum members to alert us to posts which may be deviating off course...

This thread has certainly done that, and apart from anything else, shown that some members have worthwhile contributions to make, and others perhaps might benefit from re-visiting the forum rules.

Let’s close this thread here I think. I would e
... See more
Yes, moderators do have other things going on sometimes which mean they are not able to follow every thread as it develops, and this means we rely on other forum members to alert us to posts which may be deviating off course...

This thread has certainly done that, and apart from anything else, shown that some members have worthwhile contributions to make, and others perhaps might benefit from re-visiting the forum rules.

Let’s close this thread here I think. I would echo the comment of ‘if you have nothing of value to add, perhaps do not feel the urge to post a response’ (paraphrased).

Thank you,
James
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Kevin Fulton
 
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how to get my first job here?







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