Those "contact us by email" job ads Thread poster: S_G_C
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S_G_C
Romania
Local time: 16:55
English to Romanian
So.
Every now and then, a company or another posts a job ad which ends with "contact us by email". And if that specific job ad fits me, I contact them by email. I introduce myself, present my services, my competencies, give them my rates and a link to my proz.com and linkedin profiles. Attach my detailed and updated CV, if need be.
However.
I NEVER get a reply. Not even to tell me they have chosen someone else. Nothing. Nada.
Which makes me wonder... are these job ... See more So.
Every now and then, a company or another posts a job ad which ends with "contact us by email". And if that specific job ad fits me, I contact them by email. I introduce myself, present my services, my competencies, give them my rates and a link to my proz.com and linkedin profiles. Attach my detailed and updated CV, if need be.
However.
I NEVER get a reply. Not even to tell me they have chosen someone else. Nothing. Nada.
Which makes me wonder... are these job ads even for real? Does anyone really get them? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tomasz Sienicki 
Denmark
Local time: 15:55
Member (2007)
Danish to Polish
+ ...
Yes, I often get replies and sometimes land jobs this way.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:55
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Sorana_M. wrote:
So.
Every now and then, a company or another posts a job ad which ends with "contact us by email". And if that specific job ad fits me, I contact them by email. I introduce myself, present my services, my competencies, give them my rates and a link to my proz.com and linkedin profiles. Attach my detailed and updated CV, if need be.
However.
I NEVER get a reply. Not even to tell me they have chosen someone else. Nothing. Nada.
Which makes me wonder... are these job ads even for real? Does anyone really get them?
Me too. In many, many years of translating, I have never, ever, received a reply, or an acknowledgement to any of those job offers. I assume my rate is too high (For Italian to English).
[Edited at 2023-03-30 13:39 GMT]
| | | | S_G_C
Romania
Local time: 16:55
English to Romanian
TOPIC STARTER
Tom in London wrote:
Me too. In many, many years of translating, I have never, ever, received a reply, or an acknowledgement to any of those job offers. I assume my rate is too high (For Italian to English).
[Edited at 2023-03-30 13:39 GMT]
Just to test the waters, I gave some of them different rates, normally lower ones. Still no reply.
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I often get replies and I have landed jobs, occasionally much later, as it happened last month for a project I replied a few years ago. The agency kept my contact details…
| | | | | Same thing happens with cost estimates | Mar 31, 2023 |
Sorana_M. wrote:
I NEVER get a reply. Not even to tell me they have chosen someone else. Nothing. Nada.
Most of the time people don't even bother any more to answer, after I have checked the document that needs to be translated, i.e. more often than not done the conversion and made an estimation of the price, the deadline and so on. I guess I know the reason (too expensive...), but they could at least thank me for my time spent out of sheer politeness. I suppose I must be old-fashioned...
I have noticed that this behaviour has become more and more common the last years.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 15:55
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| They are real | Mar 31, 2023 |
Sorana_M. wrote:
I NEVER get a reply. Not even to tell me they have chosen someone else. Nothing. Nada. ... Are these job ads even for real?
They definitely are real. I've gotten jobs in this manner several times. I prefer this over the "bid via the site" method, as I'm able to produce a much more customized quote.
| | | | | They are for real, only ..... | Mar 31, 2023 |
..... most of them are looking for the lowest rate (or want to extend their database).
I also hardly hear from them anymore. So, a couple of years ago, just for the fun of it, I quoted a lowest price of € 0,03 or 0,04 p/w. That did the trick.
So yes, they are for real, only they are not what I am looking for.
[Edited at 2023-03-31 16:37 GMT]
[Edited at 2023-03-31 17:12 GMT]
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On several occasions, I've received replies even after weeks when I used the "contact us by email" jobs, so they're real as others say.
However, the reason for not receiving any response is that the job poster is overflooded with emails from applicants applying for that particular job. I realized this after the job posters I applied to admitted this in their return messages.
| | | | Josep Vives (X)
Spain
Local time: 15:55
English to Spanish
+ ...
| Yesterday I got an email "contact us by Whatsapp" | Apr 5, 2023 |
Sounded too fishy.
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 15:55
French to English
Sorana_M. wrote:
Just to test the waters, I gave some of them different rates, normally lower ones. Still no reply.
Did you use different names each time, with different emails? I think if I'd seen that the same person sent in several offers, I'd think they didn't have a clear strategy, and were therefore either inexperienced or incompetent. Either way, I'd eliminate them.
When I worked at the agency, we posted a job here *once*. We were immediately inundated with replies, easily more than a hundred. I took the posting down by the end of the day because it was overwhelming. No way could I have replied to all of them. If you reply saying thanks but no thanks they sometimes come back with a revised offer, so that generates even more work.
What I did, to choose the translator, was:
- eliminate all replies received within ten minutes. These people were just firing off ready-made offers, that didn't take any of our stipulations into account.
- eliminate all those who replied later but still without taking our stipulations into account (these were mostly non-native speakers, but also people who didn't seem to be able to explain how they had reached a decent level of the source language or how they had acquired the specialist medical knowledge needed).
- eliminate all offers of a rate that was too high OR TOO LOW - cut-price translators often have such a high output that quality is sacrificed
Then I started looking at the mini tests completed by the remaining translators to:
- eliminate all those who didn't use the spell check
- eliminate all those who fell into the traps (false friends and the like)
- assess their style
That all took me a considerable amount of time, but the one translator who passed all the tests and had the most appropriate, pleasant and dynamic style did a brilliant job and continued to work for us until we were bought out by a cheaper agency.
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