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Poll: How many jobs would you say you have completed so far this year?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Sep 18, 2019

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How many jobs would you say you have completed so far this year?".

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hisano tomoyuki
 
Philippe Etienne
Philippe Etienne  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 13:01
Member
English to French
215 Sep 18, 2019

I want fewer jobs and more words per job.

Philippe


Iwona Budzynska MCIL
Kunal Jaidka
Axelle H.
Lina Efthimiadou
Muriel Vasconcellos
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
 
Mar Brito
Mar Brito  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:01
Member (2015)
English to Spanish
+ ...
263 Sep 18, 2019

I know this because I keep a very detailed spreadsheet with every one of them -couldn't manage without it.

I would love for fewer but bigger projects to come my way so that I wouldn't have to juggle so many at the same time, but it works for me.


Vijay Anand
 
Florian Wollenschein
Florian Wollenschein  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 13:01
Member (2013)
English to German
+ ...
455 Sep 18, 2019

I also keep track of every job with a spreadsheet.

These 455 projects include very big projects as well as many tiny jobs. Of course, I am very happy to have more than enough work, but I am also trying to work on big projects more often because the administrative hassle for tiny projects is ridiculous.


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 12:01
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
188 Sep 18, 2019

Exactly 188 until the end of August, everything from very large to tiny projects...

[Edited at 2019-09-18 09:49 GMT]


 
Thomas Pfann
Thomas Pfann  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:01
Member (2006)
English to German
+ ...
Trend to small jobs and ongoing projects Sep 18, 2019

It's hard to estimate but the number of jobs I have completed so far is certainly in the hundreds. I have issued around 50 invoices since the beginning of the year but many/most of those cover multiple jobs.

It used to be very different when I started out as a translator some 13 years ago. Back then, most of my projects were much larger, often tens of thousands of words and I'd get a few small jobs in between. Since then, though, I noticed a clear trend towards the reverse. These da
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It's hard to estimate but the number of jobs I have completed so far is certainly in the hundreds. I have issued around 50 invoices since the beginning of the year but many/most of those cover multiple jobs.

It used to be very different when I started out as a translator some 13 years ago. Back then, most of my projects were much larger, often tens of thousands of words and I'd get a few small jobs in between. Since then, though, I noticed a clear trend towards the reverse. These days a 5,000-word translation is already a large job in my book. And more recently (say, over the last two years or so), I took on several accounts which are running on a tab and I get small regular requests (in some cases on an almost daily basis) and invoice at the end of the month. I don't mind this at all and it actually suits me very well but it's definitely a very different way of working than ten years ago.
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Yetta Jensen Bogarde
Yetta Jensen Bogarde  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 13:01
Member (2012)
English to Danish
+ ...
98 Sep 18, 2019

The number is reflected in the invoice no.

It used to be more by this time of the year, but I am purposely scaling down and in the process weeding out, especially clients with long payment terms.

[Edited at 2019-09-18 10:45 GMT]


Noni Gilbert Riley
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 13:01
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
650 Sep 18, 2019

ProZ.com Staff wrote:
"How many jobs would you say you have completed so far this year?"


And it's already September, so it's a slow year for me. 1150 total last year, also 1150 total the year before that. 230 invoices so far.


 
Oliver Pekelharing
Oliver Pekelharing  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 13:01
Dutch to English
101 Sep 18, 2019

101 jobs to date spread over 44 invoices and representing about 242000 words.

 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 13:01
Spanish to English
+ ...
Don't know Sep 18, 2019

I suppose I could estimate it, but it would take me time which I would rather dedicate to the couple of jobs I have in hand today. Let's just say I've made enough to pay the bills, which is all I need to know until the end of the month when I have to do my quarterly tax return.

 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 09:01
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
93 Sep 18, 2019

93 so far.
However, a "job" measures absolutely nothing, since a "job" can have 25 words or 250,000 words.
This question would be a lot smarter if it asked how many words have you translated so far this year.
Considering that, I issued 101 invoices, for 971k words so far.
But it's still not a good indicator since the word count includes translations and revisions.


[Edited at 2019-09-18 18:47 GMT]


Muriel Vasconcellos
 
Thomas Pfann
Thomas Pfann  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:01
Member (2006)
English to German
+ ...
Small drops vs large projects Sep 18, 2019

Mario Freitas wrote:
However, a "job" measures absolutely nothing, since a "job" can have 25 words or 250,000 words.
This question would be a lot smarter if it asked how many words have you translated so far this year.
[Edited at 2019-09-18 18:47 GMT]


No, that wouldn't be a smarter question, it would be an altogether different question.

I find the question interesting precisely because a job can have 25 words or 250,000 words.

[Edited at 2019-09-18 22:24 GMT]


Iwona Budzynska MCIL
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
 
Rebecca Garber
Rebecca Garber  Identity Verified
Local time: 08:01
Member (2005)
German to English
+ ...
Don't know, don't care Sep 19, 2019

I get numerous small jobs every month from 4-6 agencies.
I bill at the end of the month. So, I can tell you how many invoices I've sent, but I have absolutely no interest in trying to figure out the number of jobs/projects.

The cats and I have plenty of kibble, and that's all that matters.


LIZ LI
Philip Lees
 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:01
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
35 Sep 19, 2019

But my jobs tend to be large. One was 38,000 words. Quite a few of them were over 10,000.

 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 09:01
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Check this, Thomas Sep 19, 2019

Thomas Pfann wrote:
No, that wouldn't be a smarter question, it would be an altogether different question.
I find the question interesting precisely because a job can have 25 words or 250,000 words.

[Edited at 2019-09-18 22:24 GMT]


I had 93 jobs so far and 917,000 words.
Olly had 101 jobs and 242,000 words.
Samuel had 650 jobs, which shows he does a lot of very small jobs and very few big ones.

If you studied statistics, you know that "jobs" as an indicator in this case is entirely meaningless. Just supposing this was for ranking purposes, I'd be one of the last ones in the list, and I doubt very much anyone has exceeded my volume in words.

Yes, I know it's not a competition. I'm just saying "how many jobs" means nothing at all.

[Edited at 2019-09-19 06:37 GMT]


Kaspars Melkis
 
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Poll: How many jobs would you say you have completed so far this year?






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