When it comes to hiring a professional translator online, be extremely cautious as to whom you see and where you see. A website with a decent design and a long list of native translators can go poof tomorrow after taking your money. Translators can also do the same, and there is evidence that hundreds of businesses have lost thousands of dollars from scammers, poor translators and unprofessional translators.
Having worked in several translation websites for 2 years now, I have come to know what it takes to find, interview and hire a professional native translator. First we’ll go through the reasons as to why should we hire translators online, and then we’ll hit upon how to deal with translators on the internet – choosing, hiring (and firing).
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What are your tips on hiring a translator?
Thank you Mira, appreciate that you liked it so much.
Great article, SuramyaKh!
Katie, you're welcome! Glad I could help from potential translation scams. And thanks for your comment!
Jasmine, by native language, I mean target language of the translation. If your expertise is French language and are a citizen of France, then opportunity is first given to you than other translators who are not the citizens of France for translation of English-French.
There is a place to hook up your certificates for your language skills. So add them and ask the OHT team to review them. They are really helpful and will reply you really soon. If you are not a native speaker, then I guess you have to give an exam. BTW, I work with Nepali and English. Although the demand of this language pair is not as high as Spanish and German, I get a project or two every week or so - so it is more of a side income than my regular income. However, some Spanish translators reach the daily limit of 2000 words every day which is more than $100 per day.
All the best Jasmine, I wish for your success at OHT!
OHT sounds like a great job opportunity, but I'm confused about the rule on giving translations only to native speakers. In translations, you always deal with two languages at the same time - you need to be a native speaker for which one of these two? Honestly, I think that's not fair. I studied two foreign languages at university and hold a Master's degree for both of them. There are a lot of people who are native speakers of a certain language, but they are simply not qualified for such a demanding job. Also, there are a lot of native speakers who teach their language to foreign learners and qualified teachers whose native language is not the target language simply don't get those jobs. It's so sad.
P.S. What languages do you work with?
Very interesting, thanks for making us a more knowledgeable community who now understands how to hire an online translator. You never know when you might need one and now we can avoid the pit falls of scams.
Hi Jasmine, thanks for your comment. But 1 euro per hour is like really low. Even if you're just a native speaker and have no experience/training, translation is a big deal of work. So you must charge at least 5 (or even 6 or 7 if you get good feedback). May I recommend OHT? They have straight $0.05 per word, which amounts to about $10 if you can process 200 words per hour.
I tried oDesk, but for giving (not looking for) translating services. The prices people were ready to offer for such a demanding job were really ridiculous. One time, I ended up before closing a deal with someone for 1 euro per hour of work (a little more than $1), but my husband seriously offered to pay not to do the job, and that's when I actually decided to close my account there.