Why Hire a Freelancer
Chances are that when you need something translated, you’ll type something like “German to English translator” into the search bar. You’ll get two main types of results:
Translation engines (e.g., Google Translate)
Translation agencies (companies with a database of translators)
Few freelance translators’ websites will make it high in the search results, so if you’re looking for translation services from a human, you’re likely to pick an agency. Maybe you didn’t even know freelance translators were an option?
Or maybe you were already aware of us freelance translators, toiling away in our home offices. Perhaps the thought of hiring an individual seems…just plain odd. But consider this: Hiring a freelancer is win-win (you and the freelancer benefit), win-win-win (better quality, cost, and ethics).
A five-way win?! It doesn’t get much better than that. Okay, even a six-way win would be better, but we’re still shooting for the stars and reaching the moon here!
Here’s the root of those latter three “win” categories:
Quality
Agency:
An agency’s translators can often get by even if they’re “just okay.” Almost all agencies keep their translators anonymous, meaning you cannot verify your translator’s credentials or in-field experience (e.g., work experience as a technician before turning to technical translation).
And that’s good for the agency, because the translator probably doesn’t have this experience! Agencies bank on clients’ ignorance, hoping they’ll never demand a detailed CV of the translator or recognize the subpar quality of the translations.
It is painfully clear when I review translations for agencies that exceptionally few agency translators have a technical or medical background. I call this “the big secret of the translation industry.”
If that tidbit made you go, “Gee, it seems like those people aren’t qualified for the job,” you’re right – you’re a winner! Hey, looks like you unlocked that six-way win.
How can I tell these translators have no domain-specific experience? Read The SME Translator: Why Industry Experience Is Critical to learn about the types of errors translators make when they don’t really know the subject matter.
Plus, the name of the game for most agencies is quantity over quality. They often have set turnaround times (e.g., X pages in X days). Their business model relies on meeting those deadlines, so they build a large pool of translators to ensure they never miss a beat. That almost always means a sacrifice in translator quality – in other words, a sacrifice in the quality of the translation you receive.
Freelancer:
The freelancer has no veil of anonymity to hide behind. You get to know everything about their background, including whether they have in-field experience.
Freelancers are also accountable. I know that if I don’t deliver quality work, I’ll lose you as a customer. With an agency, the translator gets another chance. Or two, or three…decades! An extensive track record as a translator is no indicator of skill. The agency just keeps giving the translator new clients’ texts to work on until the agency finds a client who doesn’t realize the translation is low quality.
Quality is always worth waiting for, right? That makes freelancers the automatic choice. Which is not to imply that every freelancer is the crème de la crème! How can you tell if yours is? That’s a topic for another day, but here’s one tip:
I know you want next-day translations. But quality takes time, and if you’re working with a translator who can always magically turn around every huge order you place with zero notice, that’s a bad sign. It means one of three things:
A. They’re not a skilled translator – they can’t keep clients and are never booked.
B. They translate not as a full-time profession, but as a little hobby for some pocket change.
C. They’re subcontracting, and you’ve essentially unknowingly hired an agency (data breach, anyone?).
Takeaway: What does speed matter if the translation is wrong?
2. Cost
I could write a book about the seedy underbelly of translation pricing, and it would be a rollercoaster of drama and plot twists that would knock the socks off any bestseller on the shelves. But to keep it simple, I’ll simply state the moral of the story: Your best price/performance ratio is with the freelance translator.
With an agency, you pay for convenience…at the expense of quality. The agency is a middleman you hire to forward your text to someone in a pool of [freelance!] translators. Why not take that “convenience fee” and put it toward a better translation (i.e., hire a freelancer – see point #1, quality)?
Takeaway: What does convenience matter if the translation is wrong?
3. Ethics
The best part about #2 above, hiring a freelancer to get a better translation for the same price (or less!): It supports ethical work practices. I’m not here to get on a high horse and try to convince anyone to practice ethically – it either is or isn’t one of your goals.
However, most people have no inkling that the big agencies taking those top ranks in search results have extremely unethical work practices. Translation buyers don’t know about these exceptionally common abusive practices, nor do they know if what they’re quoted for translation supports a living wage.
To put things in perspective, if you’re paying an agency $0.05/word for translation, your translator is not even making $10/hour! That’s not remotely livable, nor a remotely fair wage, particularly for such challenging work (see The Sticker Shock behind Translation Services to learn more about translation pricing).
Even if you’re not aiming to boost your company’s corporate social responsibility factor, I refer you back to #1. After all, what kind of quality can you possibly get from someone paid well below minimum wage?
A primary complicating factor on this topic is that hiring an agency is simply the most accessible and well-known method of commissioning translation services. It’s not the one that provides the best value or quality – just the one that’s splattered everywhere you turn.
So if you’re ready to pay less and get a better product (while supporting ethical practices), find yourself a freelancer!
Updated: January 21, 2024