Poll: Which stage of your career are you currently in? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Which stage of your career are you currently in?".
View the poll results »
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Lieven Malaise 
Belgium
Local time: 14:12
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
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I've been translating for 26 years, of which 21 as a fulltime freelancer.
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Gregor Trebec
Slovenia
Local time: 14:12
English to Slovenian
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if you are here present for xy years, does not mean crap. I am here for +3 years but so far i've had just 3-4 projects. It means 1 project per year which means in practice, i have little or no experience at all!
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| That's because times are changing | Apr 17 |
Gregor Trebec wrote:
if you are here present for xy years, does not mean crap. I am here for +3 years but so far i've had just 3-4 projects. It means 1 project per year which means in practice, i have little or no experience at all!
And not for the better.
[Edited at 2026-04-17 11:23 GMT]
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Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 14:12
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Gregor Trebec wrote:
if you are here present for xy years, does not mean crap. I am here for +3 years but so far i've had just 3-4 projects. It means 1 project per year which means in practice, i have little or no experience at all!
If you want to be taken seriously as a translator by potential customers you might want to...
1) Change your profile picture into a picture of at least your complete face.
2) Remove the English spelling and grammar mistakes on your profile.
3) Refrain from offering language pairs into English, because you clearly don't master English as you should to translate into it. This is not just my personal opinion. You have to imagine potential customers reading your profile (or even these forums because they are public) and then having to decide to let you translate their stuff into English. I know what I would decide.
This probably comes across as blunt, but those 3 points are really very basic things and nobody telling you this will most certainly not help you either.
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| I am in the intermediate stage (+3 years). | Apr 17 |
I always thought that if I had more than 5 years working in the translation industry, I would consider myself an experienced translator or in the advanced stage. What do you think about this colleagues?
[Editado a las 2026-04-17 13:44 GMT]
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 14:12
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 14:12
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Lieven Malaise replied to Gregor:
You have to imagine potential customers reading your profile (or even these forums, because they are public) and then having to decide to let you translate their stuff into English.
While it is true that you won't get much work via sites such as ProZ.com, you may still get some work, if a client happens to visit your profile page and you manage to convince them to hire you. And to do that, you need to present the best and most professional possible image of yourself. Any freelancer on any website where freelancers have profile pages or upload their résumés/CVs will proofread and spell-check the text on their profile page several times over, to make sure it is absolutely error-free.
[Edited at 2026-04-18 05:59 GMT]
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Peter Simon
Netherlands
Local time: 14:12
English to Hungarian
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I miss one category: end phase. Retired in most aspects but for a couple of old and reliable clients who I still find worth working for and who find my contribution valuable. Otherwise over the edge into no career any longer. Call it oblivion if you like.
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Unemployed and doubting I'll ever find work as a translator again.
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Michael Newton
United States
Local time: 08:12
Japanese to English
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What about "late stage", 'terminal", "hospice"?
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[Edited at 2026-04-19 07:17 GMT]
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