We’ve all been there: a client approaches us, or we approach them, and before any work can be offered we’re asked to complete a test translation. An ideal opportunity for us to show off our skills and gain new clients, or a waste of time in which we give our services away for free with little chance of future reward?
The advantages
One obvious reason why test translations are quite common is that they give a potential client who values quality a chance, albeit it brief, to see that a translator can indeed do what he or she claims to do. They tend to be short – around a couple of hundred words at most – and so shouldn’t constitute too much time out of the day for a translator familiar with the subject area in question. They’re usually unpaid, but we often agree to do them on the basis that the future work it’s set to generate will surely make up for an initial freebie. And so once we submit the test translation, we can put our feet up and wait for the work to come flooding in… Or can we?
The disadvantages
Agreeing to do a test translation for free can come with downsides. One problem I’ve personally experienced is that far from being helpful, a short test translation taken from a large text can often cause more problems than it’s meant to solve. Each client is different, of course, but one test translation I completed was a collection of three or four 50-word segments seemingly pulled out at random from a bigger document. The result was that the test translation segments were so decontextualized as to be almost impossible to translate in any convincing way. (In such instances, what should the translator do? Go back to the client and make reasonable enquiries? Refuse to do business with the client based on his or her insensitivity to what translation involves? I suppose even here, typically, the answer depends on context…)
Another problem with offering your services for free is what it might say about the client. If you’ve been approached directly by a client, whether new or existing, based on your credentials and apparent suitability for the job, it’s perhaps not unreasonable to expect the client to foot the cost of the test translation. The client is, presumably, specifically targeting relevant translators; this should, in theory at least, mean that the pool of translators to choose from is smaller. Compare this with a generic, mass job post on a translation website from a start-up company in search of freelancers, requiring all applicants to submit test translations. In the latter instance, it doesn’t make economic sense to pay every applicant for their contribution. But perhaps in such an instance we ought to question the client’s rationale for such a drive to add hordes of freelancers to their databases, rather than a more targeted, discriminating approach based on job match. I imagine I’m not the only one who’s had a test translation approved, been added to the books of a translation agency, and subsequently never heard from said agency again.
And that leads me to my final point. There is a possibility – slim to fair – that what we have been given as a so-called “test translation” is actually one part of a previously-untranslated text split up into many other parts, all sent out separately to unsuspecting translators who dutifully produce their best translations. Once all of these “test translations” are received, the parts are put together into one complete whole (possibly with, but most likely without, any editing or quality checking) and sent onto an end client. The cost of translation to the agency: zero. The cost to the translator: precious time and energy without any prospect of recompense. Scams like this are sadly all too common.
What’s the alternative?
One option would be for all test translations to be paid, and indeed some clients have already adopted this as standard. In instances where this simply isn’t feasible, perhaps proof should be given to show that the same translation has been sent to all translators in the application process, or that a “fair copy” of the text already exists. One thing that would certainly help is for all translators to be contacted after submitting their translation, regardless of whether they’ve been successful or not. All too often, clients don’t update translators on the status of their application, and it’s this that can lead to a feeling that something underhand has occurred.
Ultimately, however, possible losses inherent in completing test translations – time, energy and money – must be borne by the translator and offset against potential gains – a long-term and profitable professional relationship. It is for the translator to vet clients and decide the terms and conditions under which they are happy to work.
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