You sell not only the translation, but also your expertise

Some thoughts and reflections

Modern technical translators have to be inquisitive. They don’t even have to; they must. The tools they use today will become unrecognizable in a few years. New programs and methods emerge, existing knowledge becomes outdated, and translators who are not interested in anything beyond the text are being outpaced by more inquisitive competitors.

* * *

A half-mystical tale of ancient times from the author. The year is 2008, and the market is dominated by the now-unknown Trados 2007. The news flashes a report that a then-unknown memoQ has appeared.

In the evening, after work, I curiously downloaded the trial version, installed it, created a project, translated three segments, and exported them. Everything is in strange places, but generally understandable.

By coincidence, the next morning (!), I received a message in my inbox from a new potential client: we have an order here, the text is simple, but the tool is rare, called memoQ, do you work with it?

Of course, we do, send it!

That’s how the company got the client solely on the strength of its skills.

* * *

Since then, it has become a matter of reflex. A new version of the program has been released—download and test it, or at least find out what has changed. A new plug-in has appeared—check what it can do, and which version of the program it is compatible with. A new service for recognizing, pronouncing, and converting text has been launched—find out what languages it supports, what makes it better than the current ones, and how much it costs.

You sell not only translation, but also your expertise, and many people can translate, but not everyone possesses the necessary knowledge.