Now working with a colleague and offering EN-RUS, EN-UKR

Pleased to report that I’m now partnering with a long-time friend and former co-worker, Sveta Surzhyk. This means that we’ll now be offering, in addition to Russian/Ukrainian/French-English, translation from English TO Russian and Ukrainian.

Dodgy potential client

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – thank God for Proz.Com.

I was contacted with a request from a translation agency I had never been approached by before. They wrote that they had a Russian-English translation for me, nothing too complex, but that they needed it within 2-3 hours. In general, I’m not opposed to that sort of thing, but, ever since I joined Proz, I’ve had the opportunity to do a little background checking on potential clients.

I couldn’t find them. That’s not necessarily a terrible thing, but in my experience the more “solid” companies can always be found in the Proz “Blue Book.” I wrote back, saying that I didn’t wish to be rude, but that I needed to know a little more about them, before I took on work for an unfamiliar company. They replied with a promise to pay…but I’ve had those promises before, so I decided to check again…

And I found them – but under a different name (NOT a good sign.) In addition, the last 4 bits of feedback were very negative, regarding payment. That was enough for me: I wrote back, declining the job. They replied quickly and, I had the feeling, with resignation.

We freelancers have to take care of ourselves. Proz is a big help and my membership payment as already paid for itself many times over.