On translation tests and why we don’t believe in them
If you need to build your house, are you going to ask the builder to build you a free garage first? Shouldn’t you better look at previous houses he has built?
The issue of translation tests given to translators as a means to assess their skills has been long debated. However, I am going to talk about them from my perspective both as a translator and agency owner and why we don’t believe in them.
First of all, I must admit that when I was working as a translator, I was lucky enough not to have been asked too many times to do free translation tests. It actually happened only once (twice, if I count the time when I was asked to come up with a detailed analysis of someone else’s translation – see below). Secondly, we have never used them in our company (nor do we intend to) for the reasons I am going to explain below. Last but not least, there are some issues I am going to raise and would love to hear your opinions about them.
My personal experience
Free translation test
The first and only time I agreed to complete a free translation test, it was close to 600 words (not very long, though most tests do not or should not be over 300 words) and consisted of a witness statement. I am not going to disclose the name of the agency that sent it to me (it is well known). What disappointed me was the fact that, although they had said full feedback would be provided after independent evaluation, have not heard anything from them. Not even a ‘Thank you’ email for sending the translation. More than a year later, they started emailing and calling me about interpreting assignments which I had to turn down due to their refusal to pay decent rates and reimburse travel expenses (but that’s a different story).
Free analysis report
Now, you may say I was naïve to accept yet another free task, but I had been working for the respective agency (not the same as above) for quite a while, so I thought a little free service would be OK. At least they did thank me for sending the report. What I found weird however was that I was asked to analyse a translation from my mother tongue (Romanian) into English and was promised that if they win the tender they were applying for and for which they needed the analysis, I would be their first choice for this language combination. I am aware that there may not be many native English speakers who can translate from Romanian, but it still struck me as ‘unusual’. I still don’t know what the result of the tender was, although they had promised to let me know.
As a translation agency
As part of our recruitment process, we ask our translators and interpreters to provide the details of two people they have carried out translation or interpreting work for. This way, we can check the quality of previous work. Quite a few candidates have asked whether they should expect a translation test and some of them were keen on taking one. While we appreciate their enthusiasm, I am afraid some others may take advantage of them, as I will explain later on in this article.
Why we cannot and do not give translation tests
- We work with various language combinations, so preparing and evaluating translation tests would not only be time consuming, but frankly impossible. For each test you will need a proofreader. Can you really ask someone to do that for free? We would not dare ask. Unless you are a big company with hundreds of staff members who are also qualified translators and who can cover a number of language combinations, it is an impossible task.
- What about specialisation? Should we give a test for each field? Even if one has an army of in-house proofreaders for a certain language combination, they would still not be able to cover all fields.
- How do we know who does the translation? As long as the text to be translated is sent and returned by email, how can one be sure who does the translation? What if the translator will outsource the test? It can happen.
- What about interpreting? If we would use translation tests, wouldn’t it be only fair we assess interpreters in a similar manner? How would one do that? Besides, most of the translators we work with have extensive experience, some have MA in Translation and Interpreting, DipTrans or DPSI. Having passed so many exams (certainly much more complex than any translation test we may come up with), and I feel it would be demeaning to ask them yet to take another one.
Potential issues
- Long tests may be translation jobs in disguise. I have heard so many cases of so-called translation tests whose length would suggest (or sometimes scream) free job. If you do agree to take a translation test, just use your judgement. If they send you a 3,000 word project, you can be sure it is not a test, but a job.
- There is no actual guarantee you’ll get jobs afterwards. Once you have passed the test, no one can guarantee you will actually get any jobs later. That depends on the demand for your language combination, specialism etc. A test translation (although I still believe it should not be free) may be justified in the case of a large project when the end client wants to see a sample, but passing the test should guarantee you will work on the respective project. Should you fail the test, you should be provided with feedback.
If you agree, disagree or would like to share your opinion and experience, please do so in a comment below.
45 Comments
Hi, Alina,
I totally agree with your views. I cannot think of other professionals being tested after graduating and getting registered at professional associations.
I will recommend your post as it raises awareness on the possibilities we have to position our services by using accessible references and recommendation letters and stop doing unpaid —many times unanswered— and useless tests. This reminds me of other issues where real change is only possible if massive; only if united we can change the industry workings. If more and more translators stop accepting to perform translation tests, agencies will have to stop asking for them.
Kind regards,
Cecilia
Many thanks for your comment, Cecilia. I like the comparison with other professionals. Some may argue that there are professionals who offer free consultation, which is true. But this does not include asking them to perform an actual task, does it? For example, say you need a solicitor (I am yet to see one who offers free consultation). Are you going to ask him to show you how they would represent you in court (as in ‘Pretend you are in front of the judge and present my case’)? Or a hairdresser. Should we ask them to cut our fringe for free and then decide whether we trust them with the rest of our tresses?
The only situation where a translation test may be acceptable is for an in-house position, as part of the recruitment process. And feedback should be given. Always.
That is a great post, Alina! I don’t really work for bigger agencies, but my experience so far is that those who ask for a test translation also require translators to sign paperwork which is simply not acceptable (indemnify and reimburse the agency for every liability risk on the plant).
There is also another big problem with testing: specialized expert translators with some years of industry experience will simply refuse to take an unpaid test and you might thus not be able to attract the type of translators you are actually trying to find!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Tim.
I totally agree and I am happy to see that I am not the only one thinking that my MA should count for something! Thank you for your post Alina.
Thank you for stopping by and commenting, Jolanta. I probably see things this way because I have worked as a freelance translator myself and, as I have mentioned, been there done that.
Very good point. So many companies here in Montreal do exactly this. People have to communicate and try to find out what the translator likes to work on. I’ve noticed that many managers just fend off communication with their tests, and then send you a generic email saying they will contact you when they need you. Reality is they probably don’t have any contracts, but want to appear as if they do. Hehe 🙂
Great article, and wonderful to see an agency that doesn’t automatically expect free test translations. I for one am always happy to provide small samples of previous work, or reference letters from previous clients, but I always feel somewhat unhappy at being expected to take a test, when you so rarely get feedback.
Thank you for your words. Indeed, we have never asked for free test translations. We don’t use test translations as part of the recruitment process. We do use test translations if clients ask for them before they decide to go ahead with a bigger project, but we always pay translators for them.
Indeed, not getting feedback can be frustrating (been there, done that).
Thanks again for stopping by and hope to see you again on our blog.
I second you on outsourcing the test. It happened to me. I were asked by a senior colleague who did me favours when I first step in this field. At the time I didn’t know about it and did lots of test for her (must be about 7 tests and must be ok that she asked for more), when I know more of it, I refuse. I also took tests but they dont always turn out to be real jobs but only lots of paperwork after passing it. Very few cases in which I do get the project are the election translation projects.
Once I was announced failing the test which is exactly my specialization medical field ( I studied it and always have the help from the medical university to ensure the quality so It can’t be wrong to the point in the review) and the review file made me surprised but I didn’t contact the company to clarify it since their offered rate and the one they choose to be the reviewer told something about them.
I still take tests if my time allow and if the companies show good signs but I am not as keen as before. Sometime I told them it may take 10 days to return it.
So true.. I am fed up of Translation tests and then no feedback, forget about job, These days I outright refuse to take any tests for free, and propose them that they can pay my minimum fee for a 200 words test (and they can adjust it with subsequent jobs). Of course there are exceptions, I am always ready to support the regular clients.
As a translator and agency owner, I believe that taking a test if you want to work for somebody is commonsensical… Unless you’re not some translator that everybody has heard of. Like St. Jerome… I mean, if you’re taking a job interview at – say – Microsoft – and they ask you to programme a small app as a test, you’re not charging them a day’s work. You’re just doing it, because you hope to get a job… About the proofreader who sees the tests and decides what candidate is eligible and which one is not, that’s an expense that the agency is supposed to cover, because the proofreader is actually working when he/she reads the test. That’s an “investment” that the company makes… Of course, we also need to talk about the initial licensing tests/criteria that may be more reliable in some countries than in others. But that’s a looong discussion…
Hi Alex, many thanks for stopping by and for your comment. I agree with a paid test translation for a specific project (we have done that in the past), but not as part of the initial recruitment application- again, that would not work for us, but I guess each agency has their own criteria/methods.
Let me reiterate why I don’t think that works for us: we have hundreds of applications to deal with. It would be impossible for us to test each candidate – so many language combinations, so many areas of specialisation (would you test them for each?) etc. Most of the people we work with are ITI, CIoL, ATA assessed, so asking them to be tested again would be sort of redundant, especially as a generic application, without guaranteeing how much volume of work we’d be able to send their way. Do you test interpreters too? If yes, how? And wouldn’t that be unfair?
I really look forward to hearing your thoughts on this. I welcome a debate, I think we can all learn something from this.
Hi Alina,
Thanks for your very informative article. I totally agree with you. I have never received a job from an agency who sent me a test although I am a very well established professional and have many clients who rely on my services.
I’m also a conference Interpreter and actually you build your reputation in this area and it testifies for you.
Keep these posts coming
Ahmad
Hi, Ahmad, and many thanks for your comment and nice words. I hope you’ll find the rest of the posts as useful.
Great article Alina, I totally agree with you. I have done quite a few test translations and only one resulted in actual work.
If only other agencies shared the same views…
Thank you for sharing from your own experience, Maria.
Thank you for your wonderful page, Alina, and for your comments.
I never believed in this way of assessing the quality or the adequacy of a professional and this is why.
I, for one, am a senior, qualified, provided of official diplomas, degrees, and certifications, member of 2 professional associations, with several references and clients I have worked with for decades willing to vouch for the quality of my work.
Recently I have been more or less coerced to translate tests by new potential clients/agencies (in the best of cases paid “only if you pass”) if I wanted to take part to a project or get an assignment, It must be said that, in every one of these cases, I have been contacted by these agencies and not the opposite. What a waste of their and my time.
From now on, I will not accept anymore to spend time to translate a “test” – which I did in one case, very accurately and always according to my usual high standards – without any compensation, even a minimum rate, only to receive an e-mail by an administrative assistant saying that “my translation didn’t meet the client’s requirements/expectations” (by the way, said requirements were NEVER specified, nor they usually are; there is no delivery of a house glossary or other type of referral material).
If the test is a matter of life or death, then you agency or client must : 1. Pay me in ANY CASE (not just if I “pass”). 2. Let me know who is editing my test and what are his/her qualifications 3. Provide a clear explanation of why my test hasn’t met said requirements/expectations 4. Let me know in advance which are these requirements and providing a house glossary or a sample material used by the client.
Having said that, qualifications and references should be more than enough to want to hire somebody. Otherwise, why would we waste our time and money preparing, honing and updating our professional skills if an unknown agency employee decides by checking 300 words if you’re worth working with them .
Thank you and keep up the good work!
Elena Woontner
Thank you so much for your very insightful comment, Elena. I could not have said it better. I agree with every single point you made.
Nice post Alina. I agree with your points. I never accept free ‘test’ translation.
Thank you for your comment, Abukar.
I completely agree with your assessment of translations tests Alina. Personally, although I have more work offers than I have time to accept, I have never received work after submitting a translation text (with one exception). Aside from all the excellent reasons you have given, tests do not reflect the reality of translation. Elena Woontner expressed it well: reference materials, target audience and even language variant are rarely provided, and there is no possibility of consulting on ambigous acronyms, or erroneous passages. Sadly, I have come to the conclusion that when approached for a test, I must refuse.
Thank you for reading and commenting, Gloria, I really appreciate it.
Hello Alina,
I’m writing from Portugal and I’m starting my own translation company. I have started to receive CV’s and I’m wondering how to tell apart the good from the bad. I agree with you. I believe translation tests are useless and complicated to review in a small scale company. Can you tell how you tell apart the good candidates from the bad ones? Thnak you!
Regards,
Diogo
Hi Diogo,
First of all, thank you for reading the blog and for your comment.
Regarding your question, when you say good or bad CVs, what exactly do you mean? If you refer to genuine vs fake, I’d suggest reading my post on how to spot scammers – 9 Tips on How to Spot Translator Scammers. Is this what you were referring to? If not, please let me know and I’ll see how I can advise.
Hello again Alina,
I wasn’t referring to that. I wanted your advice on how to tell apart the best translators from all the Resumes i have received.
Regards,
Diogo
I see. Well, first of all, you need to see whether they meet your criteria (here are ours) and they have the qualifications and experience you are looking for. Secondly, I always look at how professional their CVs are. A CV with typos and mistakes would be a red flag. If the CV comes with a cover email, that one should tell you quite a bit about the person from the way they address you and present themselves. There’s no ‘fixed’ recipe. I guess you learn how to quickly sort CVs in time.
I hope this helps.
Hi Alina,
I think that in some cases, translation tests can be useful. As a beginner, how can agencies know the quality of my work, since I don’t have no reference ? Many agencies that don’t require test, collaborate only with translators with at least 2 years of experience. What does it mean for me and for all the beginners ? If nobody wants to work with us because we have no feedback, does it mean we should give up translation ? I think that for beginners, tests could give an idea of the skills of the translator. In my opinion, some beginners are more talented than some experienced translators.
Hi Sandrine, many thanks for reading and commenting.
We also require at least 2 years’ experience for those with an undergraduate degree, but not for those who have a post-graduate qualification in translation. For the former, you can start by working for other clients, not necessarily agencies (or agencies with different requirements). For the latter, I am sure they can get references from their lecturers, who are more than qualified to comment on the candidate’s translation skills.
Translation tests, as a means of recruiting candidates, are just not feasible in my opinion, for all the reasons stated: a short test is not relevant, you’d have to test the candidate in all their fields of specialisation, you’d need reviewers for each test and each language combination. Can one ask all these people to work for free? I don’t think so. Can one afford to pay for thousands of tests? Probably not. Besides, if translators are tested this way, should’t we test interpreters as well?
“[…] some beginners are more talented than some experienced translators.” > Of course, this can happen in any field 🙂
I challenge you ladies who do not believe in tests to buy your shoes or your wedding dresses after just looking at the past work of the shoemaker or dressmaker without trying them on :p
Hi Alex (again 🙂 ). I don’t think translation and shoes/dresses can be compared – the latter are commodities, while translation isn’t.
On the other hand, I have bought dresses and shoes online, without trying them on and they were fine 🙂
Seriously? Apart from sounding incompetend, your comments are unnecessarily sexist. Oh, and, FWIW I buy all my shoes and clothes online from brands that I trust and that never disappointed me.
Incompetent. My keyboard has deserted me. Don’t think that I ignore the word’s spelling for a second.
That’s exactly the reason why you need to test people, my learned interlocutor… Some may seem competend, some others may seem to be incompetend… Everybody should have a fair chance… Looking for a freelancer who is supposed to take up your outsourced work is much like recruiting a new employee… New employees go through rigorous tests and trial periods. I don’t see why freelancers shouldn’t. And as sexist as I may sound (which I’m not fyi) clothes and shoes are sized according to different systems. I buy stuff from online stores myself, but every now and then I need to send products back because they don’t fit. BTW, as a translation agency manager, I’ve lost two big clients over the oversized egos of fellow-translators whose competence I had to take for granted… So I’m not gonna make that mistake twice…
You don’t have to take their competence for granted, I believe there are other ways to assess competence. Sure, I totally agree with tests for a specific project, to ensure the translator’s style is what the client is looking for, but it should be paid. I simply do not agree with free translation tests as part of the recruitment process (general application).
As for the shoes comparison: again, we cannot compare commodities with non-commodities. In the case of shoes, like you said, sometimes they may not fit (it did happen to me a few times) and you send them back. But, in this case, no one loses anything, The store gets their product back, which they are free to sell to someone else. You get your money back (or shoes that fit). It’s a win-win. With translation, not so much. The translator will spend time for crafting the text, time for which they should be remunerated.
One more thing: if you needed a solicitor/barrister, would you test them too? I mean, would you ask them to represent you for one day (for free) as a test, before you decide they are competent? 🙂
Ha ha ha. You are SO funny. A key that does not work is something that happens to everyone, even to rigorous you. Don’t worry, there is no chance I would ever work for someone with your mindset. I leave this privilege to those to test for free and work for peanuts.
I don’t think Alex’s intention was to offend (and I don’t think he was being sexist earlier), but you know what happens, in writing it may be more difficult to ‘read’ the other’s intentions.
As for tests, each to their own. For some it work, for some it doesn’t. Some translators accept it, some don’t. I am against free translation tests as a means of recruitment, but for some agencies (especially if they work with one language only), it may very well work.
Before continuing (or closing this discussion), I guess we should bring up the issue of the national background here. Judging by the name, I guess you’re Romanian, just as I am, so I think we should also consider the way in which people become translators. I don’t know how many licensed translators work in UK, but in Romania 40.000 people are licenced (authorised) translators (against an overall population of 19,488,083). In the vast majority of the cases, price is the only competitive advantage they have when they first enter the market. And that “competitive advantage” is there to stay for a long while. I’ve seen countless translators who are unable to combine words properly, because the tests they take at the Ministry of Culture/Justice are not thorough enough, so unless someone who I really trust recommends translators to me, newcomers who pick my name up on the Internet and send their CVs in are always tested. Even so, it has happened to me to assign a text to people who got 10 (on a scale from one to ten) in the tests and then I got a messy translation. On other occasions, I phoned fellow agency managers asking for a translator specialised in this or that and they recommended someone who was not really good, just to be nice to me, or told me that they were not going to recommend this or that translator because they assign large workloads to them, and I would keep these translators occupied and unavailable for other work. We are not living in a perfect world. I truly believe what you and our other colleagues are saying, we do have to trust people and each other and overcome our own suspicions, but this is something to do in the most perfect of the perfect worlds… About the barrister, well, this is not really a good question for me, I’ve asked somebody I knew personally and whom I trusted to help me out with some court stuff, and he **** up.
I am indeed Romanian 🙂 And we can continue the discussion, a little debate may be good for everyone.
Regarding the UK, there is no such thing as authorised/sworn translators like in Romania (and other countries). I totally agree with you on the fact that there are ‘translators’ who are totally useless. As I said, basically anyone can call themselves a translator.
On the other hand, if you are thorough in your recruitment process (for example, we only work with translators who have translation studies and are usually members of professional associations). In the UK, both the CIoL and the ITI are very rigorous in their assessments. Also, we ask them to provide references from previous clients. Sure, you can still have unpleasant surprises, but that can happen with tests too. They might do very well on your test but not such a great job on an actual project. Or they can ask someone to help with the test, the possibilities are numerous.
My point is that, at least in the case of my agency, testing translators as a means of getting them on our books is unfeasible and also unfair (as we cannot guarantee a certain volume of work even when they are approved). If you work with interpreters, do you have a test for them? I am curious, it’s not a trick question. It only seems fair that, if tests are used for translators, similar criteria should be used for interpreters.
Again, do you test a translator for each of their specialisation areas? And for each of their language combinations? That would mean more than one test. Also, who evaluates the translation? Will they do it for free too?
Sorry to hear about your bad experience with the barrister.
Hello Alina,
I got to your blog as a result of reading your article in the current ITI Bulletin. First, congratulations for making the distinction between “working for” and agency and “working with” an agency. The first results in angst the second should result in growth to mutual advantage.
Turning to tests, again I agree with you. They are a total waste of time. The agency has no idea who actually does the work and the translator has no idea of the competence of the person who assesses the test. The only known is that the tester is a competitor.
As a company whose process is both ISO 9001:2008 & EN 15038:2006 certified and that in 38 years has never used freelance labour, we do test all candidates for employment. We have a standard test that is carried on-site under supervision. We do not provide feedback as this can result in legal issues. However, we do take new graduates with zero experience as we provide CPD for all our staff and our process helps them grow. Computer literacy for working in a network and CAT tool training are essential as few candidates arrive with these skills.
A specialised facility like ours (Eng/Spa only) has special needs for which we have special solutions. That said, agency tests are a useless insult.
Many thanks for your kind words and thoughtful comment, Richard. I am glad we are in agreement regarding tests. In the case of your company, where we’re talking about in-house positions, they make sense, of course.
Hi Alina,
Thank you for your post.
Being a translator, I feel weird when companies ask me to do test translation and then send me back a short (or more detailed if you are lucky) feedback from their internal proofreader whom I cannot have any contact or discussion. What is the guarantee that their proofreader is qualified to do the job? Because he passed the same test by another proofreader, who passed before and so on…? I think if agencies would want to do the test they should either use a professional and therefore more or less relatively objective testing company such as ALTA or at least allow the candidate translator and proofreader to work together as it would be a real project. That would show the agency how the translator is working under “normal” circumstances” in a team. In my opinion, willing to learn and improve your skills and able to cooperate with more experienced translators/proofreaders should also be an important criterion when hiring a new translator. That would also show that the company is serious about investing time and effort into their new translators and do not just wish to take a “temperature” in a moment by their “family doctor”. Giving references are still my favorites.
Hi Annamaria, many thanks for reading the blog and for your thoughtful comment. Some of the issues you touched are exactly why I think tests can be problematic.
I don’t like translation tests and many other time wasting procedures that waste time. Some companies make you do tons of things and they rarely send you any work. Fill all these forms first – register on our system – do this test translation etc. I agree with you all they could do is ask for the work someone did in the past.