Translation as a Profession (Benjamins Translation Library)

126 Translation as a Profession– most, if not all of the translation jobs, are outsourced;– the services performed in-house (such as accountancy, management, projectmanagement, proof-reading, source material preparation, software integration,Web site conversion, etc.) are not the main part of the business, eventhough they may actually be more lucrative than the outsourced services;– outsourced services represent the core of their business;– agencies employ few salaried translators;– there are always fewer in-house staff (the manager, permanent employees ortemporary staff) than sub-contractors – by a long shot.Standard brokerage companies and agencies always rely on external translators(freelancers or other agencies, who may in turn sub-contract the work) to do theactual translating.Typically, a translation agency or bureau relies on:– sales staff, whose job is to find new contracts,– administrative staff,– a part-time accountant;– one or several word processing and formatting operators plus, in some cases,a desktop publishing specialist and graphic designer working on both paperand digital media,– an ICT engineer,– several proof-readers or revisers,– a handful of in-house translators-cum-project managers,– the vital database of freelance sub-contractors, who must be as many and asdiverse as possible in terms of language combinations and domain specialisationsand hopefully ‘autonomous’ in not requiring revision.Recent years have seen a tremendous growth in brokering and agency activity, withagencies and bureaus getting more diversified in terms of size and structure. Fourmain trends are noticeable in this area:– Translation brokerage companies and agencies all go fishing on the Internet formore and more possible sub-contractors. Some have set up Internet portalsinviting bids for translation contracts, offering translators space in which todisplay their resume and in some cases, organising translation auctions inwhat is in effect an on-line brokerage service.– Many such businesses now employ one or more IT specialists who are incharge of disassembling multimedia source material and then re-integratingthetranslatedtextintothefinishedproductandontothefinalmediumwiththe translators taking care of the ‘linguistic’ component of localisation.– Given the cost of employing ‘in-house’ proof-readers and revisers, agenciesnaturally seek totally autonomous translators (translators who produce high