Translation was always one of the things I enjoyed doing. I started working as a freelance translator about 4 years ago. During this period, I was able to learn a few things, team work was definitely one of them. Yet, that was not an easy task. First, I had to look for somebody to work with, but when I I finally did and as we started working together, it was a pain trying to meet the deadlines. You would think that the opposite would be true. I agree, but not when dealing with somebody who does not perform their work properly or in a timely manner.
Anyway, it took me a lot of time and a lot of patience to find the right people, committed people. This has finally made my life easier. Not having to deal with redoing other people work was a big relief for me. It is important however to have in mind the important steps that made the team work be successful.
1. Being in touch at all times.
You have to feel like you working in the same office. Don't use email only when dealing with other team members. Exchange your home phone numbers, cell phone numbers, Skype, anything else that can make it easy for the team to constantly be in touch.
Anyway, it took me a lot of time and a lot of patience to find the right people, committed people. This has finally made my life easier. Not having to deal with redoing other people work was a big relief for me. It is important however to have in mind the important steps that made the team work be successful.
1. Being in touch at all times.
You have to feel like you working in the same office. Don't use email only when dealing with other team members. Exchange your home phone numbers, cell phone numbers, Skype, anything else that can make it easy for the team to constantly be in touch.
2. Be smart when dividing the workload.
This is team work so when dividing the workload, you need to be sure who can take what. Don't just take the first 10 pages and give the last 10 pages to your colleague. The first 10 pages might be focusing on a field that you are not very good at, which will take you longer to translate. Be sure you briefly go through the document you have before deciding who should take what.
3. Make your own deadlines!
To meet a client's deadline, you need to make deadlines for your team. Write down the exact dates or exact hours when the translation should be finalized, when the editing and the proofreading should be completed, and finally when the quality assurance should be done. All of this has to be done by the deadline the clients ask for if you want them to come back.
4. Create a drop box.
You probably know how agitating it is to attach a big file or a number of files to your emails, especially when you wait so long and then get an error. So, make sure you create a drop box. This will make your life easy.
Article Source: Fadwa Abida
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