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And if you do Leapforce/Lionbridge, you can hope one of your pages comes up for rating, and rate it super hyper relevant! I did once encounter a Brighthub page when I worked for both them and Leapforce. It wasn't one of my pages though.
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Mar 8, 2013 04:47
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Nighthand posted:And if you do Leapforce/Lionbridge, you can hope one of your pages comes up for rating, and rate it super hyper relevant! This happened to me too! well, kind of. It was where I had to rate the main search term for my site and my site wasn't on page one at the time.
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Mar 8, 2013 05:08
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I felt pretty awkward when I was writing for bright hub and ehow, and at the same time I was giving those sites bad ratings for lionbridge...
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Mar 8, 2013 13:32
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I just find the experience useful since now I write a lot of SEO articles for other sites and can put some of what I learned through Leapforce to use SEO-wise. Though, to be fair, at this point that basically means "your content isn't lovely".
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Mar 8, 2013 14:43
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MasterControl posted:I didn't pass for Appen. Weird thing is I went faster and had a higher score yet performed worse according to their email. There were outages last week so I'm sure some kind of timeout occurred and threw my numbers off. In fact one did. I got a weird email saying I needed to finish answering yet I know I did all 50. Appen doesn't give a poo poo about speed until you're in production, at least the project I'm qualifying for now. It's all about how much you got wrong or right and how far off you are. The thing is that there's a maximum amount wrong for each category, so if you get like 85% of them right but you missed a bunch from one category you might fail. Or you could only get 75% right and pass because your mistakes were more evenly distributed. Just FYI for people starting this by the way, at least for the project they assigned me -- there is the pre-screening logic puzzle thing, then the 50 question qualification thing, then ANOTHER qualification round with more vague instructions and less training that's been a lot more difficult for me. So getting close to passing the 50 question qualification doesn't mean that you just missed getting in. Kinda frustrating because I missed that at the beginning, guess I should have read the fine print more carefully. I am not at all confident in passing this next qualification round.
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Mar 8, 2013 19:12
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Chomposaur posted:Appen doesn't give a poo poo about speed until you're in production, at least the project I'm qualifying for now. It's all about how much you got wrong or right and how far off you are. The thing is that there's a maximum amount wrong for each category, so if you get like 85% of them right but you missed a bunch from one category you might fail. Or you could only get 75% right and pass because your mistakes were more evenly distributed. The quals are nuts. Out of the 50+ that took it with me only 1 passed. The poo poo is so arbitrary in some things.
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Mar 8, 2013 19:21
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I passed through the Appen stuff a couple of weeks ago and yes, second round qualifications are a supreme bitch. Just don't get disheartened if you fail the quiz and keep taking it if/when they let you.
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Mar 8, 2013 19:31
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I passed another Appen thing and am in production and it's hard getting up to the speed they want and still be accurate. Also I wish I could do it on my Macbook 
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Mar 8, 2013 21:11
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Has anyone tried to parlay their writing experience on content mills like Textbroker into an actual paying gig at a brick-and-mortar firm? After getting burned by Demand Studios' big shakedown over a year ago and Mediapiston transitioning over to ODesk, I'd like to have somewhere I can collect some steady income, for once. So here I am trying to make my resume look pretty enough so that it doesn't go straight into someone's garbage bin. 
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Mar 10, 2013 05:21
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Everyday Lurker posted:Has anyone tried to parlay their writing experience on content mills like Textbroker into an actual paying gig at a brick-and-mortar firm? After getting burned by Demand Studios' big shakedown over a year ago and Mediapiston transitioning over to ODesk, I'd like to have somewhere I can collect some steady income, for once. If you live in a state with one; patch.com's local sites accept writers. It's not paid unless maybe you snag a food column and get in good with the editor. However patch is part of the Huffington post network of sites so you can totally put it on your résumé. I do it and have a few story's. even managed to get a food column too 
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Mar 12, 2013 07:02
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I think one of my clients is taking the piss. "Hey, can you do this hour long audio by tomorrow?" "I'll take a look at it." "Great. It's eight speakers in a meeting, all of them with English as a second language, the one who's talking most of the time is on speakerphone, we want you to try to ID speakers, and they're paying a dollar a minute." "Sorry, I have to wash my hair." kazmeyer fucked around with this message at 18:58 on Mar 12, 2013 |
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Mar 12, 2013 18:56
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Heh, how sad is it I want to have a crack at that? I LOVE ESL, they usually talk slower, especially if they're all from different countries. Seriously though, yeah, that's a piss take. Content: Rev.com, formerly Fox Transcribe I feel like I should mention these guys because I've don some work for them now, and sometimes you find some audio gems amongst the dross. They pay poo poo, I'm not going to lie, and most of the audio sounds like it was recorded via a tin can shoved halfway up a monkey's rear end, BUT if you're just starting out and you have NOTHING to go with yet, it's something. Rate is $0.50 per minute of audio, which is poo poo. It's automatically clocked by their system, which is pretty good. Their reviewers pretend like they care but they give no shits. Their on site forum is full of crazies ho act like it's not monitored or something so it's kind of a laugh. They operate on a very standardized and simple format, and they believe in very clean verbatim, it's practically paraphrased. Verbatim gets you an extra 5 cents a minute, and time stamping an extra 10. Here's the thing though, their standard time stamp is one every 2 minutes of audio, that is it, chucked into the text wherever it lands. And it's a great way to get your chops I think, because generally whenever I do stuff for them I'm builind gmy experience in some way. Not a huge amount of ESL speakers, but some, and a LOT of Australians and Brits, so if those are accents you're struggling with this can be a good thing to try. Payment is every Monday via PayPal, no minimum payment. I've been on their books for about a month so I thought it was fair to chuck them out there. Also, they operate on a job log system where all the available assignment are laid out, so sometimes it seems like a bit of a scramble. If you try them, always preview files, I've seen a few asshats chuck accent tags on file they want to save for later but not be seen as a douche.
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Mar 13, 2013 20:09
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I don't mind accents at all; I do stuff for the Japanese news agency NHK all the time, and I regularly transcribe UK/Aussie/Kiwi, Eastern European, and Israeli speakers for various clients. I actually like attacking difficult accents, just for the experience. It's the multiple speakers that were the deal-breaker for me. To take that file, I'd have had to drop all my other work for the day due to the extra time, and you've got to pay me more than a buck a minute to get that kind of priority. Generally speaking, I won't touch an unmoderated multi-speaker audio unless it pays by the page or by the hour. I can afford to be a diva like that because I've got a lot of experience and a lot of clients. One of the perks of slogging through the word mines-- believe me, I feel the pain associated with those lovely, low-rate audio files. It gets better.
kazmeyer fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Mar 14, 2013 |
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Mar 13, 2013 23:56
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I finished a file this morning that was a pain in the rear end. The only saving grace was the subject matter. Its the only reason I didn't totally felt ripped off since the pay wasn't that great with the speaker I had to deal with. Constantly mumbling and laughing while talking. You're lucky you've done more in one day than I'll probably do in my whole life, sir.
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Mar 14, 2013 00:59
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kazmeyer posted:I think one of my clients is taking the piss. Ugh, I got a file earlier with (only) one ESL speaker that was apparently recorded in an empty swimming pool surrounded by a crowd. The speaker actually isn't too bad, but it's one of those where the background noise is louder than the actual interview, so whenever the speaker's accent makes something hard to understand I have almost no chance of figuring it out. This file's for a new company too, so I don't want to turn it down. Argh. And about Fox Transcription, I haven't worked for them but I've heard good things from some other newbies. Being able to pull files and work when you want is always preferable, I think. I did some work for one company that would assign files when they got them in, based on who was on in chat. I can't stand that, I just do not want to be chained to my desk all day waiting for work. I am available for X hours a week, trust me. Just assign it out.
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Mar 14, 2013 09:39
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For those who work with multiple transcription companies - do you include all of them on your resume when applying for positions with new ones? I'm waffling on whether or not a company wants to see that I'm working with a "competitor", but I also want to show any experience that I have, instead of a resume void of any actual transcription history.
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Mar 14, 2013 15:10
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Crunch Bucket posted:For those who work with multiple transcription companies - do you include all of them on your resume when applying for positions with new ones? I'm waffling on whether or not a company wants to see that I'm working with a "competitor", but I also want to show any experience that I have, instead of a resume void of any actual transcription history. It's not a problem. Transcription houses, at least the ones worth a drat, understand that freelancing means working for multiple clients. Unless you're signing up to one which is somehow promising or expecting 40 hours of work (which would be a red flag in my book, nobody's that busy for long) seeing other clients on your resume won't be an issue. You may want to try to reassure them that you've actually got the time in your schedule to handle work from multiple clients, and you won't sign up for anything you can't complete by the deadline. Honestly, I think the fact that all my clients know I've got other gigs encourages them to pitch me better work and give me raises.
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Mar 14, 2013 16:12
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As to the competitor thing, I actually did have a woman respond to me based on my resume containing a company who had recently won a contract from her. It was kind of werd at first because she was asking me about them, and i explained the things which she could have easily learned herself through a quick Google search, but wound up having a long conversation, and even though she wasn't happy with the company she at least agreed that she'd be very interested in my services once she starts hiring for the Spring season an said she'd be giving me a call. So, silvers linings and all that. :-)
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Mar 14, 2013 17:27
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That's pretty much what I figured, but I didn't want to screw myself from the get go. I took a look at Rev/Fox, but their employment page states that they require experience. Doesn't state how much experience, but I'm assuming a couple of weeks with one other transcription house isn't going to cut the mustard. I may wait a while before sending a resume to them. I've only received one assignment from DT so far so I'm pretty bummed about that, but I didn't expect a deluge of work.
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Mar 14, 2013 19:14
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Crunch Bucket posted:That's pretty much what I figured, but I didn't want to screw myself from the get go. I took a look at Rev/Fox, but their employment page states that they require experience. Doesn't state how much experience, but I'm assuming a couple of weeks with one other transcription house isn't going to cut the mustard. I may wait a while before sending a resume to them. I've only received one assignment from DT so far so I'm pretty bummed about that, but I didn't expect a deluge of work. I'm looking at their Transcriber Application page, where do you see they require experience? I don't see it anywhere. They only pay .40/minute, I don't see how they can require previous experience since anyone with experience can get more than that everywhere else. I'm going to put in an application just for the fact they used the Big Kahuna Burger dialogue from Pulp Fiction in their Sample Template.
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Mar 14, 2013 20:16
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Yeah, at that pay rate I doubt they'll be overly picky. I think the main value there is the on-demand work scheduling and simply the fact that it's another client you can put on your resume; steady work with multiple clients looks good, shows reliability and that you can manage deadlines. I think the only places I didn't stay contracted for at least a year were the first one that scammed me and another that folded up with little explanation about four months in.
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Mar 14, 2013 20:24
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Yeah I'm a moron. I had a couple of tabs open and my brain malfunctioned. It was a different company that required experience. I was also amused by the Pulp Fiction scene in the sample file. I like these folks already.
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Mar 14, 2013 20:27
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kazmeyer posted:Yeah, at that pay rate I doubt they'll be overly picky. I think the main value there is the on-demand work scheduling and simply the fact that it's another client you can put on your resume; steady work with multiple clients looks good, shows reliability and that you can manage deadlines. I think the only places I didn't stay contracted for at least a year were the first one that scammed me and another that folded up with little explanation about four months in. Exactly. It's difficult if you're not living in the U.S. right now because a lot of the respectable firms are asking for a lot of experience, doing a lot of whacked tests with very little parameter explanation. And if you want to try Focus Forward for instance or a few other really awesome looking companies, they only hire people living in the U.S., and that's their tag-line, so if anyone sees any companies taking on Canadians, lemme know. :-)
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Mar 15, 2013 19:02
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Does anyone know if DT emails you if you failed the test? Only reason I am asking is because it is closing in on a month since I emailed my test file in and haven't heard anything back yet. I know people were saying DT was very busy towards mid-February when I submitted, not sure if that is still the case or what.
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Mar 15, 2013 23:01
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dms666 posted:Does anyone know if DT emails you if you failed the test? Only reason I am asking is because it is closing in on a month since I emailed my test file in and haven't heard anything back yet. I know people were saying DT was very busy towards mid-February when I submitted, not sure if that is still the case or what. Email them asking about it. I heard back from my test the next day but didn't get my paperwork for signing up. After waiting about a week and a half I emailed them asking about it and they apologized for the wait but were swamped the past couple of weeks. They sent the paperwork right then and I started. Never hurts to ask and it might show them you are excited to start the job.
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Mar 15, 2013 23:28
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jabro posted:Email them asking about it. I heard back from my test the next day but didn't get my paperwork for signing up. After waiting about a week and a half I emailed them asking about it and they apologized for the wait but were swamped the past couple of weeks. They sent the paperwork right then and I started. Never hurts to ask and it might show them you are excited to start the job. Well I opened my email to ask them and there was my acceptance letter, yay!
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Mar 16, 2013 14:26
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Urge to kill client rising. Got one who's trying to renegotiate a pay rate while I'm in the middle of their tape. About to send them the quarter I've finished an an invoice. EDIT: Quickly resolved when I offered to send back the tape and let them try to find someone to cover it on a Saturday night.
kazmeyer fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Mar 16, 2013 |
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Mar 16, 2013 22:31
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kazmeyer posted:Urge to kill client rising. Got one who's trying to renegotiate a pay rate while I'm in the middle of their tape. About to send them the quarter I've finished an an invoice. Add 20% of what was originally agreed upon. Negotiations go both ways.
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Mar 16, 2013 22:36
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kazmeyer posted:Urge to kill client rising. Got one who's trying to renegotiate a pay rate while I'm in the middle of their tape. About to send them the quarter I've finished an an invoice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhdANnuJkwc&hd=1#t=57s
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Mar 16, 2013 23:03
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jabro posted:Add 20% of what was originally agreed upon. Negotiations go both ways. Hell yeah +1 for this, and once the door is opened really afaik the work should stop until an agreement is reached.
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Mar 16, 2013 23:56
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I really didn't want to outright start a fight with them, as they're one of my more profitable gigs at the moment, and apparently it was some kind of a miscommunication with the actual client. But yeah, once the job starts and the rate's agreed to, you don't get to make changes on the fly. I made it clear I would be happy to return the work and let someone else handle it at the revised rate and bill for what I'd finished, and they said the previous agreement would hold. But yeah, any time a client starts to get sketchy with you, you stop what the hell you're doing. The reason my first client took me for as much money as she did was I listened to the excuses about the studios not paying on time and kept doing work and building up a backlog of owed money. Definitely know better now.
kazmeyer fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Mar 17, 2013 |
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Mar 17, 2013 00:11
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I figured since I got hired, I should probably pickup a pedal and some headphones. Any advice on either? I was thinking maybe these two, both have good reviews. I dont know if there is anything missing with this pedal or if it is good enough, same with the headphones. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003L8081E/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A35FL3JI2LDDZ3 and http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007XJSQC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
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Mar 17, 2013 16:54
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Infinity pedals are pretty much the standard for computer-based transcription; I bought an IN-USB-1 when I first started and it's still going strong for me today (although it's gotten a bit squeaky lately). No software is needed, you plug it in and your transcription software will be able to configure it. The headphones seem fine, too. Closed cans are really the key, as open-ear models let in too much ambient noise and can make it difficult to follow bad audio.
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Mar 17, 2013 18:16
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I have that pedal, it's nice, they're pretty heavy, but if you have slippy floors stick a mat under it unless you don't mind that fucker sliding around, oh and press with your heel if you can, shin cramps are lame. Kaz, I know it's in this thread somewhere, but what headphones are you using at the minute?
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Mar 17, 2013 18:48
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I have that pedal and its the only thing that will survive in my house if a nuclear war would happen. It works great and after using it for a very short time it becomes second nature while transcribing.
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Mar 17, 2013 19:31
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One more question, I feel stupid asking, but this is at the end of the contract I am supposed to sign for DT. I figured out I am the "undersigned", and that they fill out the second "company" part, but what is the By: line? By: _______________________ Date: ________________ Name: ____________________ “Undersigned” By: _______________________ Date: ________________ Name: ____________________ For “Company”
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Mar 17, 2013 19:56
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Slightly Used Cake posted:I have that pedal, it's nice, they're pretty heavy, but if you have slippy floors stick a mat under it unless you don't mind that fucker sliding around, oh and press with your heel if you can, shin cramps are lame. This is the pair I'm currently wearing (although I bought them some time ago when they were considerably cheaper, Jesus Christ). Before that I had a set of Plantronics cans that I adored but has long since gone discontinued. Honestly, I think if you're willing to spend north of about $15 on a set of closed cans from a company you've actually heard of before you're probably good. dms666 posted:One more question, I feel stupid asking, but this is at the end of the contract I am supposed to sign for DT. I figured out I am the "undersigned", and that they fill out the second "company" part, but what is the By: line? Sign on "By:", print name on "Name:". That's the usual format for stuff like this.
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Mar 17, 2013 20:04
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kazmeyer posted:This is the pair I'm currently wearing (although I bought them some time ago when they were considerably cheaper, Jesus Christ). Before that I had a set of Plantronics cans that I adored but has long since gone discontinued. Honestly, I think if you're willing to spend north of about $15 on a set of closed cans from a company you've actually heard of before you're probably good. Thanks Kaz! I've been switching between an open set of senheisser and a set of their earbuds, but it's not necessarily the best for my ears longterm I think.
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Mar 18, 2013 04:41
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Quick question for Kaz or anyone who uses Inscribe. Midway through a file the sound guy had a problem with sound and now half my TCs are [00:00:32:04] off. Is there an easy way to fix the screwed up ones without doing it individually? The program won't let me select all the affected TCs. It seems to be either all or just one at a time unless I'm missing something. Edit: Nevermind, I figured it out. I'm dumb. jabro fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Mar 19, 2013 |
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Mar 19, 2013 21:05
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You got it, but yeah -- highlight the affected area of the transcript, Adjust Time Codes, and check the box for the selected area only. If you don't get the frame rate exactly right, the TC will drift by a couple of seconds over the course of a tape, and you can always just make a notation when you need to adjust everything down an extra second. (Or you can have one where they cut out all the questions to try to save money, which means you have to enter all the god drat time codes by hand.)
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Mar 19, 2013 23:45
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