By the time you read this, I will be unemployed.

So, my tenure at WIPO is up and it's time for me to consider, what next. The obvious response being 'look for more work'.

As a continuation of the analogy I offered in my last post, I've been thinking about the type of service I'd like to offer and the type of clients I'd like to cultivate. If possible, I'd like to position myself in the bespoke end of the market. There are two primary reasons for this; one is a little idealistic and the other is slightly more practical.

The idealistic reason is that I think this is more appropriate for my personality and it is more in line with how I think a business should be run. I think that a business should be personal and care about its clients. I realise that this is not always possible, that's why this is the idealistic reason.

The practical reason is that I live in a developed nation with a reasonable economy and high standard of living (although it won't take long for our politicians to fix that). I simply can't compete on price. I would need to translate millions of words a year just to pay for food. So, I need to compete on quality and service.

I think these are the two biggest factors in considering how I want my career to progress: being able to work without going mad and being able to make a living and support my family. Although my own abilities and other factors (such as what work I can get. Beggars can't be choosers, not for long anyway) will, naturally, play a role as well.

Custom-made translations! While you wait!

I was thinking about machine translation (which seems to be a popular blog topic) and it occurred to me that having something translated is a bit like getting a suit.

You could buy one off the rack (machine translation) and maybe take it to a tailor (post-editor) to improve the fit. It'll never be perfect but if it will only be used once or it's not that important to you, this is probably sufficient.

Or, you could get one made to measure, which is usually made using a machine (CAT tools) with a pattern (100% and fuzzy matches). It'll fit pretty well and it's relatively cheap using the pattern. If you're looking to get a lot of use out of it but don't have a big budget, this is a good way to go.

Of course, there is also bespoke. It's more expensive but you get what you pay for. Every stitch (word) is a labour of love (or possibly anal retentiveness) and you get something more personal and customised to your needs. This is for when quality is more important than cost.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, but as analogies go, I think it's pretty good.

To write or not to write Shakespeare

I have discovered that I have no middle gear. When I first started out at WIPO, one of the things that I was, repeatedly, told was that we aren't writing Shakespeare. This isn't too say that we don't try and turn out clear and concise writing. Rather it's a recognition of the fact that sometimes you just have to accept a less than terrific phrase, sentence, etc. This can be due to some of the restrictions I mentioned in a previous post or because we don't want to be too liberal in our translation. It's just something we have to deal with.

I can't. I tried but I can't. The times that I tried it felt so much like doing half a job that I was ashamed of myself. I can do my best or I can do nothing. For me, there is no middle ground. And so, I agonise and sweat and swear over every phrase and term until I'm satisfied I can't do anymore or until I run out of time, and then I hand it in certain in the knowledge that it is absolute rubbish but that I, at least, can't do any better. I know that the likely audience probably doesn't care about this sort of thing, so long as they can understand it easily, and I have no illusions about my writing ability but I can't see any reason why I shouldn't try for Shakespeare. I mean, if you don't do your best, why do it at all?