Samuel Murray wrote:
...
Instead of two options, rather have four options, namely
* Full-time freelancer
* Part-time freelancer
* Agency (jobs mostly outsourced)
* Company (jobs mostly done in-house)
...
Dear Samuel,
I think that you are right, and a better classification would be extremely useful to anyone consulting the directories, making a further distinction between members who wants to be listed in the directory and those not interested.
Expanding a bit your two categories, I would like to have the following classification for individual members:
(1) Freelancer + Outsourcing
Those professionals who provide personally some work and outsource part of it, taking care of the final product, but not full blown agencies.
(2) Full-time freelancer
Member having as a main source of income the provision of language services, dedicated full-time to this profession. In this category would fall anyone who does not outsource its work.
(3) Part-time freelancer
Members can be part-timing for the most diverse reasons, family committments, health reasons, semi-retired, hold another job full or part-time, anything really and it doesn't really matter.
This category could include in-house translators who also wish to be included in the directory and take personal projects outside of their job.
(4) In-house translator
Declaring to be in the language business but not interested in being listed in the directory, not looking for jobs, not interested in being contacted by outsourcers.
(5) Not a translator
We have a very diverse membership, which includes also language teachers, language students, people with a love for languages, all of them interested in some parts of the site but not interested in being listed in the directory.
We could have the first 3 categories listed, possibly with the indication of "outsourcing" or "full-time" or "part-time", and the last two categories would be not listed, and it would be made clear to the owners of those profiles that choosing the options 4 and 5 they would be not listed.
Additional category: I have now added anotehr category on top, as n.1, to include those freelancers who outsource some work and provide this extra service, without being a full blown agency.
This is another way of freelancing and another service, and it could also be listed amongst the options available.
Gianfranco
PS: I'm not developing or expanding into other classifications possible and useful for the real full-blown agencies and for teams...
[Edited at 2005-04-01 18:16]