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Netflix Hermes test
Thread poster: Magdalena Adamus
Cristiana Coblis
Cristiana Coblis  Identity Verified
Romania
Local time: 08:01
Member (2004)
English to Romanian
+ ...
Test 4 Apr 20, 2017

kiara kiaora wrote:
Has anyone had this kind of problem with their test? Any suggestions? Should I create a second profile and restart? I am not too kin on retaking the first 3 stages and I am not sure I should try test 5 and start the timer on that one too without having solved stage 4 first.


I actually had a number of issues throughout the test, but somehow managed to work around them :/
I started the test on one of my notebooks and had to switch to another computer because the images in test 4 would not show. Unfortunately, I was not able to find out why. I checked that it met all the requirements before starting, so that could not be it. Indeed, the time will continue to run, so you can only close the test to stop it. When you restart the test, the timer will resume, so this was a concern. By the time I noticed this, I had already wasted some 5 minutes just trying to figure out what to do. Fortunately, when I resumed the test on my desktop it worked fine and the images displayed.

Unfortunately, I think it's not possible to skip one section, you have to take them in order for some reason. As per their description, phase 5 contains 2 clips (you have 40 minutes for each, which is more than sufficient). Because of the environment used, the two clips are two separate links. FYI, I also had some weird errors in the subtitling sections in the last phase, but I just ignored them :/

There is no actual way to see your answers after you submit them, which is unfortunate and might cause endless disputes. By the time I get the results I will not even remember I took the test, let along whatever answers I gave...

[Editat la 2017-04-20 14:57 GMT]


 
Chiara Sodi
Chiara Sodi
Italy
Local time: 07:01
English to Italian
@Cristiana Apr 20, 2017

Thank you Cristiana for the explanation about stage 5, I didn't remember it being split into 2 videos.
I'll try from a different computer, I might end up in wasting another minute, but worth a try.


 
Victor Cadenas
Victor Cadenas
Local time: 03:01
English to Spanish
+ ...
Regarding important lessons Apr 20, 2017

Hi everyone. Long-time lurker here, with a particular interest for this thread, as I am a member of Netflix's "on-hold" club as well. I completed my test by the end of March, although I cannot remember the exact day, so I guess it is almost a month for me.

I am taking it easy though, as my pair is probably one of the most popular ones (EN ES-LA, the famous 419). Unless there are machines killing off all bad multiple choice tests, I highly doubt they will reach my test anytime soon.
... See more
Hi everyone. Long-time lurker here, with a particular interest for this thread, as I am a member of Netflix's "on-hold" club as well. I completed my test by the end of March, although I cannot remember the exact day, so I guess it is almost a month for me.

I am taking it easy though, as my pair is probably one of the most popular ones (EN ES-LA, the famous 419). Unless there are machines killing off all bad multiple choice tests, I highly doubt they will reach my test anytime soon.

Anyway, I just wanted Mr. José to know that this post...

I wish you had no reason to congratulate me. Heck, I'm a professional EN < > PT translator!

...really resonated with me. A valuable lesson for us beginners. Obrigado!
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Firyuza Muradova
Firyuza Muradova  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 09:01
English to Russian
+ ...
@Caroluc Apr 20, 2017

To see the results you need to login to your hermes dashboard and press the red bar.

 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 03:01
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
Did you see your results? Apr 20, 2017

Firyuza Mrd wrote:

To see the results you need to login to your hermes dashboard and press the red bar.


I went there, and all the red bar does is expanding and collapsing the "Thank you for your time." message.

That bar doesn't serve any drinks either.


 
Cristiana Coblis
Cristiana Coblis  Identity Verified
Romania
Local time: 08:01
Member (2004)
English to Romanian
+ ...
Language Style Guide Apr 20, 2017

Lynos wrote:
The Hermes test guidelines say "Before starting, please make sure to review the Timed Text Style Guides (found in the Tutorials section) which explain Netflix Style Guide and subtitling requirements", but it is unclear if they mean the general requirements or the specific language requirements.

How did other people here handle it?

Thanks.

I followed the Romanian style guide. If there is one for the specific language, then it should be followed.
HTH


 
Firyuza Muradova
Firyuza Muradova  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 09:01
English to Russian
+ ...
Yes, I saw my results Apr 20, 2017

José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:

Firyuza Mrd wrote:

To see the results you need to login to your hermes dashboard and press the red bar.


I went there, and all the red bar does is expanding and collapsing the "Thank you for your time." message.

That bar doesn't serve any drinks either.


Well, it seems like your test hasn't been reviewed yet.


 
MrFireDragon
MrFireDragon
Mexico
English to Spanish
Almost a month Apr 20, 2017

Hello,

New user here, found this site while searching for waiting times on Hermes Test results, and I have to say that so far I'm loving the community.

I took my Hermes test ENG > SPA on March 21st, tomorrow will be a month since that day. Still no reply from Netflix nor from Hermes support email.

I wonder if the waiting time was increased due to high amount of received tests, but I also have to ask myself if this could also mean that they are holding th
... See more
Hello,

New user here, found this site while searching for waiting times on Hermes Test results, and I have to say that so far I'm loving the community.

I took my Hermes test ENG > SPA on March 21st, tomorrow will be a month since that day. Still no reply from Netflix nor from Hermes support email.

I wonder if the waiting time was increased due to high amount of received tests, but I also have to ask myself if this could also mean that they are holding the tests with high results until they obtain the top marks, I imagine that low results would get noticed as fast as possible to get them out of the way. I don't know, this is just me, and I apologize if someone else has suggested this, as I have not finished reading the whole thread.

Once again, loving this site and the community and look forward on reading your comments.

Best regards,

Erick
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Roel Verschueren
Roel Verschueren  Identity Verified
Austria
Local time: 07:01
English to Dutch
+ ...
Hermes Apr 20, 2017

Netflix is killing hundreds of thousands of adepts, planning on resigning their membership.
And the reason is “Hermes”.

Netflix’s success has put the company in quite some troublesome situation worldwide.
It is great to invest millions of dollars in new “Netflix Original Series”, and buying the rights on many more of non-Netflix series, but if your scope of customers is as big worldwide as Netflix claims it is to be, subtitling all these wonderful bing-watching
... See more
Netflix is killing hundreds of thousands of adepts, planning on resigning their membership.
And the reason is “Hermes”.

Netflix’s success has put the company in quite some troublesome situation worldwide.
It is great to invest millions of dollars in new “Netflix Original Series”, and buying the rights on many more of non-Netflix series, but if your scope of customers is as big worldwide as Netflix claims it is to be, subtitling all these wonderful bing-watching series becomes a real problem.

And subtitling has been Netflix’s weaker point since it started.
The company has entrusted this important job to vendors, worldwide, go-betweens, who receive a job from Netflix, hand it over to individuals working for those vendors at a much lower price than Netflix pays the vendors, and milking the translation professionals to the vendor's benefit.
Prices that vendors pay their translators/subtitlers have been going down over the years, although companies like Netflix, Amazon and many others have paid reasonable prices to get their series and films subtitled professionally.
Real professionals began refusing working at the vendor’s proposed prices, forcing them to accept lesser quality from younger less experienced translators, so creating themselves the quality problem of their own clients.

And then, all of a sudden, a media-storm breaks out, saying Netflix is opening a platform where anyone can do a test and become a Netflix official translator/subtitler. So the company reaches out to the bing-watchers, to subtitle the series they so much love and already pay for to watch.

As a marketing concept, one can only say: “Chapeau”.
And as I have taken the test, after a few hitches about login problems and codes, I can only say that the Hermes/Netflix platform to perform the test is pretty straight-forward.
If it weren’t for…

If it weren’t for the thousands of complaints of translators who registred and never got a code to login.
If it wasn’t for the non-existing of any descent hotline, chat, or mail-system, where all those people who have been invited to register for the test don’t get access to when having a problem.

If only it wasn’t the Hermes system itself (the subtitling-test-Netfilx-platform) that totally failed to respectfully handle all the (unexpected high) response.

I made the test.
I already reported on it at this platform.

As I have been publishing about this topic worldwide, I am afraid Netflix is making a lot of unsatisfied customers.
All because of Hermes.

And by the way, our platform (Proz.com) isn't a vendor. It is professional platform bringing together people who need a translation with people who are offering to do it.
Prices and skills to be discussed, for sure, but for an acceptable membership price, offer and demand are brought together.
Vendors, who are often also a member of this platform, are having an increasingly hard way to get professionals to work for them.
Have a look at their membership page at Proz.com.
Their only aim is to lure individual professional translators to new built platforms, so they can brag with our names and expertise to lure new clients to their websites. Vendors have no "added value" to our work, they are just "skimming the milk".

How many of us have received offers for translations coming from Proz.com members, just registered a month ago, so being able to access the Proz.com database and selecting all the professionals in their pair of language, and then inviting them to register in their own database? With the same old fake promise that a huge client is waiting to pass on a huge project, for which you only have to do one translation test to be accepted? As far as I am concerned... no chance!

Inside sources are suggesting that Proz.com is out for sale to some kind of streaming company anyway. Amazon, or Netflix, or whoever...
Times they are a'changing my friends. And we all are a part of it, with nothing to say!
Jus be ready for it!
Anyone who can get an official statement of the founders of this platform about his rumour... welcome.

I, for one, do not want to be treated the way I am by many opportunistic new platforms and so-called "professional" translation organisations.
So..

Hope you all get your results, when Netflix/Hermes decide they do so (within 10 working days???)

Good luck!


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MrFireDragon
MrFireDragon
Mexico
English to Spanish
How long? Apr 20, 2017

Firyuza Mrd wrote:

José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:

Firyuza Mrd wrote:

To see the results you need to login to your hermes dashboard and press the red bar.


I went there, and all the red bar does is expanding and collapsing the "Thank you for your time." message.

That bar doesn't serve any drinks either.


Well, it seems like your test hasn't been reviewed yet.



Hello Firyuza,

How long did it take for you to see the results?

Thank you!

Erick


 
Firyuza Muradova
Firyuza Muradova  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 09:01
English to Russian
+ ...
I'm not sure myself Apr 20, 2017

MrFireDragon wrote:

Firyuza Mrd wrote:

José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:

Firyuza Mrd wrote:

To see the results you need to login to your hermes dashboard and press the red bar.


I went there, and all the red bar does is expanding and collapsing the "Thank you for your time." message.

That bar doesn't serve any drinks either.


Well, it seems like your test hasn't been reviewed yet.



Hello Firyuza,

How long did it take for you to see the results?

Thank you!

Erick


Hi Erick,
I don't know how much time it took them to review my test. I took the test in November and thought they would send the results per email, so I didn't login to my dashboard until April.


 
Lior Hadar
Lior Hadar
Israel
Local time: 08:01
English to Hebrew
Style guide Apr 20, 2017

Cristiana Coblis wrote:

Lynos wrote:
The Hermes test guidelines say "Before starting, please make sure to review the Timed Text Style Guides (found in the Tutorials section) which explain Netflix Style Guide and subtitling requirements", but it is unclear if they mean the general requirements or the specific language requirements.

How did other people here handle it?

Thanks.

I followed the Romanian style guide. If there is one for the specific language, then it should be followed.
HTH


Thanks Cristiana for answering my question

I guess I will follow your example.


 
jbjb
jbjb  Identity Verified
Estonia
Local time: 08:01
Estonian to English
+ ...
Hermes Apr 21, 2017

There is another way that Hermes is fighting the bad translations - assigning each translator a Hermes number and forcing all of the vendors to include translator names to Netflix files. This is a first because all of the major subtitling companies have ignored translator credits for decades (with the exception of French). Subtitlers regularly work for a number of vendors, so the Hermes number system gives a clearer idea how many translators there actually are.
Netflix may order Swedish s
... See more
There is another way that Hermes is fighting the bad translations - assigning each translator a Hermes number and forcing all of the vendors to include translator names to Netflix files. This is a first because all of the major subtitling companies have ignored translator credits for decades (with the exception of French). Subtitlers regularly work for a number of vendors, so the Hermes number system gives a clearer idea how many translators there actually are.
Netflix may order Swedish subtitles from ten different vendors but it does not mean they are getting the work done by 10x3=30 translators (a random number, assuming each vendor works with 3 translators). Most probably there are just 10-15 translators accepting projects from various vendors and creating the impression that if one vendor cannot handle everything, there are fresh and underworked translators waiting with another vendor. No, 90% of the time all vendors are working with the same people.
Now, if they also directly test with Hermes as individuals, Netflix can assign work to them directly at higher rates and cut out the vendors because it also sees the track record of all translators and which vendors they work for.
It also helps to root out bad translators who fail with one vendor but can try out with dozens of other vendors who accept Netflix projects and start looking for translators (90% of the time getting responses from the same people).
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Jan Truper
Jan Truper  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 07:01
Member (2016)
English to German
Kafkaesque, part 2 Apr 21, 2017

jbjb wrote:

There is another way that Hermes is fighting the bad translations - assigning each translator a Hermes number and forcing all of the vendors to include translator names to Netflix files.

...

Now, if they also directly test with Hermes as individuals, Netflix can assign work to them directly at higher rates and cut out the vendors because it also sees the track record of all translators and which vendors they work for.



I took the test for a vendor because I was required to do so. I might take it again as an individual if I find an opening, but at the moment I'm not inclined to do so. The apparent chaos surrounding the test is just one of several reasons.

My time is one of the products I sell as a freelance translator. When I spend time do an unpaid test, I'd like to know beforehand what awaits me in the likely event that I pass.
For the Hermes test, there is no clear indication what will be offered exactly. There is no contact person to provide any info, either. As I said in another post, I find this all very kafkaesque.

A factor that I have not seen mentioned anywhere are non-compete clauses. I have not checked my contracts with vendors that I work for, but for working professional subtitlers, there might be legal ramifications to be considered if we were to start working for an end client directly.

There's been a lot of negative statements about vendors and "middlemen" in this thread; I'd like to state that some of them actually add value.
From one of the vendors I work for, I receive perfectly spotted English source template files in a proprietary software application that is --WAY-- superior to the crap I had to use in the Netflix test.
All I have to do as a translator is concentrate on content. This vendor provides glossaries for TV shows which sometimes even inform me who has been kissing whom in what episode, so I can figure out whether informal German addressing is appropriate or not in the episode and scene I am currently working on. I know there's a reviewer who will check my work, which is great, because I can spend more time thinking about content than worrying about whether I have spotted every last typo. Technical, payment or any other issues? They respond swiftly, courteously and professionally.
This means that they have to pay for staff, which also means that my rate as a translator is lower than it would be if I were to work for the end client directly. But I don't mind, because it's worth it to me as a translator.

From what I can tell so far, Netflix is miles away from providing such a work environment for translators.



[Edited at 2017-04-21 07:24 GMT]


 
Michele Vartuli (X)
Michele Vartuli (X)
Brazil
Local time: 03:01
English to Portuguese
+ ...
More odds and ends while we all wait for those dad-blamed scores... Apr 21, 2017

Ivan Czar wrote:
People start cheating on the Hermes test. They take a screenshot and then ask translators to give them the right answers. The problem is if they will collect the phrases sooner or later they can create ultimate keys as the number of phrases are limited.

Uh... I wonder who are these good samaritans, skilled translators who, instead of taking the test themselves, are helping others cheat...

José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:
I wish you had no reason to congratulate me. Heck, I'm a professional EN < > PT translator!

You are right, of course, reading/writing skills and vocabulary are the tools of our trade and everyone should keep their toolbox tidy and well-furnished. But with my compliment I meant that you not only write perfectly in English, but also with style and wit. That's more than being merely a competent translator (kinda like being an eye surgeon who excels at carving a turkey).

Sonny_dbb wrote:
Finished the tests some 2 weeks ago, wondering if they are actually being evaluated at all, since I wasn't able to find any comments on the 'net from anyone who actually had their results from Netflix.

I think this delay in the results is actually a good sign. Considering the enormity of the endeavor, and the fact that two segments of the test require subjective scrutiny, if the results came back too quickly, I'd be suspicious. Even though the video segments to be translated are short, there are MILLIONS of them, folks, or - considering the ubiquitous nature of Netflix and the oh-so-sweet rates they're promising per minute, I wouldn't be surprised if the total number of tests bordered on one BILLION. They have a lot on their plate right now. How are they gonna pull this off? Maybe the first assignment they'll pass to the first really brilliant translators they can find is... grading tests, LOL! That would be a very Netflix way of handling it.

kiara kiaora wrote:
I managed to complete the first 3 stages of the test without any technical problem, however as soon as I started stage 4 the videos stopped loading, obviously the timer still ran (until I pressed the link to the support email).
When I checked the dashboard I also noticed that it was displaying 6 stages (stage 5 being counted twice).

kiara, to stop the timer, they said you have to close your browser window. I've tried it and that really works. When you log in again, the timer starts again from where it left off.

I'm glad I've managed to register, get my Hermes number and do my test without any hassles, after reading so many horror stories from other candidates. I don't know whether these people have done anything wrong in the process without realizing it (maybe using a web browser other than Chrome?) or it's just bad luck. I've experienced a little video buffering when I was wrapping up my test, too, but nothing too despairing. I would advise anyone to do their tests late at night (like I did), after 2 or 3 AM, to avoid a throttled Internet connection due to local traffic. Remember that streaming video has to go through many nodes to get to your computer, and any one of those could be strangled, even if you're getting full speed at your end. And Stage 5 is actually two videos. That's just the way it is. It was like that in the Portuguese and Italian tests I took. Maybe they decided that just one video segment was too little material and added a second one. In the test description it says it takes 90 minutes to complete the test, but that's if you count only one of the Stages 5. Go figure.

José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:
I went there, and all the red bar does is expanding and collapsing the "Thank you for your time." message.

That bar doesn't serve any drinks either.

Complimentary drinks would be a nice idea. Or maybe they could give all of us subscriptions as a freebie, so we can while away the time watching something. BTW, my nephew also took the test and he said they probably got the inspiration for this from that "3%" show XD

Firyuza Mrd wrote:
Yes, I saw my results

Not meaning to pry here, but what were your results? Did you pass? I'm guessing you probably passed, if you're still interested and reading this forum...

Jan Truper wrote:
My time is one of the products I sell as a freelance translator. When I spend time do an unpaid test, I'd like to know beforehand what awaits me in the likely event that I pass.
For the Hermes test, there is no clear indication what will be offered exactly. There is no contact person to provide any info, either. As I said in another post, I find this all very kafkaesque.

Wow... are you really that badly pressed for time, or you dislike Kafka so much, that you can't spend 60 minutes (or less, if you are any good) in this Kafkaesque universe in order to take the friggin' test? For the chance to be paid double (probably) what your vendor pays you? And yet you found the time to take the test on behalf of your vendor??? Come again?

Are your vendor's glossaries or their "courtesy" that important to you? Not to mention the fact that when you bad-mouth Netflix (with their crappy test platform and their evil schemes to increase that hated commodity, quality, in their subtitles), i.e., the company who pays you AND your beloved vendor, you're biting the hand that feeds you worse than a rabid dog.

I've read the occasional piece of crap on this thread, but this one takes the cake. Congratulations.


 
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