Netflix Hermes test

Cemo wrote:

Hello everybody.
I took English-Turkish test and passed with 88.67. I'm surprised with some professional translators' score since I'm just a regular guy who has nothing to do with translation, I'm a geologist by the way. I just enjoy watching movies and shows with English subtitles, and wanted to try my English level and maybe earn some easy money hehe I love Netflix Original Series. I hope I get the job of translating Stranger Things
Anyway I salute Turkish translators who took the test and hope to hear from you with your scores, don't be shy

jbjb wrote:

A blog from one year ago (May 2016)
https://media.netflix.com/en/company-blog/delivering-a-global-talk-show-the-innovation-behind-chelsea
Netflix has been directly employing translators for major languages for quite some time. The test (now called Hermes) has existed all this time and new translators have been taking it during the past 12-18 months to get hired. So yes, the testing leads to real jobs with Netflix but the actual hiring will depend on project management muscle - or on Netflix actually managing to make the workflow automatic without major hitches. This would be a first - all of the major subtitling companies this far depend on actual people (often employing whole floors of them, mostly in India) to handle projects and communication with translators/editors/file preparation throughout the chain.

Vicente Pithan Burzlaff wrote:

Hermes results - Apparently, since the results are coming out automatically, the percentage with which we were graded reflects only the first four multiple choice quizzes. The 5th test will probably be graded only for those who passed this first stage and we will be provided with a classification afterwards. -- That's just what I can infer with the information we have. Up until now the whole process lacks transparency and probably a lot will happen until those results have any influence on the assignments we receive.

Whether working for Netflix is worthwhile or not - There are many vendors and outsourcers who offer different rates for translators, proofreaders and QCers, and a few assignments are handled directly by Netflix. My experience over the years has shown me that the translator rates can range from outrageous to fairly reasonable. ($1/min - $5/min)

Danilo Draskovic Sierra wrote:

Hello everybody!

I was wondering if Netflix also takes into account the time you spend answering? Are the last two sections (the 40 min video) also checked by a computer? This would be absolutely weird, but I came to think that they might have developed a program which runs the % of coincidence with our own translations with the ones already existing on Netflix? Because if the last two ones are checked by a human, we wouldn't get the results straight away, and on the other hand, I'm positive I got all the previous answers right... Help?

jbjb wrote:

The test has existed for almost a year, just that it was not open for most languages (these have been added every once in a while) and was not publicly advertised.
There's no reason to remove the test, especially because it does not guarantee any work - or even guarantee that anyone ever looks at the profiles of those who have passed it.
If Netflix really wants to give work directly to thousands of translators, without it turning into complete anarchy, they first have to hire hundreds of project managers for various languages. The work is too time- and deadline-critical to hope that an automated system can somehow keep all the work processes in line. There will be a constant need of human intervention to deal with files that are late, missing, or cannot be handled by the persons to whom they were originally assigned.
So until you see Netflix searching for such project managers for dozens of languages, they are likely to continue working mostly with vendors. And yeah, the test will always be there also for vendors to test their translators.

Wojciech Matyszkiewicz wrote:

I seriously doubt that passing the test is now a guarantee of any job in the future. In recent years I passed tests for three companies that are also Netflix vendors and I was rarely approached with new projects.
That's why, I don't consider it as a breakthrough in my professional life. More like an additional item to include in my CV.


[Edited at 2017-05-04 17:16 GMT]

sjaatoul wrote:


"Congratulations on passing the Hermes test. You will receive a form email response within the coming weeks with an update as to possible next steps".



I don't know if this is true or not, but that's what I have received recently from Netflix after many messages with one of the responsibles in the Localization department of Netflix.