We’ve already given our dos and don’ts for clients who want to buy translation services, but what about those selling them? Yes, I’m talking about translators - the missing link in our business equation. Those who help us make it happen for each and every one of our clients.

Here is an early Christmas gift - just a few pointers for translators who are looking to increase their client base (and in the current economic climate, who isn’t?) by applying to agencies.

1. Your CV: Cast a critical eye over your CV. The same rules generally apply for translators as they do for anyone applying for work: anything over 2 pages is just too long. Two pages is ample to give an overview of your relevant experience, qualificiations and specialist subjects - you can keep a list of translation projects you’ve worked on separately, then it’s ready to provide should someone ask for it. Doesn’t belong in your CV!

2. Please please please send your rates with the CV. Even if you negotiate with clients for most projects - your rates may or may not be be the deciding factor in whether you will be approached for a particular project, but you’ll almost never be added to an agency’s internal database without them.

3. Only mother tongue language as target please. “Near-native” strikes me as a vague and somewhat worrying term, and most agencies worth their salt will not use a translator who works into any language that is not their mother tongue. Interpreting and other types of language work are a different matter, each situation may call for something different.

4. Email it. Most agencies won’t thank you for a printed copy these days, as then someone has to input the information into whatever database they use. Don’t even get me started on faxing.

5. Describe yourself. It doesn’t have to be long, and a traditional covering letter may not be appropriate if you are sending your CV speculatively, but do mention your language combinations either in the subject line, or the body of your message. A short description of the type of work you are most interested or experienced in will stick in the memory of whoever receives your message. Many companies also file emails for future use, so this will be a great help if they can search for the language or specialised subject they need at that time, and your message will be found easily.

6. Offer references. Better still, include a couple in your CV as standard, if you have space.

7. Test pieces. We know no-one likes to work for free, but this can be a very effective way to get particular ongoing or large projects from agencies, and also to pick up other additional work from them along the way. Most project managers feel more secure using a translator they know has been tested, even if not for the specific project they are working on. If you are willing to do a test piece of reasonable length (no more than 200-300 words) for free, you could get a lot more work from that company. Unfortunately there is no guarantee of this, just as there is no guarantee that the agency themselves will get the work.

Keep one thing in mind: Project Managers are busy, so the easier you make the processes of remembering you, contacting you and working with you during a project, the more they will want to use you.

Happy Hunting!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

‘A single 30 minute lesson’ would probably be the answer to that questions from many of my collegiate peers past, but are we really, scientifically, limited by anything other than apathy?

It is true that there is a critical period for learning one’s native language as a child: feral children raised in solitude without any linguistic stimuli (or ‘negative feedback’ as it’s technically called) prove this when they are returned to society in their teens, yet remain unable to string together even a simple sentence. But what about the acquisition of a second, third, fourth or even fifth language?

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Now, the unwritten rules of this company blog (which, post-ironically, have been written down), clearly state that any self, or client slanted, promotion is punishable by death: we have a website for such things. Having said that, and at the risk of corporate punishment, two projects deserve to have at least a little digital ink spent on them…

Most summers are remembered by an effeminate pop song, the social slaughter that is Big Brother and, in this country at least, an ongoing disappointment at the crude and rainy weather. Not so for Jenn, though, Chief Project Manager here at Web-Translations, who was pinned down with the task of coordinating the translation, localisation and launch of over 2000 products and 500, 000 words into German for online camera specialists, Warehouse Express.

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

User Generated Content exploded on the web with blogging and social networking phenomenon, but User Generated News (UGN) is a relatively new phenomenon. Whereas European newspapers and broadcasters have been slow to adopt UGN, American newscasters have coined the term ‘Citizen Journalism’ with CNN’s IReport.com, MSNBC’s NewsVine.com and even Al Gore has Current.com. Enter YouReportTV.com.

People need a voice. The BBC gets an average of 10,000 e-mails or posts in a day to its ‘Have Your Say’ site and that can soar on big news days. Although that may sound an enormous number, some 5 million visit the BBC News website in a single day.

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Unfortunately, that lovely does not work for Web-Translations, but was at Online Marketing, Dusseldorf (OMD), along with three representatives from our company: Boss, Daniel; Marketing Manager, Cassie; and New Business Consultant, Andy.

The end of September saw them pack a box of service sheets, Web-Translations brochures, a few crisp shirts and a German phrase book, and jet off to the multi-football pitched sized exhibition centre, Messe (which, true to form for the deadpan Germans, means simply ‘Tradeshow’!).

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Further to my inaugural post on this blog, a colleague, Marianna, has decided to flesh out some of the details, and they go like this…

“Preparing a document for translation may be, sometimes, a tricky and potentially overwhelming job, depending on how important the project is, and how vital, say, specific terminology or marketing flair is to this particular translation. We realize that you may need a little guidance from a professional translation company, as our mission is to make translation as hassle free as possible for everyone, leaving you to concentrate on your main business affairs.

Bien sur, this is not an exhaustive list. So, if you want to send us any of your own tips, leave a comment here or email us.

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Introducing Mr Jack Dunwell, one of Web-Translations’ prized French to English legal translators, and his abstract, poetic thoughts on being a freelancer…

Free At Last, Debbie

When did I lose my autonomy?
To this 5 am drive
I can’t even find my trouser legs
Without falling over
My socks
Without gasping?
At the night walk
The night walk

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Oh, sorry, that title is probably a shade misleading: PM refers, of course, to Project Manager, rather than Prime Minister. We all know what a Prime Minister does anyway, right? Not much…unlike a Project Manager.

My ears are often pricked when someone talks of their day-to-day toils, be that out of nosiness, out of insecurity - their job’s not better than mine, is it? - or simply out of narcissistic wanton to confirm that my job is the only job worth doing. (Which of course, boss, it is.) And so I find myself detailing a day in my life, for any one of you who is curious as to what I do between replying to your emails.

The day begins at nine, and with a heavy inbox.

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Web-Translations’ MD, Daniel Rajkumar, chatted with Normanton MP, Ed Balls, last month in a meeting that was part of an event organised by Make Your Mark: The Wakefield campaign aims to to unlock the UK’s untapped enterprise potential.

Daniel, and two other young business people from the region, spoke with the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families about the challenging practice of setting up and running a company from scratch, without the experiences and confidence that comes with age. The exchanges were recorded and are to be used in universities and schools in an attempt to light an initial spark of awareness or ambition amongst the next generation of go-getters.

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Now, that may seem like a bizarre post title - I mean, how hard can it be…’make this text Spanish, would you?’ - but there will hopefully be things to learn for everyone in this article, be you a translation purchasing virgin, or a seasoned pro’.  The aim here is to help you to help us which, in turn, will hopefully result in more satisfying project outcomes for you.  Let’s begin…

Firstly, let me outline to you what we at Web-Translations consider to be quality.  We understand that you only want to pay for what is of use to you, and that’s it; nothing else in our world constitutes quality.  

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!