By Gwenydd Jones
Reblogged from The Translator’s Studio blog with permission from the author (including the image)

Last week, Letraduct authored a post about one of the problems that your target customer (the translation agency) has, which is lack of time and desire to read lengthy cover letters, CVs and translation portfolios. The advice was clear: be a translator that makes it quick and easy for the project manager to see key data about you and you’re more likely to get a response.

Here are some methods that freelancers have used with Letraduct to showcase their talent and some thoughts (good and bad) on these techniques.

1. One-line cover letter saying “Please see CV attached”.

Brevity is good, but failing to include your language combination in the subject line and key credentials and prices in the cover letter creates work for the project manager. Downloading your CV requires an extra click, and you’ve given them nothing in the cover letter to make them think it’s worth the effort.

2. Lengthy cover letter giving lots of specifics about translation projects and work experience.

If you’re doing the opposite of the person in point 1, then you’re going too far the other way. If you’re quoting for a specific job, then it’s good to mention related experience, but think key facts and consider your reader’s attention span. Lists and bullet points can be helpful in a cover letter because they allow the project manager to scan through quickly. They want to scan.

See our post on writing a cover letter for a translation agency for some helpful hints and templates.

3. 6-page CV.

We won’t read it. Would you? Two pages maximum, with the most important data on page one.

4. CV packed with graphs and tables, showing the translator’s experience in numbers and percentages, with lots of different colours.

There’s a lot to be said for being creative and different, but, when time is of the essence, a CV that doesn’t look like a CV can obstruct the reader on their mission to locate your key data. They may not have the patience to figure it out, we don’t.

5. A second attachment containing a portfolio of samples of previous translations the translator has done.

In theory, a portfolio sounds very professional, but, does it solve a problem for your target customer or does it create one? Remember that it’s very unlikely that the project manager is looking for a translator that matches your profile at the exact time your CV drops into their inbox. They are either going to type your details into a database or file them away somewhere for some future time, when a translator that matches your profile is needed. So, given the lack of time and immediate need, it’s very unlikely that they’ll have sufficient motivation to read random portfolios (and that even if they can speak your languages). Also, you can’t store a portfolio in a database, so it represents extra filing for them. At Letraduct, at least, if we want something like that, we’ll ask for it, and if people send them to us, we don’t tend to look at them. See point 6 for our preferred solution.

6. Links to online profiles.

A link to a strong online profile is useful because it can be checked out quickly, but too many links in an e-mail creates an information overload and the project manager can’t decide where they’re supposed to go, so they give up. It’s a good idea to include important links in your CV, too, in case it gets separated from the cover letter. If you have translation samples that you want to share with the agency, put them online somewhere and include links to them inside the CV. If you’ve done work for someone and your work has been published online, once again, put the link inside the CV. That way, the day the agency becomes interested in you, they’ll have the info at their fingertips (it also makes it easy for them to copy and paste the data onto a spreadsheet, if they want to).

7. Certificates sent as attachments.

When the agency wants or needs them, it’ll ask for them. Some big agencies may require proof of your qualifications as standard; smaller agencies probably see them as a filing problem. Consider getting your credentials verified from your proz.com profile.

8. Giving references.

As per point 7, but, don’t underestimate the usefulness of tools like recommendations on LinkedIn and WWA on proz.com, which can be there ready and waiting and mentioned quickly in a cover letter or CV. The translation industry is quite a small world, and if you collect enough online recommendations, you may find that the people you’re working for or want to work for know each other and, as we all know, there’s nothing like a recommendation from a friend or colleague.

If you have any doubts about the way you’re presenting yourself, ask us a question in the comments below or on Twitter: @Gwenydd_Jones.