This is a guest post by Tom Robinson, digital marketing and communications executive at translate plus, a Global Top 50 language services provider by revenue, offering a full range of services, including translation, website localisation, multilingual SEO, interpreting, desktop publishing, transcription and voiceover, in over 200 languages. All this is complemented by cutting-edge language technology, such as i plus®, translate plus’ secure cloud-based TMS (translation management system).
Working as a freelancer in any industry can be tough. Lots of competition, hours upon hours spent conversing over e-mail and that work life/personal life balance thwarted. But once you get there and stay there it’s an extremely rewarding career. Trust us, we know. And we know because we work with hundreds of freelance translators every day. We’ve seen them come and we’ve seen them go. The ones that stay, prosper because they know what it takes to become an agency’s favourite freelancer.
We’ll discuss how they do this and what an agency like us look for in its freelancers.
First and foremost we only work with translators that meet the minimum criteria set up by bodies like the Institute Of Translation and Interpreting (ITI), ProZ.com and relevant translation degrees from respected universities. So tip #1 would be, get the accreditations and qualifications, as most, if not all agencies will require its freelancers to meet them – it’s just good practice, don’t you think?
What an agency will look for
-Deadlines are never too far from the mind of a freelancer. So know your deadlines and stick to them. If you can’t, then let the agency know well in advance. Being responsive will make the process easier – be available for follow up phone calls and Skype chats for example.
-Keep in contact with the agency you’re working with. Good communication skills are essential for any job, in pretty much any industry. So keep the agency updated with you progress or notify them of any possible delays. This’ll help to keep things moving and make you appear reliable and open.
-The turnaround of most translation jobs is fast, agencies are always juggling high-volume projects so being a responsive freelancer will benefit not only you but also the end-client. A job well done for the punter in need of translation, will be a job well done for the freelance translator – it could even lead to more work and notoriety.
-Honesty is the best policy. Another tip is to be honest with what you can offer an agency. We value someone who knows their limits. Play to your strengths, but acknowledge your weaknesses and be open about them. If you specialise in something in particular be sure to let the agency or client you’re working with know. Most of all, do not be afraid to recognise your mistakes – its better in the long run to flag them up early.
-A willingness to improve is a great trait and one that will get you seen, heard and considered for more jobs, more often. Agencies value someone who is willing to learn from their errors and who can understand different requirements while adapting to them.
-Keeping up-to-date with your field’s developments will benefit both your reliability and aptitude to do the job. Dedication to the field we’ll call tip #13. You can do this by participating in relevant courses and attending conferences etc.
The importance of networking
Although they are your competition in a way, it’s always worth speaking to other freelancers in similar industries as you. This in turn could lead to more work should a translator you’ve befriended become too busy and recommend you to an agency.
Networking is a great way to get your name and portfolio out there. Often than not agencies hold networking events for freelancers to attend and these are great ways to meet new people. Agencies also encourage freelance translators to join bodies where you can tutor other translators in order to grow.
So the next time an agency you’ve worked for in the past invites you to a BBQ or a small get-together to celebrate the launch of a new product or service, go and make the most of it – might just be worth your time.
Stand out from the rest
You can stand out from the others if you possess good technical knowledge. For example, know the basics of Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools. They’re used by well over 250,000 translation professionals so a good grasp of what they are and how to use them could certainly come in handy. If you didn’t already know CAT tools provide a range of sophisticated features to help you complete projects more quickly and easily.
Moreover, in this digital age we live in it’s astute to have an online presence.
Be active on social media, write a personal blog and share your body of work. Agencies look out for this and you have more chance of being noticed and considered for upcoming jobs if you appear proactive.
Follow agencies on social media and interact with them online. We network with our freelancers via social media on a regular basis. It’s a great way to keep in touch and apprise each other of any forthcoming events which might convert a good opportunity for all involved.
Being respectful and helpful – applies to life in general really – is a sure-fire way to get yourself in an agency’s good books. Clients-alike will value someone who is respectful and professional towards its employees and who uses positive language and is always willing to help.
Have fun. Freelancing can be stressful at times, like all jobs and the uncertainty of work as a freelancer can sometimes be the hardest challenge. So have fun, enjoy what you do and revel in the company of the people you work with.
Finally, being passionate about translation is essential and our tip #59. We highly value someone who is as passionate as we are about languages and translation. Get all these things right and you could be on your way to becoming an agency’s favourite freelancer.
I also prefer people who are respectful to people who are not. However, to be honest, the specific inclusion of ‘respectful’ on an agency’s wishlist is something I can’t help finding a little eyebrow-raising. Care to shed some light on this?
Next, I don’t like the way a job done in a high-quality way with a short deadline could ‘even’ lead to more work. As if it should be a reward in itself that we’ve been able to be of some use to the agency and its client.
This does sound at least a little on the condescending side. We are not enthusiastic juniors to patronize, we’re highly educated and otherwise qualified professionals. Agencies that don’t fail to remember this generally fare better in their translator-agency relationships.
Thanks, Lukasz. Tom may have some thoughts for you, but I would say:
-Just as we freelancers have negative stereotypes about agencies, agencies have negative stereotypes about freelancers. And I’d venture a guess that one of those stereotypes is that many freelancers don’t have great people skills; not that they’re disrespectful, but that they can be challenging to work with from the interpersonal point of view.
-I agree with Tom that a way to get a foot in the door with a new client is to bail them out of a jam, *such as* turning around a rush project quickly and in a high-quality way.
To me, the bottom line is that the agency market (like the direct client market) has its pluses and minuses. These days, most medium to large agencies are not selling an artisanal product; they’re selling large volumes of translation at relatively low profit margins, and inevitably, translators bear some of the brunt of that. On the plus side, agencies find the clients in the first place, and send steady volumes of work to translators they like to work with, and deal with the non-translation work. But if the agency model bugs you, avoid it. I don’t work with ‘word factory’ agencies because I don’t want to be a cog in the machine. But there are tons of other clients out there for us too. Thanks for your comment!
Lukasz, I guess being respectful means not going ballistic on their project managers or coming across as rude or impolite.
I assume Tom has his reasons for mentioning this; we shouldn’t forget that there are certain aspects of the relationship between project managers and freelancers that can be conducive to rude behavior:
– the high degree of anonymity of email communications — there are many PJMs or freelancers who will never make a phone call. Sometimes the written word might come across harsher than it was actually intended to.
– the “You’re part of our team” mentality that is promoted by many agencies, which is justified to a certain extend — but let’s face it: at the end of the day, agencies are our clients.
The informal relationship between PJMs and FLs is more likely to encourage to the use of expressions that are or could be considered disrespectful. People are more likely to criticize their “colleagues” than to do the same with their bosses or their clients. That’s why it seems reasonable to me that some agencies take a more formal approach and only address their freelance partners by their last names.
Having worked both as a project manager and a freelancer, I have experienced this myself a number of times.
Thanks, Konstantin! Great perspective!
Plus one more tip to become an agency’s favourite freelancer:
Proofread more thoroughly than the author of this article (and don’t point out their mistakes)
e.g. “will require it’s freelancers …”, “skills is essential”, “if you poses good technical knowledge”
PS: To be read with a wry smile; no offence intended! 😉
Thanks, Sarah Jane! I’ve corrected those, and you can blame me for not proofreading Tom’s article carefully enough!
Unfortunately, many errors in grammar and punctuation persist even after the post was supposedly corrected. You may want to look up the definitions of “notoriety” and “forthcoming” as well. Perhaps I can make a constructive suggestion, which is to hire a good freelance copy editor. They can do wonders for ensuring a text looks professional. Isn’t professionalism the point of the post anyway?
Lukasz I did not mean to cause offence. To write this post I interviewed a number of different teams here at translate plus (http://ow.ly/MvU930ba2DC) including project managers, team managers, QA checkers, linguistic resources assistants, proofreaders and many more – some have actually worked as freelance transactors in previous lives.
They explained to me, from both points-of-views what they look for and consider good-practice from freelancers through their own experiences.
I’m glad that the write-up has led to a discussion on the subject. Also, well spotted Sarah Jane – Oops sorry!
Thanks, Tom! I think that anything that adds to the freelancer-agency dialogue is a good thing, so thanks very much for writing this post!
I got my foot in the door as a PM of a large translation firm and worked my way up to team lead before transitioning to being a freelancer and a lot of this post resonates with my experience. Regarding respect, I agree with Tom’s perspective and would like to add that respect is a two-way street: there are PMs (and certain agencies) that do not cultivate respectful relationships with their vendors, and I do not (and would not) work with such PMs. No freelancer should tolerate anything that could be considered abuse just to cultivate a relationship with an agency. Likewise, freelancers need to be respectful to all of their clients (and PMs are just as much clients as any direct clients are). A contact at the company you work for directly would not tolerate diva behavior from a translator who expects to be revered by virtue of their experience or expertise, and no PM should be expected to, either. I find that the best customer-client relationships are built on helpfulness, humility, and that word that has been thrown around a lot in these comments, respect.
Thanks, Ben! Great perspective, thank you!
So very true… in fact, this approach that seems to come naturally,. has gotten me a ‘favorite translator’ status at more than one agency. Sometimes I end up with assignments no one will take, but it’s worth it.
Wish I had time for a more thoughtful, articulate comment but I’m working on a huge project…
So – after almost 10 years as a freelancer, my first foray into industry networking as such.
Good luck and happy new year.
Thank you and happy 2019 to you too!
Thanks, Tom, for sharing your perspective.
Here’s another tip shared from my experience, and one that goes along with the discussion regarding respect:
As soon as I have worked with an agency PM on a couple of projects, I go to to LinkedIn and connect with the PM there. Along with writing cheerfully and kindly (as much as possible) in emails, this further gesture helps to forge a human connection that will go a long way toward developing a meaningful, healthy, and positive relationship with our friends at Agency X. It puts a face to a name and a personality to a person–qualities that will work in both directions as we seek to build productive relationships in our professions. And who knows, but that PM may well move along to a new position at a different agency, and you will already be many steps ahead of the competition by having an existing positive relationship with that person (as well as an automated LinkedIn notification of their change in employment!).
Thanks, Paul!
So glad to join this community. As you say, Corinne, it can be a very lonely pursuit … But with benefits, such as going abroad and working from almost anywhere.
After a very difficult year I’m getting most of my old energy back… Need to move forward, get better (paying) clients again and of course increase my income. I am so glad I started 2019 by discovering this blog… never thought of that before. So much resonates with my experience in many ways.
I’m so passionate about my work that I sometimes forget to go out an promote myself.
Does a website really help a translator? I was so quickly so busy that I neglected to do much. I learned early on (or thought I did) that translation is a matter of trust, so referrals and recommendations work best. Does any client go online to seek out a good translator.. possibly on LinkedIn?
Happy New Year and thank you for the inspiration.
Elli