Training for Translators: Blog - Page 138 of 245

Jun 28 2014
Corinne McKay

New podcast: insider tips for working with translation agencies

This morning I had lots of fun interviewing translation industry veteran Steve Lank (Monterey graduate, former ASTM translation QA standard subcommittee chair, longtime senior-level manager in agencies in the US, Ireland and Spain). Steve is currently Vice President for Translation Services at Cesco Linguistic Services, working from the Washington, DC office.

I put Steve in the hot seat and asked him:

Chicken/egg: how can beginning translators find their first clients?
What’s up with downward price negotiations? Why do agencies apply them, and how can translators best handle them?
What are the top dos and don’ts of translator resumes? What errors pop up again and again? How can a translator stand out among the many unsolicited applications that an agency receives?
How about following up on agency applications? How often should freelancers follow up, and using what method?
How does a translator turn a first-time client into a regular client, and become one of an agency’s preferred providers?
How about the increasing emphasis on specialization in our industry? Is the “learn by doing” mindset OK, or do translators need more formal training in their specializations?

To listen to the episode, cruise on over to the Speaking of Translation website.

Jun 19 2014
Corinne McKay

Links you might enjoy

I’ve been busy with back-to-back monster projects and am now in recovery mode, catching up on assignments for my online classes. So I’ll pass on a few links to other websites that you might enjoy:

For Carolyn Yohn’s recommended summer reading series, I wrote a guest post on Hilary Mantel’s books “Wolf Hall” and “Bring Up the Bodies”, and you can check out many more posts in Carolyn’s book review series as well.
Over at Speaking of Translation, you can listen to our newest recording, “Software localization: insights from the PM and translator perspectives.” Eve Bodeux (PM) and Tess Whitty (translator) share lots of great information on the localization process!
Eve is also featured on Tess’ newest podcast, Market research tips and marketing systems for translators, which is another great listen!
Over at The Freelancery (my favorite non-translation-specific blog about freelancing), Walt Kania has two excellent posts about making the leap from full-time job to full-time freelancer: Making the break and What to choose.
If you translate French<>English and you’re looking for a sweet professional development trip this summer, I cannot recommend Translate in the Laurentians highly enough (August 24-27 in Esterel, Quebec). This is the latest in the Translate in the Catskills master class series that Chris Durban launched a number of years ago, it’s organized by Anglocom (a truly class act!) and features the best trainers you’ll find for French<>English translation. I can’t attend this year due to a month-long family trip, but this conference is guaranteed to be excellent.

Jun 13 2014
Corinne McKay

Per-word versus hourly income: can someone explain this?

One of the great things about having a blog is that I get to ask questions that I don’t know the answers to, and then people who are smarter than I am will respond and fill me in. Here’s one that’s frequently asked by students in my online courses, and it honestly puzzles me as much as it puzzles them.

We’re talking agencies here: why are agencies willing to pay a per-word rate that effectively equals a much higher hourly rate than they’re willing to pay? Example: if an agency pays a translator 15 cents a word and that person produces 500 finished words an hour, the translator is effectively earning $75 an hour. But if that same agency contacts that same translator for hourly work (editing, proofreading, etc.), the proposed hourly rate is likely to be much lower (or even much, much lower). I can’t say I understand this myself, other than the fact that when an agency pays per word, its costs are completely fixed, whereas by the hour, they aren’t.

Thoughts? What’s up here?

Jun 10 2014
Corinne McKay

Getting Started as a Freelance Translator-FULL

Update: this session of Getting Started as a Freelance Translator is full; the next session starts September 24

The next session of my online course Getting Started as a Freelance Translator starts tomorrow (Wednesday June 11), and I have one or two spots open, depending on how many people register today. This four-week class is for people who want to launch and run a successful freelance business, and we focus on four targeted assignments: your resume and cover letter, marketing plan, rates and billable hours sheet and online presence. Everyone in the class (maximum of 12 students) gets individual feedback from me on all of those assignments, and we round things out with a weekly question and answer conference call (recording provided if you can’t attend live). You can view the full description and register on my website.

This class is for people in the startup phase, and if you’re past that phase, you can also check out the August session of my more advanced class, Beyond the Basics of Freelancing. Registration for either class is $325, with a $50 discount for ATA members. Hope to see some of you there!

Jun 09 2014
Corinne McKay

Speaking of Translation's localization episode: available for download

Eve Bodeux and I recently recorded a new episode of Speaking of Translation, entitled “Software localization: insights from the translator and PM perspective.” Eve and Tess Whitty discussed their roles in the localization project process and I moderated. We just posted the recording on our website, and it’s available for streaming or download. As someone who does not do localization, I learned a lot from this episode and I hope that you (whether you’re a localizer or not!) will too.