Is it worth sending your CV to translation agencies?

For new translators there can be no doubt that the hardest thing is to get your foot in the door and convince an agency to give you some work - unless of course you have a personal link to an agency through marriage, friendship or a previous business!

Usually a new translator will send out hundreds of CV’s to agencies and get a response rate of about 5-10%, of which a few might send you their terms and conditions and add you to their database, one or two might well ask you to do a test translation and then if you’re lucky you might get work from one or two agencies on a steady basis. Time consuming? Yes. Discouraging? Yes. Soul destroying? Yes, and all the while you still have to pay the bills!

The bad news is that most freelancers tend to go through the same nightmare, the good news is that those who stick it out tend to see some results in the long run. So is it worth even sending your CV to agencies in the first place? Is there a better way to break into the industry? Should the new translator use their time more productively to get better results?

The fact is that there are benefits of working with agencies - you have control over your work schedule because you chose the jobs you want to do (and in turn determine your own income level), you can develop excellent working relations with specific project managers, you don’t have to worry about marketing to direct clients in fact, you can even spend most of the time communicating by email without ever having to speak to real people! (Believe me if you’ve ever had a job working with the public that is a real positive point in favour of working with agencies!)

There are a few positive steps that can make this process slightly more productive:

Be selective

Get a “feel” for the agency by looking at their website. Do they look professional or do they have a slightly tacky look to them? What does the website say about them? For example, are they offering the “fastest turnaround at the lowest prices”? Do you really want to work for a pittance? Don’t fall into the trap of sending out mass emails to hundreds of agencies at the same time.

Be specific

Try to send a brief cover email with your CV rather than just emailing out CV’s to everyone. Show that you have at least know something about them - for example, what the agency specialises in and how you can help them. So, if you want to specialise in the arts why contact an agency that specialises in pharmaceuticals?

Be business savvy

Use common sense. If an agency prefers contact via an online form, use an online form. If they are looking for freelancers with specific qualifications do you have those qualifications? there is a balance between promoting your skills and wasting your time. Remember too that some agencies have a very bad reputation when it comes to project management, people skills or payment practices.

Most freelancers - regardless of whether they are translators, writers or web designers - find it hard to get a “foot in the door” so be realistic in your expectations. There are however, a few other steps you can take to encourage work to come to you, and these will be discussed in the next post

Sending your CV to translation agencies - Is it a waste of time?

Most new translators start off by sending out CV’s to translation agencies. This strategy is both time consuming and actually quite ineffective, many because few translation agencies actually pay attention to them let alone respond to them.

To be fair some agencies receive as many at 70 CV’s a day, ranging from nothing more than a blank e-mail with a CV attachment to “all-singing-all dancing” CV’s with colours, photos you name it! Responding to them requires a significant amount of labour, something that most companies cannot afford.

Of course, you could argue that agencies should invest more time in finding qualified linguists - after all every agency website seems to claim that they are “the fastest growing agency in the country” using only “the most qualified linguists”. Such claims are a ridiculous marketing tactic designed to attract clients who know nothing about the translation process. If such claims were really true all of these translation agencies would be industry leaders, there would be a massive shortage of qualified translators and agencies would meticulously check CV’s just in case they were losing a potentially amazing translator.

Despite claiming that they work with “thousands” of freelancers the reality is that most agencies actually work with a small number of skilled - but preferred - translators who are the first port of call when a job comes in. When this small group is working to full capacity or the source document is out with their translation speciality then the agency will look further afield and other translators might have a chance.

Sadly translation agencies seem to forget that many new translators are not necessarily new professionals but are individuals who may have spent decades working in other fields. As such their lack of experience as translators is outweighed by their knowledge of their specialist subjects.

So is it worth even sending your CV to agencies in the first place? Is there a better way to break into the industry? Should the new translator use their time more productively to get better results?