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Listing client experience on your CV--how specific are you? Thread poster: Sara Senft
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Sara Senft 
United States
Local time: 02:21
Spanish to English
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I'm in the midst of doing major "plastic surgery" to my translation-specific CV. One change I'm considering is not going in to so much depth in the section for my main clients. (I list my main clients in one section and my other clients in another.) Should I go in to depth or not?
Oh yeah.....How should I place the section that describes the software I use? Right now, it's right after the section on my academic background and before the section for my main clients.
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| Not very specific | Sep 23, 2008 |
I don't list my clients on my CV at all, except in the most general terms.
As for listing software, the criterion should be "How much would they care?" The answer to that question probably depends mostly on the type of clients you tend to have. Does the software matter to them, or only the content of the translation? My guess would be that DTP clients and agencies who collect memories would be most likely to care about the software. Other types, not so much or not at all.
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| not specific | Sep 23, 2008 |
I don't provide the names of my clients on my CV, I just describe the type of client and project(s).
When I last performed surgery on my CV, I put all the software/computer info at the very end.
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savaria (X)
Hungary
Local time: 08:21
English to Hungarian
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| I list some(the 3 or 4 most important ones ),... | Sep 23, 2008 |
...and "say" that the full list of clients(with names,email addresses,telephone numbers,etc.) are available upon request in a separate file.Otherwise my CV would be too long,and nobody would read it.
I think you should provide some specific details,otherwise the person who reads your CV might believe you are not professional,you have made some mistakes in the past,or you want to hide some details or important things to know about yourself.
[Módosítva: 2008-09-23 20:17]
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savaria (X)
Hungary
Local time: 08:21
English to Hungarian
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| One more thing... | Sep 23, 2008 |
Nobody has asked me yet to send also this full list of experiences so far.
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Ahmet Murati
Germany
Local time: 08:21
English to Albanian
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| Listing of clients | Sep 23, 2008 |
well, for myself I think major companies should be put but not every translations you do
for example I have translated few lines from German to Albanian it is no need ot put the project but only the language pairs that you work.
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savaria (X)
Hungary
Local time: 08:21
English to Hungarian
+ ...
Lori Cirefice wrote:
I don't provide the names of my clients on my CV, I just describe the type of client and project(s).
When I last performed surgery on my CV, I put all the software/computer info at the very end.
If you do not put the specific names and contacts into your CV,then how can the receivers of your CV(I assume,your clients) know that what you state in your CV,and not just a fairy tale you made up/invented,hm?
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savaria (X)
Hungary
Local time: 08:21
English to Hungarian
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| In other words,... | Sep 23, 2008 |
how can they check your references?
how can they enquire about you?
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| Ask me for more info | Sep 24, 2008 |
savaria wrote:
how can they check your references?
how can they enquire about you?
If they need to check my references, they can just ask me to provide more details.
I don't put all the details on my public downloadable CV for these reasons:
- client confidentiality
- competition from other agencies/translators, who knows, if all my direct client names were on my CV, some agency could find that info and contact all my clients with the intent of taking that business
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Angeline PhD
China
Local time: 14:21
English to Chinese
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| Agree with Lori | Sep 24, 2008 |
Details should be available uopn request.
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savaria (X)
Hungary
Local time: 08:21
English to Hungarian
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| My way of approaching this problem. | Sep 24, 2008 |
some agency could find that info and contact all my clients with the intent of taking that business
I think this functions just like love.
I think that if an agency is able to take away all your clients from you,then they have never really been your clients.Isn't it?
I mean,is there really no such thing as holding out by a single/or a number of translator(s) who proved to be be professional(s) and also proved to work as such.
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| Giving/demanding references | Sep 24, 2008 |
savaria wrote:
If you do not put the specific names and contacts into your CV,then how can the receivers of your CV(I assume,your clients) know that what you state in your CV,and not just a fairy tale you made up/invented,hm?
Put yourself in the shoes of the owner of a small translation agency on ebb tide. How can you get some jobs to pay the bills? Poaching! So you invent a palatable job, and post it on Proz. Make it from English into half a dozen of the most popular languages. You'll accept varied levels of experience, high rates are no problem, and you won't demand Trados. Matter of fact, allegedly because of an ISO XXXX certification, you must demand sine qua non three recent clients' e-mail addresses. If these are not provided, the whole application will be rejected pronto. This will get you a maling list for promoting your services.
For the reasons I'll describe below, I don't provide references, not even under torture. No honest translation agency has ever turned me down for this reason. However one agency insisted so much, that they really wanted to hire me (of course they didn't, the huge job was a fake!), that I got in cahoots with three of my most loyal clients, and gave the agency their contact info. It didn't take one hour for all three to phone me, telling they had received two e-mails from that translation agency. One had a three-page questionnaire about me. The other contained a message to the tune of "Whatever this jerk does for you, we can do it better, faster, and cheaper! This latter message was repeated weekly, at least until three entrusted this translation agency to their antispam devices.
Now put yourself in the shoes of a project manager in a good, large, prosperous translation agency. The size doesn't match yours? Fine, put yourself in the shoes of a good translation end-client who hires translators directly. A few of your translators, most - if not all - working in some not-so-common language pairs, are causing you to receive several dozen requests for references every week, plus a few hundred translation job peddling e-mails every month. As you are a busy person, you make up your mind that keeping these translators is not worth the trouble. So you draft a standard reply saying that For internal reasons, we don't use Mr. Smith's translation services any more. in the hope to reduce the inflow to your e-mail box.
Hence I list on my CV all my publicly available translations, i.e. books, training videos for purchase/rental etc. If these guys want to contact my clients and BUY these, I'm certainly they'll be happy. Apart from that, just the trade names of some of the companies I've served if not covered by an NDA. No agencies whatsoever - it's meaningless. An agency may hire me to translate a corporation's strategic plan, or just a love letter from an e-Romeo.
I think it's ethical of a translation agency NOT to require references, just as it is ethical of a translator not to provide them. Anyone who has friends anywhere might arrange for them to provide dream-like references, even not having translated one single word for them. So on top of the ethical issues, the whole intent of demanding references borders on stupidity.
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| Being specific | Sep 24, 2008 |
savaria wrote:
I think this functions just like love.
Why take a risk and tempt the devil by making all that information public? The business world is not like love, some agencies have aggressive marketing practices.
Since we're talking about details savaria, allow me to make a few comments about your CV. I find it striking that you go to the trouble to list all kinds of client information (did you get their permission to publish their info??), yet you don't bother to mention where you earned your degree in translation and interpretation? How would a prospective client know if that's not just a fairytale you made up?
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Sara Senft
United States
Local time: 02:21
Spanish to English
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TOPIC STARTER | What I've done | Sep 24, 2008 |
I quickly deleted the specifics. Now, the specifics are limited to saying that I've worked for direct clients AND agencies and I gave a general description of what projects I've done.
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savaria (X)
Hungary
Local time: 08:21
English to Hungarian
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| Answer to your question -Where I earned my degree in translation and interpretation | Sep 25, 2008 |
Lori Cirefice wrote:
you don't bother to mention where you earned your degree in translation and interpretation?
I earned my degree at the Savaria University Centre of University of Western Hungary(former Berzsenyi Dániel College,now in Hungarian Nyugat-Magyarországi Egyetem Savaria Egyetemi központ,officially abbreviated as NYME SEK).This is situated in Szombathely.(In Slavic languages they call it Sambotel,in the Antiquity,more specificly in the Roman age this is the city that used to be called Savaria.That's why also my user name is savaria.) As far as I know,although this is already a huge professional community,still I do not know anybody else(neither members nor non-members,and not even partial members) who are registered here and who would be staying in this city.
By the way,I am ready to send my most up-to-date CV/resumé to anybody upon request.
[Módosítva: 2008-09-25 07:36]
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