(posting removed) Thread poster: Faustine.Rou (X)
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Faustine.Rou (X)
Local time: 04:39
English to French
[Modifié le 2016-06-20 13:14 GMT]
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2016-06-20 14:22 GMT]
| | | | | Be concise, persevering and patient | Jun 20, 2016 |
The only creativity in my online applications are the header lines of my CV, which have the two colours of my company logo. And the fellow freelancer who checked my English CV even wondered if I should leave it that way ... I think most translation bureaus prefer a concise and quite predictable cover email, so they can see at a glance if you are the right person for them. I doubt whether fancy graphics would do the trick in our word- and text-based business.
Having said that: there ... See more The only creativity in my online applications are the header lines of my CV, which have the two colours of my company logo. And the fellow freelancer who checked my English CV even wondered if I should leave it that way ... I think most translation bureaus prefer a concise and quite predictable cover email, so they can see at a glance if you are the right person for them. I doubt whether fancy graphics would do the trick in our word- and text-based business.
Having said that: there are ways to make your cover email a bit more targeted. Try to include at least one phrase on something you found on the agency's website, e.g. mention you can help them with specialisation X and Y, you found a typo or a dead link on their website, or you are planning a visit to their town and would be happy to drop by. Always try to find a name of a person, so you can avoid writing to 'Dear project manager' or 'Dear sir/madam'.
And be persevering and patient. According to Corinne McKay's book 'How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator', a success rate of about 1% is to be expected when you contact translation agencies for work by email or by their online translator forms. They may have sufficient translators all together, or in your language combination and specialisation, and never let you know. On the other hand, they may never contact you until they need your services, which could be many months later. In any case, it is quite natural that most of your emails to agencies lead to nowhere, and it is not anything to be discouraged by.
[Edited at 2016-06-20 11:53 GMT]
[Edited at 2016-06-20 12:00 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Omer Shani 
Israel
Local time: 06:39
Member (2012)
English to Hebrew
+ ...
| Creative letter - Yes or No? | Jun 20, 2016 |
Hi Faustine,
When you're sending your cover letters, whether a designed format or any other formal template form, please keep in mind that as an LSP we get dozens of these letters every single day, and we usually filter them automatically to a sub-folder, which we visit from time to time.
Not because we are disrespectful (I sure hope we treat our vendors out of respect), but because there are just too many of those CVs', and very few are relevant.
But we arises a... See more Hi Faustine,
When you're sending your cover letters, whether a designed format or any other formal template form, please keep in mind that as an LSP we get dozens of these letters every single day, and we usually filter them automatically to a sub-folder, which we visit from time to time.
Not because we are disrespectful (I sure hope we treat our vendors out of respect), but because there are just too many of those CVs', and very few are relevant.
But we arises a need for new vendors and new collaborations, we do search in that huge database, and we are not looking after graphs and 3D animations.
We are usually looking for as much info as possible.
A clean background and a clean structure would definitely be helpful, to avoid "hurting the eye", but if you provide an information about your experience in your expertise domains, updated TM tools ownership etc - that would be much useful then any designed format.
And one more thing - Patience is a key here. We are working with vendors who have submitted their CVs' sometime, and then we approached them.
And one last thing - Don't keep one marketing channel. Seek your vendor managers in LinkedIn, and approach them there. You might have better response rate, then emails. ▲ Collapse
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