| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] | Only FAKE translators email their CV... Thread poster: Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
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Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 12:44
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Zea_Mays wrote:
CVs are actually just needed for employment or tenders.
As a freelancer, you don't need to send a CV.
I can confirm Gabriela's words: most of my agency clients at some point asked for my cv and sometimes still ask for an update. I see no reason
to believe that a cv wouldn't still be a valuable instrument for a freelance translator: it's short and simple and gives all the details a potential client may need to start working with you.
There is no need for a "business brochure" or an extensive website, at least not if you are working alone. We are freelancers, not corporations employing 20 people.
| | | | expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 11:44
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Zea_Mays wrote:
CVs are actually just needed for employment or tenders.
As a freelancer, you don't need to send a CV.
You have a business website instead, you have an informative profile on professional platforms like Proz and/or LinkedIn.
You'll describe your experience and the fields you work in and how long you are doing this. You'll state your rates (btw., low rates do not look professional).
You'll provide reference letters, for example from agencies you collaborated with, stating your strengths (of course these letters are just to be sent to appropriate parties).
Etc.
The problem is that some agencies, in addition to asking for all this, still ask for CVs, copies of diplomas, passports, photos, filling in various forms, often for nothing.
The only reason they don't ask for our underwear brand or blood type is because they haven't thought of it yet.
When I started as a freelance translator I needed to send my CV and even today to start some collaboration with some new agencies it is requested.
I can understand that some of those agencies need our CVs because they need to be uploaded to translation management platforms.
Direct clients seem to be much more flexible and trust us... is it because contact is often made face-to-face?
I don't mind at all to send my CV or the link to my website (because it includes all that relevant information already), but I do mind all the bureaucratic stuff that we see often and leads to nothing.
| | | | Zea_Mays 
Italy
Local time: 12:44
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
| Don't send it and explain why | Aug 1, 2023 |
Lieven Malaise wrote:
I can confirm Gabriela's words: most of my agency clients at some point asked for my cv and sometimes still ask for an update. I see no reason
to believe that a cv wouldn't still be a valuable instrument for a freelance translator: it's short and simple and gives all the details a potential client may need to start working with you.
There is no need for a "business brochure" or an extensive website, at least not if you are working alone. We are freelancers, not corporations employing 20 people.
I just don't send it and provide the informations I mentioned above. Sometimes I also tell them the reason.
What I have done is putting all relevant information in a CV-looking file.
A website is a must for a freelancer in my opinion.
It has little cost and does a lot. It just needs to be done well, like your presentation.
"Marketing" is the key here.
[Bearbeitet am 2023-08-01 08:56 GMT]
| | | | expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 11:44
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| Don't take it too seriously | Aug 2, 2023 |
S_G_C wrote: Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT wrote:
I see that virtually no legitimate translator sends their CV by email anymore. It is all scammers! This offends me. My full and real name can be found on Google and I still send my CV by email, whether voluntarily or upon request. I am NOT a scammer and I truly hope no serious agency out there believes otherwise. [Edited at 2023-07-31 18:57 GMT]
I'm going to trust that the OP isn't addressing his own Proz colleagues like that....
I also believe that most of the colleagues who have joined this discussion are honest people and professionals, no faking people or scammers (I can speak for myself).
However, writing in bold letters that only fake translators send their CVs by email is generalising the issue.
I believe that it is very annoying to receive such messages, I also receive them sometimes, but I don't make a big deal out of it.
I read them if I feel like it (even for a laugh) and if I don't have time, I simply delete them. I don't like wasting my time at all.
Similarly, I don't know quite well what's the point of this post. Raising awareness? We are already conscious about this problem, but what else can we do with the resources we already have?
If the emails with CVs attached the OP receives are sent by Proz, he can always contact the staff and report those messages and their scammers as spam.
If they are not and they are sent directly to the PO's mailbox, then perhaps a solution would be to report the problem to his internet service provider and ask them to block those email addresses. It's just a tought.
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Gabriela Raț wrote:
I think it is safe to say that unlike your boutique agency, there are many other agencies (large or small) that allow freelancers to express their interest in a collaboration. Many of them still ask for a CV, and some of them require it sent by email. Virtually all of my agency clients have asked for my CV at some point in the application process.
[Edited at 2023-07-31 18:00 GMT]
Yes, everyone still asks that, every potential client, to even look twice at a potential freelancer, so I don't understand the issue in the slightest...
| | | | Croatian_MD
Local time: 12:44
Member
English to Croatian
I am confused by this, almost every new agency on Proz asks for a CV... am I a fake translator if I attach it?
I had a website but closed it down, I don't need it. Why fake being bigger than you are? I find this way enough clients and don't want to have a website. Only if it would increase my fees... hmmm
| | | | | Spontaneous sending of CVs... 99,9% fake sent from Palestina! | Aug 15, 2023 |
pv_cro wrote: I am confused by this, almost every new agency on Proz asks for a CV... am I a fake translator if I attach it? I had a website but closed it down, I don't need it. Why fake being bigger than you are? I find this way enough clients and don't want to have a website. Only if it would increase my fees... hmmm
I hope it was obvious from my original post that I meant spontaneous sending of CVs. If that was not the case, my apologies!
| | | | | No, not really | Aug 15, 2023 |
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT wrote:
I hope it was obvious from my original post that I meant spontaneous sending of CVs.
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expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 11:44
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| In that case... | Aug 18, 2023 |
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT wrote:
I hope it was obvious from my original post that I meant spontaneous sending of CVs. If that was not the case, my apologies!
I would recommend you to change the title of your post.
Also, if possible, to move the post to "Business of Translation and Interpreting - Scams".
[Edited at 2023-08-18 14:04 GMT]
| | | | | Suggestions for similar topics | Aug 18, 2023 |
'Only FAKE translators have their own WEBSITES!!!'
'Only FAKE outsourcers ask for VIDEO INTERVIEWS!!!!!!'
'ALL outsourcers without a Proz profile are SCAMMERS!!!!!!!!!'
'ALL outsourcers without their own websites are SCAMMERS!!!!!!!!!!!!'
I'm sure more creative heads than mine can keep such themes going for a few weeks.
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 12:44
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT wrote:
I hope it was obvious from my original post that I meant spontaneous sending of CVs. If that was not the case, my apologies!
And that changes what exactly ?
Please enlighten me, what's wrong with sending your cv while spontaneously offering your services to a language provider ? It already avoids the reply "Thank you for offering your services. Could you please send us your cv ?"
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Lieven Malaise wrote:
Please enlighten me, what's wrong with sending your cv while spontaneously offering your services to a language provider ?
It seems to cause a certain malaise, so you might end up in one of Tomás's binders with blacklists.
Puns and sarcasm apart, reality is rarely so black and white that simplistic rules beginning with ONLY, ALL, NEVER, etc. can describe it.
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expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 11:44
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Rephrasing "Spontaneous sending of CVs... 99,9% fake sent from Palestina!" would be nice too.
I wouldn't like to read "Spontaneous sending of CVs... 99,9% fake sent from the Iberian Peninsula."
Translation scammers can be based anywhere in the world. You just need to have a criminal mind, a computer and have some good information technology knowledge.
I am not an expert on this, but I read that it's possible to block country-specific emails with or without ... See more Rephrasing "Spontaneous sending of CVs... 99,9% fake sent from Palestina!" would be nice too.
I wouldn't like to read "Spontaneous sending of CVs... 99,9% fake sent from the Iberian Peninsula."
Translation scammers can be based anywhere in the world. You just need to have a criminal mind, a computer and have some good information technology knowledge.
I am not an expert on this, but I read that it's possible to block country-specific emails with or without specific software. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 12:44
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| The thing that is dead | Aug 20, 2023 |
Gabriela Raț wrote:
I am asking out of genuine curiosity: if the emailed CV is dead, then what is the alternative?
It's not such much the CV that is dead, but the unsolicited attachment that is dead. If you can put your CV on some web site and then link to it from within the email, I think you're good to go.
Most freelance translators are individual people, who have lived individual lives, so even if you're not applying for a full-time permanent employment position, your CV is still useful and relevant, even for translation agencies. Agencies want to know "who" they are dealing with. Your CV tells that.
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