Translation Vendor Management Group

As a Vendor Manager, I probably post about 5 adverts per month in order to cover my company's needs for translators. I will be honest and admit that Proz.com is my go-to website to recruit translators in most cases. With each advert posted, I receive between 20 to 60* emails applying/bidding for the project advertised. However, I would generally choose around 5 translators to onboard per language combination. A high volume of applications is great news for any Vendor Manager, but it means some translators will pass unnoticed and won't be successful on their application for this particular opening. So, how to make your application stand out from the crowd as a freelance translator? Don't start your email with "Dear Sir/Madam, Sirs, hiring manager". Always find the name of the person hiring and address them directly wherever possible. Whenever I advertise a position, my name and position are always clearly stated, but if you are still not sure, check the profile and...

I have been working in Vendor Management for 4 years now, and checking CVs/applications is now an automatic task in my brain. Much like driving, my eyes are trained to scan the document or email looking for the key information I need. In my previous article on this topic, I focused on the content that is necessary (or not) in a CV, so in this one I would like to talk about formatting and presentation of the information. As you already know, being a freelancer looking for new clients, you can’t afford to appear unprofessional to your clients and peers. Your CV is the first impression your new client will have of your business. Therefore, you want to make it count. The layout of your CV has to adapt to the content you are including in it, this means you can't use a CV template that is designed for people looking for a full time position (for example Europass), because you will find yourself deleting most of the default fields trying to make it work. I always recommend Canva.com, whic...

Most of my daily work involves recruiting freelance translators. I send hundreds of emails and screen dozens of CVs every week. I have held the role of Resource Administrator for a year and during this time I have been able to interact with translators from all around the globe. This has given me an overview of how freelance translators present themselves to their potential clients. Recruiting freelance translators is not an easy job. The market is endless and finding the right freelance translator for your projects can seem like finding a needle in a haystack. Personal impressions play a big part in the recruitment process. We all have different personalities, priorities and goals and this should be clearly shown on your CV. Together with your introductory e-mail, this is the first impression your new client will have of your business. Therefore, I would like to share with you my opinion of what makes a successful freelance translator CV. As a freelancer, you are not applying for any ...

During my first year working at Xerox, I worked part-time in the Quality Department monitoring our supplier's performance, and giving feedback when necessary. I loved it. I still find it fascinating to see how a supplier performs over time on different projects, but the most exciting part was always the answers I got to my emails. For most translators, their business is their own self, and that is why feedback can make or break someone's day. The definition of constructive feedback I like the most is taken from a Harvard Business Review article: Feedback is about telling people what we think of their performance and how they should do it better. I use this definition, because this is the version I think is most widely used in the translation industry. Each client will have their own reference material for which suppliers working on the project should adhere to on every occasion. I would say that around 95% of the feedback I see from clients is in regards to their opinion on how...

                                               Now is a time of great change in the world, and in business. Many companies will need to re-invent themselves, people will change careers, and others will continue as before. Workload is always somewhat uncertain in our industry, but I think it will fluctuate more than usual during the next six months. Are you already seeing any trends among your clients? Is it time to diversify your books? Have you considered working for clients in a different time zone? Here is your chance. Agencies will be looking to recruit new translators, and freelancers will be looking for new clients. The start of a new partnership is always exacting, but it can also be a period of adaptation, to ensure both partners can (and will) work smoothly together. I would like to highlight five points that, in my opinion, are often unde...

Talking about rates can be a delicate subject for many people in the translation industry. Pricing the services you offer is a very personal (and sometimes difficult) thing, both for freelance translators, and for agencies. Am I bidding too low? Will the client agree to my rates? How low am I ready to go? Per word or per hour? Before diving in, consider, have you got the same rate for each of your clients? Do you offer discounts and surcharges on specific projects? Do you offer a different rate for each subject matter which you translate? Do you offer a customised rate for each project? End clients set a yearly budget to spend on translation services. This starts what could feel like a race to find the supplier with the cheapest rates. Translators working with both end clients and translation agencies might see the difference between the rates paid. Translation agencies will use a fraction of the total paid by the client to cover the supplier's costs. However, this doesn't alwa...

One of the most controversial topics in the translation industry comes up when the Vendor Manager asks for a translation test. Whether it is a specific sample for client, or a test during the recruitment process, we can not make up our minds about it. Is it necessary? Should it be paid? The purpose of a test translation, as it names entails, is to test the quality of the translation the vendor can supply. However, each company uses their own methods and focuses on different things when assessing a test translation, so what might be acceptable to one company, doesn't necessarily mean it is for another. The quality of the translation is assessed against the standards of the company, so what the company and their clients think is a good quality translation may vary. I mention this in particular because not all the companies might be a good fit for you as a freelancer and not all the freelancers that answer your company's advert are a good fit for your company. As a Vendor Manager ...

A vendor database is a tool for project managers and coordinators to find the best translation vendor possible for any given project requested by a client. The Vendor Manager’s duty is therefore to manage it strategically to ensure that it is flexible, cost-effective, and maximise its usability. This means the cost of maintaining the vendor database has to be small, vendors have to be used as much as possible, and the variety of vendors has to be flexible enough to cope with extraordinary requests or peaks in the workload. Tasks such as a full database clean-up or mass on-boarding/removing of vendors takes a lot of Vendor Manager’s time and effort, so they won’t have as much time to be deal with other requests. Hence, an effective management of the database on a daily basis is the most beneficial in terms of cost and employee motivation. Here are six tips to help you manage your database effectively. Take on board these tips and make your daily work more efficient. Dealing with Data Th...

It is so easy for a translation vendor’s database to get out of control. Unlike other industries, the database of a translation business, big or small, changes every week. Considering that perhaps 80% of a translation business’ success is based on how good the vendors in the database are (combined with how well your PMs can match them with the right clients’ request), the database is one of the main factors for your company’s success or failure. Unless you outsource or have a very good automated process, you really need a staff member looking after the translation vendor’s database in order to keep it under control. The fact is that cleaning the database can be a mammoth task which can make any Vendor Manager feel like a monastic scribe from the Middle-Ages. Hopefully these guidelines will make you feel like a master organiser instead, and help you take ownership of the task ahead. Let’s pause for a moment and think: What does your company need from the database? What is the purpose of...