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New Decade, New CV – A Guide for Freelance Translators

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, which is free of charge and has dozens of templates to choose from. Of course, most people use Microsoft Word templates and Google Docs to create their CV. If you use any of these apps, I recommend that you add some colour and/or use a font which makes your CV fun and original, and always convert it to PDF format as it looks much more clean and professional than sending a document in Word/Excel format (it is also more difficult to modify).

Adding a company logo and/or any membership logos will also help you stand out from the crowd. If you are adding any CPD information then my recommendation is to separate it from your formal education (university degree, language certificates, etc), which will also prove helpful when updating this list in the future.

I hope you find this advice useful when updating your CV and remember that the information should be clearly visible and understandable to the recruiter because this is the best way to win new clients and projects. Best of luck!

This is an update to my article here.


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