Sending CV/resume to countries where they don't speak your working languages Thread poster: Crystal Samples
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Hello all,
I just wanted to get some opinions about sending your CV/resume to countries where your working languages are not spoken. Do you just send your information in English (or in whichever of your working languages you think they will be most likely to speak as a second language) or do you not bother to send your information to them at all?
I'm asking because I know that many agencies may need my language combinations (FR-EN and ES-EN) even though those languages... See more Hello all,
I just wanted to get some opinions about sending your CV/resume to countries where your working languages are not spoken. Do you just send your information in English (or in whichever of your working languages you think they will be most likely to speak as a second language) or do you not bother to send your information to them at all?
I'm asking because I know that many agencies may need my language combinations (FR-EN and ES-EN) even though those languages are not spoken in their country. Also, I was once an intern for an agency in France and was temporarily in charge of sorting through CVs received from Italian translators even though I didn't speak a word of Italian. Many of the CVs and cover letters were in French or English, but many were in Italian as well. In the end, it all worked out, but I'm just curious about how other freelancers and/or agencies deal with this situation.
Thanks in advance for your replies.
Crystal ▲ Collapse
| | | | Williamson 
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:27
Flemish to English
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Isn't English "the lingua franca" of the world ?
So, why not send your CV in English.
[Edited at 2010-01-19 17:20 GMT]
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I've heard that some strange people—translators name them 'clients'—order translation of their documents and pay money for that when they sell, say, their goods (read—services) to countries, where population doesn't speak the language in which the description of the goods or other documents are written.
I don't know whether it is applicable to translators… be named a 'client'
:0)
[Edited at 2010-01-19 18:56 GMT]
| | | | Maria Amorim (X)
Sweden
Local time: 05:27
Swedish to Portuguese
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I assume that any translation agency can read a CV in English. So I usually attach the CV in English unless it is for the Portuguese or Swedish translation market. In these cases I send the CV written in the correspondent language.
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Crystal Samples
United States
Local time: 22:27
French to English
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TOPIC STARTER
Maria Amorim wrote:
I assume that any translation agency can read a CV in English. So I usually attach the CV in English unless it is for the Portuguese or Swedish translation market. In these cases I send the CV written in the correspondent language.
Yes, I agree that English is the world's lingua franca, but having worked in France receiving CVs and cover letters in Italian (not English or French as one would expect) I was just wondering how common an occurence this is or if there is a kind of etiquette to this situation.
I've only ever sent my resume to agencies in English-, French- and Spanish-speaking countries, but I am thinking of branching out and sending my resume to agencies in Germany and China (and possibly other countries) since I see a lot of agencies from there on ProZ seeking translators with my language combinations.
-C.S.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 05:27
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Crystal Samples wrote:
Do you just send your information in English (or in whichever of your working languages you think they will be most likely to speak as a second language) or do you not bother to send your information to them at all? ... I'm asking because I know that many agencies may need my language combinations (FR-EN and ES-EN) even though those languages are not spoken in their country.
Send your information the language that you are able to speak and that you suspect you have in common with the agency. It's no use sending information in a language that you yourself don't speak.
Also, I was once an intern for an agency in France and was temporarily in charge of sorting through CVs received from Italian translators even though I didn't speak a word of Italian. Many of the CVs and cover letters were in French or English, but many were in Italian as well.
Were these Italian translators aware that they were sending information to an agency, i.e. a mere middle man who does not have in-house translators in the languages it claims to supply translations in?
I once sent a message to all Afrikaans translators on ProZ.com (being careful to limit my mails to translators who appear to be freelancers or who have declared Afrikaans to be one of their main languages). I got several replies from agencies who told me they were unable to read my message (which was in Afrikaans). These agencies took insufficient steps to make it clear in the ProZ.com directory that they are not freelancers or companies with in-house translators, but mere agencies.
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