Translation volunteering and using it as a reference Thread poster: Ortaç Oruç (X)
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Ortaç Oruç (X)
France
Local time: 06:54
English to Turkish
+ ...
Hello,
I have been voluntarily translating the website of an environmental NGO which promotes the usage of sustainable electricity. The coordinator told me that I could use his/the organisation's name as a reference or an employment experience.
-Should I ask them if they can put my name on the website?
-How should I put the experience in my CV? (e.g. under the professional experience part; Translator, [company's name and website] (would it be alright not t... See more Hello,
I have been voluntarily translating the website of an environmental NGO which promotes the usage of sustainable electricity. The coordinator told me that I could use his/the organisation's name as a reference or an employment experience.
-Should I ask them if they can put my name on the website?
-How should I put the experience in my CV? (e.g. under the professional experience part; Translator, [company's name and website] (would it be alright not to specify it being unpaid and voluntarily?)
There are some other blogs and sites which are okay with me translating voluntarily but I cannot be sure whether it is worth the effort or not.
I want to contribute to my career early on but is there no way that I can get internships online or doing these paid even a little? Are there such organisations or companies?
Could you please enlighten me? I am starting to feeling used.
Thanks a lot. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Pablo Bianculli (X)
Argentina
Local time: 01:54
Dutch to Spanish
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| Internships are good, but being multilingual is better | Mar 28, 2014 |
Hi Ortaç,
About your questions:
- I think you should ask, very politely about putting your name in the website. Don’t expect a positive answer though.
- Under professional experience, as a normal job, because that is what is. I wouldn’t specify it as being unpaid or voluntarily, but if you are asked (which according to my experience doesn’t happen very often), you should say the truth.
Besides, I wouldn’t state my language level in a C... See more Hi Ortaç,
About your questions:
- I think you should ask, very politely about putting your name in the website. Don’t expect a positive answer though.
- Under professional experience, as a normal job, because that is what is. I wouldn’t specify it as being unpaid or voluntarily, but if you are asked (which according to my experience doesn’t happen very often), you should say the truth.
Besides, I wouldn’t state my language level in a CV. If you can translate from a language, say it so and that should be enough.
One piece of advice: I have found it is better to know a bit about many languages than to do unpaid internships, but (again) that is my experience. I would give it a try to learn some other Turkic language (Azerbaijan, Uzbek, Kazakh), at least to enhance my reading skills. Central Asia has a lot to offer involving those languages, English, Russian and, of course, Chinese. I really think you are going in the right direction by learning Russian.
Best regards,
Pablo ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Volunteering as a way to gain experience and enrich your CV | Mar 28, 2014 |
Hi Ortaç,
I understand your point perfectly: I am also starting to do voluntary translations and it is true you can get the feeling of being used and working for nothing, but I have realized it is the wrong way to see it.
I am also a beginner in the translation world so I do not have a lot of experience yet, and have found that the best way (at least for me) to gain experience and to enrich my CV is by volunteering (as it is really hard to be given a job without exper... See more Hi Ortaç,
I understand your point perfectly: I am also starting to do voluntary translations and it is true you can get the feeling of being used and working for nothing, but I have realized it is the wrong way to see it.
I am also a beginner in the translation world so I do not have a lot of experience yet, and have found that the best way (at least for me) to gain experience and to enrich my CV is by volunteering (as it is really hard to be given a job without experience, and without that job you get no experience and so on... beginner's vicious cyrcle). Also, it is a really good way to practice and keeping on translating things. However, when doing this voluntary job make sure it is for an NGO or the kind, never for an actual company or a translation agency (that could be being used indeed).
So, do not feel it is not worth the effort. If the NGO you translated the web for said there is not problem in using them as a reference, you should definitely add that to your CV (even specifying it is voluntary, it can look good). You can separate in different sections normal and paid job and volunteer job.
And if you have more webs or blogs to translate, I would advice to go for it (as long as it does not interfere with your actual job, of course). It is also a way to make contacts and marketing.
Regards,
Deborah ▲ Collapse
| | | | ATIL KAYHAN 
Türkiye
Local time: 07:54
Member (2007)
Turkish to English
+ ...
For your first question, I agree with Pablo. I think you should ask them politely to put your name in the website. After you watch a movie, you see hundreds of names who contributed to the movie. If you translated a website, it is fair to expect your name there. If you do not ask, they will surely not put your name. However, if you ask, they may or may not put your name. It will definitely not hurt to ask.
I think you should put that experience under the heading EXPERIENCE. F... See more For your first question, I agree with Pablo. I think you should ask them politely to put your name in the website. After you watch a movie, you see hundreds of names who contributed to the movie. If you translated a website, it is fair to expect your name there. If you do not ask, they will surely not put your name. However, if you ask, they may or may not put your name. It will definitely not hurt to ask.
I think you should put that experience under the heading EXPERIENCE. For me it does not matter whether a job is paid or not. I believe for a potential employer it does not matter, either. As long as it is an experience, it belongs in the Experience section. For a young translator like yourself, any piece of experience counts. By the way, your CV/resume should be one page in length. No more, no less.
I took the liberty to look at your ProZ profile. I would not put my date of birth on my CV/resume. It is irrelevant to a job. You should detail your work experience a little bit. That is what an employer expects to find there. You should also itemize your experience, i.e. put each experience as a seperate item under Experience. You can also give a link to your ProZ profile on your CV/resume if you like. ▲ Collapse
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Ortaç Oruç (X)
France
Local time: 06:54
English to Turkish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you all for your answers and suggestions, I needed some external look, helped a lot!
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 06:54
French to English
Beware of having your name on a website. On a hard copy publication, it's great, but websites are very volatile things.
I asked a friend whose website I translated whether I could cite it for those who wanted to see what I was capable of and she readily gave her permission. However she then went on to change bits here and there, and translated a couple of titles herself rather than "bother" me with it. With the result that the first thing a potential client could see when checking ... See more Beware of having your name on a website. On a hard copy publication, it's great, but websites are very volatile things.
I asked a friend whose website I translated whether I could cite it for those who wanted to see what I was capable of and she readily gave her permission. However she then went on to change bits here and there, and translated a couple of titles herself rather than "bother" me with it. With the result that the first thing a potential client could see when checking the link out was a huge booboo!
I got her to fix it the minute I realised it, but I may have lost several great jobs that way ▲ Collapse
| | | | | volunteer work to get started | Mar 30, 2014 |
Hi Ortac,
I think you are doing right working as a volunteer translator to get references. That is exactly what I am doing at present as whenever I looked for a job they were asking for references. First it makes me feel good then it is a good way to practice and get some experience in different fields..
Good luck then I am sure you will find customers soon...
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