Rachel Mu wrote:
With regards to references, is it acceptable to put a university lecturer who specialises in translation?
That person would make a great referee, certainly. However, you should be wary of giving out their details too freely. Employees look for a new job every few years, whereas freelancers are constantly on the lookout for new clients - or they should be 
. You don't want him/her to be spammed with constant demands for a reference. Really and truly, potential clients (as opposed to employers) shouldn't be asking for references, and we shouldn't provide them. Occasionally, agencies do ask me for them and, over the sound of alarm bells ringing in my head, I point them to the WWA part of my profile here on ProZ.com. It's a good place to gather testimonials to offer potential clients along with samples of your work uploaded here. Generally speaking, it's important to not think like an employee in this game. There are too many agencies out there wanting to play the boss role, without handing out any of the perks that employees are entitled to. So get away from the idea of the job-seekers' CV. Yours should be totally tailored to your freelance business and to your clients' needs.
I currently translate Spanish, French and Italian to English. I thought 'Spanish, French, Italian translator' sounded a bit heavy, which is why I opted for 'multilingual'. I can also translate PT-EN but I'm not currently working in this language combination. When I do, would 'Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese translator', sound a bit longwinded on my CV? I also speak, read and write Arabic but I also don't work in this language because I'm only at pre-intermediate level. This may sound like a silly question, but should I include this on my CV if I'm not working this language combination?
You could maybe find some way to include Arabic and Portuguese, but lower down. For the others, if you're only approaching translation agencies - which would probably be advisable at the moment - then you can use the ISO language codes, or use two lines (e.g. translator working into English ... from Spanish, French and Italian). BTW, if you don't mind me mentioning it, I do find it rather unsettling that you write about A-levels and even GCSEs in your profile, and I think clients will too. The level we need is light years away from even A-levels (my own ones in French and German certainly wouldn't have done the trick). If there's any doubt about your level in any of the languages, I advise you to opt for quality over quantity. In your pairs you're competing against very many thousands of professional translators, many of whom were brought up bilingual. You need to be a specialist, an expert in everything you do, and you'll need to constantly work on updating all your languages. That's easier to do with fewer, particularly when you aren't "living" any of them.
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