Greater than 4 minutes, my friend!
5 Signs That a Translator is Referral Material How do we become memorable in the minds of our fellow translators?
In the beginning stages of my freelance career, I tried to reach out to other translators for guidance. I actually contacted a few translators who were well-known in the industry and seemed to have it all figured out. Two of them were really sweet and willing to answer my questions, but there was one who was actually rude and very unprofessional.
Needless to say, I’m never referring any jobs to this particular translator.
The saying that goes “you only have one opportunity to make a first impression” will always be true and very applicable in our profession.
We all know how giving a glitched referral can reflect on our performance and damage our relationship with the parties involved.
However, it’s not only our job as translators to stay away from anyone who could indirectly hinder or misrepresent the translation profession, but also to recognize those who’ve established a good image for themselves and worked hard to build and maintain a reputation of high-quality and professionalism.
Personally, the one way I appreciate being recognized the most is when another translator tells a potential client about my work.
As much as I love having people comment on my blog posts, or seeing my number of Twitter followers steadily increase, nothing compares to the joy of being referred to a potential client through one of my dear translation colleagues!
Now, the question is, how do we become memorable—in a positive way—in the minds of our fellow translators? How do we become memorable enough to inspire a translation colleague to think of our name and recommend us for a particular job?
Here’s my list of 5 signs to decide if a particular translator is referral material. As we go through the list think about someone in the translation field who fits this description. Also—and more importantly—think about yourself and determine if these signs are a description of YOU:
1. Shares professional, well-written content—
He writes relevant content about the translation industry and his fields of expertise to showcase his own writing abilities. His goal is to continue to improve his writing skills and share his knowledge with other translators and potential clients. He has a professional website where he shares his content and directs his new clients to learn more about his services and other details. As he consistently writes and shares new content, the more other translators get to know him and his writing style.
2. Strategically Engages in Social Media—
He shares his own posts and other interesting articles through social media. His goal is to use his own posts as a way to advertise his own writing skills and become known in the translation industry. He knows how to be strategic on how to use social media to build connections and strives to leave a good impression. He also knows to not let social media take over his time and energy and devotes his time to work and find new clients consistently.
3. Shows Confidence—
He values his skills and is never hesitant about his own abilities. He’s not shy about explaining what his profession is about and the value his skills offer to businesses looking to connect and increase their target market. He knows what his translation services are worth and charges accordingly. His goal is to demonstrate confidence in his translation skills and help his potential customers feel at peace and taken care of.
4. Remembers His Clients—
He knows how to remember and stay connected with his clients. His goal is to send emails when needed to keep current clients on the loop about price increases and other important information. He also remembers his current and potential clients on their birthday and during the Christmas season by sending a personalized card via email or regular mail. He is professional, friendly, respectful and approachable in his dealings with his clients.
5. Recommends Other Colleagues—
He reads other colleagues’ posts and contributes with meaningful comments. His goal is to pay attention to their writing styles, learn about their specialties and interests, and decide for himself if a fellow translator is someone he would be comfortable referring to one of his clients. He notices those translators who are actively involved in the translation industry and portray a professional image. He believes in the power of networking and knows exactly who to recommend for a job when the opportunity arises.
I’m aware that some of these characteristics would be very hard to know about–like whether or not he sends birthday cards to his clients–but I only added them to help us reflect on those things that could protect and nourish our connections with our current clients.
Also, I imagine many of you could think of other characteristics that describe a translator you would refer without hesitation. If that’s the case, what do you admire about them the most? What’s so amazing about them that in your mind they’ve become referral material?
As we strive to recognize those qualities that make a translator memorable, I hope we also take the time to evaluate ourselves and, if needed, choose to improve and/or acquire those same characteristics.
For some of us, this may mean improving our translation skills and being determined to become high-quality writers, stepping out of our comfort zones and pushing ourselves to overcome our shyness and other insecurities, being willing to spend more time networking and marketing our business, or investing more time in learning to be more tech savvy and embrace technology.
Whatever the case may be, remember to always ask yourself,
If I were another translator, would I feel comfortable recommending myself?
If you would, then congrats! Continue to do what you’re doing.
If you wouldn’t, then what are you willing to do for yourself to change how others perceive your commitment and professionalism as a translator?
Feel free to comment!
Audra De Falco 
Pieter Beens 
Sherif Abuzid 
Thanks for a thought-provoking post, Beverly! It prompted me to write down some of my own thoughts about what makes a translator worthy of being recommended.
The characteristics that you say would make you willing to refer work to a particular translator are all good signs. I’m not sure, though, how you’d know whether that person stays in touch with his clients unless you went snooping ;-). As for confidence, I have seen too many translators with plenty of braggadocio and little bravura to back it up. Many of the best translators are in fact introverted or shy, which is often mistaken for a lack of confidence, but they may be the ones who are worth referring the most.
The most crucial characteristic that makes a translator worth referring seems to be inadvertently missing from your list: the quality of their work. You may have assumed it to be a given, but the sad truth is that such quality can never be taken for granted. When I was fairly new to translating many years ago, I made the mistake of thinking that all translators insisted on the highest standards in their work. On this assumption, I referred jobs occasionally to certain colleagues for some valuable clients of mine — with terribly embarrassing consequences. Two of the jobs were for translations out of my native language, which I do not offer since it is against the codes of ethics of the translator associations to which I belong; another one was into my native language but from a language in which I no longer felt fluent. When the clients complained to me about the quality of the translations they received and I was able to confirm the problem, I tactfully asked the translators to revise their work to correct the errors and to make the translation read naturally in the target language. To my shock, they said that they didn’t think that was their job; all they felt they were responsible for was to convey the basic information in another language in a form a reader could understand. One suggested that revisions were the client’s responsibility (but why would a client pay someone for a translation she then had to revise?), another suggested it was mine (even though I had simply referred the job, not outsourced or subcontracted it), and another couldn’t even see what was wrong with the translation (despite the problems being glaring). Since my good name was now jeopardized with my clients, I felt compelled to set things straight. In two cases, I ended up paying a professional editor out of my own pocket to revise the translations; in the third, I ended up redoing the translation nearly from scratch (and discovered I was still fluent enough that language to deliver professional quality).
I know it’s not considered “cool” these days to talk about quality in translation: all the peripheral activities (social media, technology, marketing, blogs, and so on) get all the attention now. Besides, they’re so much more fun that doing the hard work of improving one’s translation and writing skills. Some people even say quality is too subjective to judge; others pretend that clients and the public don’t really care any more.
Well, I can categorically affirm that clients do care. For instance, last month, every job request but two that I received was to fix some other translator’s botched job or retranslate a text from scratch. The clients were livid that they’d been sold a subpar product. They found out about how bad the translations were from native speakers of the target language. These clients are now suspicious of all translators, an attitude that hurts all of us.
I too am now reluctant to refer work to someone else unless I’ve already worked on projects with that person or have had a chance to evaluate his or her work. Once in a great while, I am asked by a client if I know anyone who can translate into a language I do not know. While I usually decline to make such a recommendation, I have occasionally done so for long-time clients. I will consider only translators with whom I already have a prior professional or personal relationship and have a sense of their integrity and conduct; I simply will not refer strangers. Given my familiarity with them, the most essential characteristic I look into is the quality of their work.
How do I do this? First, if the translator writes blog posts in English or a language I can read, I look carefully at the quality of the writing. Every blog post is, after all, an advertisement for a translator’s writing skills. Such skills are, inf act, more crucial to a successful translation career than even command over the source language. Even if a translator is writing in a language that is not their native tongue, they must still write without any errors or awkward phrasing. This usually means they need to hire a reviser; if cost is a problem, revising services can be exchanged with a trusted translator working in the opposite direction. I’ve tried in vain to convince some bloggers writing in English, their second language, to get a native speaker to revise their posts, since these are their “display windows” onto their work. Why they would spend so much time writing and spreading word about a blog post meant to boost their reputation but then fall down on the final quality review is beyond my comprehension. To my disappointment, some of them say it just “isn’t important,” although what they mean is it isn’t important to them — but it sure is to potential clients or referrers. I’m not the only one who would never refer work to someone who doesn’t care about the quality of their writing in either their source or target languages; none of my senior colleagues would do so either, and they are the ones with the most contacts and most potential work to refer.
Next I look on a translator’s website for samples of their translations, with both the source and target texts. The best kind of sample is one that has been published and carries the translator’s name. If the translator does not yet have something published and cannot use work done under terms of confidentiality, then they should just choose some interesting sample texts in their fields of expertise, translate them carefully — with a second pair of eyes to review them — and post them. If I do not know one of the languages, I ask someone who does to evaluate the quality of the sample translations. The other useful aspect about having sample translations posted is that agencies that ask for test translations will sometimes accept these samples instead.
Why do I screen those I might refer so carefully? Because my reputation is on the line too when I refer someone. As in the past, I feel responsible to a client to whom I am making a referral, even though there is no money in it for me (and potentially even a loss of money, if I have to hire a reviser to fix a bad translation).
All the social media activity, blogging, public displays of confidence, and so on are worth nothing is a translator is not able to produce high-quality translations and to demonstrate that ability to colleagues who may refer them. Those of us with many years of experience are all too aware of how crucial excellence is to a successful career.
I hope this has given you some food for thought. I look forward to more of your posts, Beverly!
Hi, Catherine! Wow, I’ve never had such a lengthy response to any of my blog posts–I feel so honored! The quality of a translator’s work is extremely important. I know I didn’t quite mention it specifically, but I did touch slightly on it under item #5 – He reads other colleagues’ posts and contributes with meaningful comments.* His goal is to pay attention to their writing styles and learn about their specialties and interests.*
As a translator becomes present in the translation community through social media, we’ll have the opportunity to get to know him and judge the quality of his work. We will also be able to evaluate his/her level of bilingualism and writing abilities in his/her second language as well. That’s how we’ll know if we’ll feel comfortable referring him/her.
I so appreciate what you shared, Catherine. Thanks for taking the time to do so!
Catherine, I changed a few things on the article that I believe fit a little better the message I was trying to convey. I know there are some things we’ll never know about any translator–like whether or not they send birhtday cards to their clients–but I added those as well to help us reflect on the things we could be doing better to improve and become more well-rounded translators. The only thing we can use as a guide to determine if they are good at what they say they are is their writing, and that’s why social media comes in handy, especially if they have a blog they seek to keep updated. Otherwise, they will definitely not be very memorable, at least in my humble opinion! Again, thank you for commenting!
Like Catherine, I’ve been stung by referring work to translators who simply weren’t up to scratch, and like Catherine, I also had the unfortunate experience of having to clean up the mess they made as they weren’t inclined/able to do so. So I agree wholeheartedly with her that translation ability is the prime factor I take into account when referring (which I hardly ever do these days, because of those bad experiences). That ability includes, in my mind, a cooperative attitude, such as respecting norms or style guides or workflow processes that I or the client have stipulated. Whether or not they blog or are social media gurus etc. is icing on the cake for me: after all, these are marketing skills which may be very useful and may boost your business infinitely, but if you’re not a good translator to start with (and aren’t constantly working to become a better one), all the blogging and tweeting in the world isn’t going to change that, or make a colleague and their client happy they referred you. Thank you both for making me reflect on the referral process, which is indeed one of the thorniest aspects of freelancing (and I’m sure that’s true of many professions, not just ours).
Victoria, I agree with you 100%! In fact, I don’t love social media–I wrote a blog post about that too. However, the only way for us translators to get to know another translator’s ability to translate is by reading what they write, whether in social media or on their own website. A translator that is not engaged and present for others to know about him/her will never know about him/her and will never learn about his/her translation skills. A translator with great writing abilities that never blogs or does not have his/her own website will not be known in the online translation community by anyone, and therefore, no one will ever think of his/her name.
In my experience, my respect and admiration in the translation field go to those who exhibit great writing skills, present a caring and professional image online, have a professional website, and care to read other translators’ blog posts to comment and contribute. If these translators had chosen not to engage in social media I would have never known about them.
Thanks you for your comments, Victoria! I truly appreciate your insights.