| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Portfolio of work Thread poster: Julie Barber
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Julie Barber 
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:18
French to English
Hi all
I wanted to ask if you have a portfolio of work that you can show new clients?
I was recently asked by an agency (one that matches writers and translators to clients) to sign up and to provide examples of my work, and to name clients [I don't really like mentioning clients...].
A lot of my work is confidential so I am not able to send that. In a rush, a dug out a translation from a few years ago, that was upon reflection rather clunky! suffice to sa... See more Hi all
I wanted to ask if you have a portfolio of work that you can show new clients?
I was recently asked by an agency (one that matches writers and translators to clients) to sign up and to provide examples of my work, and to name clients [I don't really like mentioning clients...].
A lot of my work is confidential so I am not able to send that. In a rush, a dug out a translation from a few years ago, that was upon reflection rather clunky! suffice to say they were not happy with it and the answer was nope : -)
Anyway, my question is how to you approach providing examples of work, particularly in terms of NOT divulging who your favourite direct clients are to agencies?!
I need to put some better examples together, but wondered how best to approach it.
thanks
Julie ▲ Collapse
| | | | Eva Stoppa
Germany
Local time: 19:18
English to German
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| Clients are subject to data protection | Jun 17, 2021 |
Clients' names are subject to data protection. How would this agency feel getting phone calls all day Long not asking for availibility on a Job, but asking for references about some translator they have worked with?
For the Portfolio, you could translate some publicly available texts like newspaper articles and such. I wouldn't provide texts there which I have translated for my Clients even if I deleted names out of the text.
Let's see what others have to say about th... See more Clients' names are subject to data protection. How would this agency feel getting phone calls all day Long not asking for availibility on a Job, but asking for references about some translator they have worked with?
For the Portfolio, you could translate some publicly available texts like newspaper articles and such. I wouldn't provide texts there which I have translated for my Clients even if I deleted names out of the text.
Let's see what others have to say about this Topic. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Julie Barber
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:18
French to English
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks Eva.
I think that it is very easy to identify clients, even if you remove names. It's like handing over your client list to agencies that you don't even work with yet.
That's a good idea for the newspapers. I might also find some decent business text on line and produce some work based on that.
| | | | Eva Stoppa
Germany
Local time: 19:18
English to German
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I would never give my clients' names, especially not to Translation agencies. Why? Do I want to save them the efforts of doing their own Marketing?
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I have a few samples of my translations because I worked for a while for a French magazine (“Courrier International”) where the name of the translator is indicated for every article. Though texts were extremely interesting I parted ways because of the very low pay.
| | | | Julie Barber
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:18
French to English
TOPIC STARTER
Teresa Borges wrote:
I have a few samples of my translations because I worked for a while for a French magazine (“Courrier International”) where the name of the translator is indicated for every article. Though texts were extremely interesting I parted ways because of the very low pay.
Thanks Teresa
I think that I will take up Eva's suggestion of finding some articles/published pieces, that I can translate especially to send to agencies etc.
[Edited at 2021-06-17 19:03 GMT]
| | | | Tea Komšić
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 19:18
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Same problem | Jun 18, 2021 |
I had the same situation last year. An agency sent me an email, asking for collaboration, but it was necessary for me to send them some of my previous projects. I said that I could not do that, because I do not give away my client's names, and that I have a signed NDA with them. They just said "Oh don't worry, we won't tell anyone that you sent us that". That sounded very funny and ridiculous to me.
| | | | Julie Barber
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:18
French to English
TOPIC STARTER
Tea Komšić wrote:
I had the same situation last year. An agency sent me an email, asking for collaboration, but it was necessary for me to send them some of my previous projects. I said that I could not do that, because I do not give away my client's names, and that I have a signed NDA with them. They just said "Oh don't worry, we won't tell anyone that you sent us that". That sounded very funny and ridiculous to me.
Yes, indeed, that does sound ridiculous! So, I think that translators generally do not offer portfolios of their work!
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Eva Stoppa
Germany
Local time: 19:18
English to German
+ ...
| Ridiculous indeed | Jun 18, 2021 |
Tea Komšić wrote:
I had the same situation last year. An agency sent me an email, asking for collaboration, but it was necessary for me to send them some of my previous projects. I said that I could not do that, because I do not give away my client's names, and that I have a signed NDA with them. They just said "Oh don't worry, we won't tell anyone that you sent us that". That sounded very funny and ridiculous to me.
Then why do you ask would be my question to them.
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You could find a text that you would like to translate and approach the author for permission to translate it and use it in your portfolio. No harm in asking and a good networking opportunity.
| | | | | The art of compromise | Jun 18, 2021 |
I don't think I've ever been asked to provide samples of work before (although I have put a few on my ProZ profile), but I have often been asked to name clients and provide references from them, which is something I'm not willing to do, with one exception. Some clients have left "Willingness to Work Again" comments on my ProZ profile, and they must have done so in the knowledge that this feedback and their names would be visible to other people. So if anyone asks me for references, I point them ... See more I don't think I've ever been asked to provide samples of work before (although I have put a few on my ProZ profile), but I have often been asked to name clients and provide references from them, which is something I'm not willing to do, with one exception. Some clients have left "Willingness to Work Again" comments on my ProZ profile, and they must have done so in the knowledge that this feedback and their names would be visible to other people. So if anyone asks me for references, I point them to that feedback, as a compromise. That is as far as I am willing to go. It is usually enough to satisfy people!
There is something else I sometimes offer to do - unbidden - if a potential client asks for references and I feel that they're someone I would like to strike up a business relationship with: a short, unpaid test translation. I know there is a school of thought according to which translators shouldn't do tests for free, but I don't subscribe to it. I don't mind doing the odd free one as long as the potential client doesn't set a tight deadline and the text isn't unreasonably long. I have gained a number of valued long-term clients this way. For that reason, it's a compromise I'm willing to make for those clients who want some reassurance that the translator they're going to hire can produce saleable work.
It's up to each of us to decide where to draw our lines in the sand in this kind of situation. By being willing to make these two compromises, I feel that I'm offering to meet people halfway without going as far as breaching client confidentiality or bothering existing clients, who certainly have better things to do with their time than providing me with references!
As for the idea of creating a portfolio, I think it's a rather good one from a marketing point of view, provided that the texts you translate aren't subject to legal/copyright restrictions and you have - or don't need - permission to use them. If I were you, I would choose texts that relate to your main specialisms and don't contain personal data (or if they do, remove it and put something like [name removed]), and try to show off the very best of your writing, with choice turns of phrase. That's what I've tried to do with my portfolio here on ProZ. And if there are any clunky bits in the translation, besides rewording them, you could simply leave out the corresponding bits of the source text. If you write your source language(s) well, why not write a text from scratch and then translate it? Translating yourself can be an interesting experience! So there are a few ideas to play with. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Eva Stoppa
Germany
Local time: 19:18
English to German
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I miss a "like"-button here. -smile
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Eva Stoppa
Germany
Local time: 19:18
English to German
+ ...
Pointing someone to the WWA entry who found you on proz is an excellent Thing to do, but I personally do not feel compoftable in pointing Clients who found me outside a translators platform to a translators platform with many other registered translators for them to choose from either on the current Project or in future.
| | | | Adieu
Ukrainian to English
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| You can't do that in this business | Jun 18, 2021 |
Any worthwhile stuff you do as a professional is under NDA, unless they simply forgot to make you sign one, in which case you should still act like it is
For a questionable prospect, I offer samples on terms like "send me a link to some article on a relevant topic and I will happily translate a sample of a couple RANDOM paragraphs of my choosing" (I refuse to do whole documents or assigned sections for off-the-street randos, since that often gets used by scammers)
For a... See more Any worthwhile stuff you do as a professional is under NDA, unless they simply forgot to make you sign one, in which case you should still act like it is
For a questionable prospect, I offer samples on terms like "send me a link to some article on a relevant topic and I will happily translate a sample of a couple RANDOM paragraphs of my choosing" (I refuse to do whole documents or assigned sections for off-the-street randos, since that often gets used by scammers)
For a PROVEN prospect (know people who work there, work with them already on other language pairs) I'll take an assigned one-page sample
Once upon a time I tried to land some voiceover gigs, for that I just recorded a few short samples of classical literature or news articles. If you really want unsolicited samples to show off, I suppose you could do that. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:18
Member (2008)
Italian to English
I simply refer them to the "Portfolio" section of my Proz profile.
(Which reminds me. Note to self: update "Portfolio" section.)
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