Translators and Agencies

by Manoj Kumar Translation Services

Freelance translators make their living through translation. As freelance translators start on their journey in the translation world, they will indefinitely bump into agencies. Translation agencies are known to provide work to translators from all over the world. These agencies have staff, who are known as project managers to translators, as they create projects and are responsible to make sure that the translators hired will deliver the work perfectly. There are many dos and don’ts when working with agencies. Experienced translators know exactly how to deal with agencies, but what about new translators? New translators can always take the time out to understand how agencies work, in order to not take the agencies for granted.

Respect the rules

All agencies work in a timely order and they expect their translators to be the same as well. This refers to translators following all the rules and regulations set up by the agencies. Translators have to be careful as some agencies are very particular about certain things and they expect the hired translators to respect that. Translators have to understand that agencies work in a manner that benefits both the clients and the translators. In accord to that, when agencies set up deadlines for projects, they have put all options into consideration to make sure that the translators have enough time to complete the project without flaws. The least the translators can do if they are unable to complete the project on time is to let the project manager know of the delay so that they can prepare what they will explain to the client.

Ask again without stopping

The biggest flaw when working with agencies is popularly known as miscommunication. To avoid mistakes happening from miscommunications, translators should not be afraid to communicate with their agencies. Sometimes translators are afraid they might appear weak if they ask questions over and over again, but if anything is related to benefiting the project and the agency, translators should feel free to ask again without stopping until the message is clear to them. To commit an error on a project due to miscommunication is the worst thing that can happen to translators. This is why without shame, they should feel free to communicate with their agencies to know everything that needs to be known for the betterment of the projects. Before the project starts, translators should ask as many questions as they want until the picture is clear to them.

Don’t be scared!

There might be times when translators might feel that they can’t commit to a particular project. In situations like this, translators shouldn’t be afraid to refuse the project from the agency. Sometimes, translators think too much on whether or not they should refuse a project they are not interested in doing. Most likely, these translators think that if they refuse once then the agencies might not provide them with work next time. But that is not the case as this is not a child’s play, this is an adult world that they are living and working in. So, they definitely should not be scared in rejecting projects from agencies as most likely the agencies will understand their point of view instead of thinking about them only.

Should Translators Edit or Proofread?
Relationship Between Translators and Project Managers
Translators and the Benefits of Blogs
How effective is Instant Translation in the translation business?
How to handle untranslatable content?
Difference between Human Translators and Machine Translators