tranfree issue 30 - 18th April 2001

How to be Number One Translator

by Sian Marlow

It is a strange but true fact of life that agency project managers don't automatically choose the most skilled translators for their work. In this article I hope to look at why this is and give you some insider information on how to Do Better Business!

• Be a nice person to work with.
  Such an easy task, you might think, but you'd be amazed at how some translators disregard this. Learning how to be nice to people on the phone isn't hard - just a friendly "good morning!" is enough. As Alex says in his book, try to get to know your clients as friends. It makes it much harder for them to give work to other people if you're their friend. And anyway, who would you rather talk to - a grumpy individual or a nice cheerful friend? Well, exactly!
  
  
• Observe deadlines.
  If it says "deadline: 10:00", then you need to send the job by 10:00, ideally half an hour before. Many times I've phoned translators an hour after their morning deadlines to be told "you'll have it this afternoon". Deadlines are generally not set by project managers but by the end-clients. And the project manager is the one who ends up in trouble if you're late with a job. If you do know you haven't a chance of making a deadline, call and tell your project manager. It's much easier to inform an end-client early on that a job will be slightly delayed than it is to tell them "it's late". They can see that! And they generally get quite upset at not being kept informed. At worst, the agency could lose a client. At best, the project manager gets a telling-off from the boss for not doing his or her job properly. Either way, you could lose a client.
  
  
• Following on from that, keep your project manager informed if anything goes wrong.
  And never, ever do what one translator once did to me. She was meant to be sending a job by 17:00. Many worried phone calls later, she said she would send it by 19:30. The client by this time was very annoyed. Of course, the translator then turned her phone off after working hours so that I couldn't call her. So I sat in the office until 22:30 waiting for an e-mail from the translator (which in itself was quite bad enough!). Then when it arrived, it contained a translation of two pages of the ten-page job. Oh, and a note saying she'd had enough and would finish it tomorrow. Result: our client missed a very important print deadline. And all because the translator couldn't just say "I'm sorry, I can't do it in time". If we'd known we could have done something to help. But if you don't talk to us, we can't know you're in trouble!
  
  
• Remember that project managers are human too.
  Project management is a difficult, fairly poorly paid job. You get to be the middle-man, i.e. to take abuse from both clients *and* translators. If you have a problem with a job sent to you, don't...

  ...take it out on the project manager. In addition, they have to deal sometimes with up to 20 or so jobs all at the same time. So anything you can do to make their lives easier is very much appreciated. Send all your queries on a text in one batch. Return all your jobs on time or, better still, early. Make your invoices clear, quoting the agency's job number and giving a brief description of the job if possible.
  
  

• One great tip is whenever you submit a job, send a fax too, stating that you've e-mailed the file.
  Say what you've called the file and how many words it contained. Then if the file doesn't arrive by e-mail, the project manager knows that you've sent it and can ask you to send it again. And you've already stated the word count, so there should be no need for invoice queries later on when you bill the job.
  
  
• If you're in any doubt at all about a job, ask to see the text first.
  Project managers would much prefer you to turn down a job you know you can't do well. If you have the slightest doubt about a job, be it the subject matter or the deadline, then Just Say No! Better to turn down a job than to be four hours late delivering it. Or - worse still - phoning halfway through a job to say you can't do it because it's too difficult. This does happen! I recently placed a ten-day job with one translator. She came back *eight days* into the job, having done none of it, to say she wasn't going to do it. Guess where that translator's CV is now filed...