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If you send your C.V. DON'T DO THIS ....
Thread poster: insighted
insighted
insighted

German to Spanish
+ ...
Jun 3, 2016

Hi,

First of all, I'm not an English native, so please forgive me if I make mistakes; especially because the content of my post consists of criticism of other translators.

I posted a couple of jobs and, as a consequence, I am receiving e-mails with C.V.s from other translators from time to time. What I do not understand is, why fellow translators do not care about the correct format and presentation of their C.V.

Some examples:

(1994_1998) Teac
... See more
Hi,

First of all, I'm not an English native, so please forgive me if I make mistakes; especially because the content of my post consists of criticism of other translators.

I posted a couple of jobs and, as a consequence, I am receiving e-mails with C.V.s from other translators from time to time. What I do not understand is, why fellow translators do not care about the correct format and presentation of their C.V.

Some examples:

(1994_1998) Teacher in English and Swedish in School
(1993-1995) Editing, translation, proof-reading
_ and - are not the same


Wordsfast
Does this person really use this CAT?


Computer literate.
This could have been important 40 years ago!


PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE & Areas of Translation Expertise
Why do you change from upper case to lower case letters?


MA in Political Science , Sheffield University
Norwegian Diploma at Karlstads University
Commas and spacing.


. Adobe Reader
.SDL Trados 2007
.MemoQ
Spacing and commas, are they so difficult to control?


For Translation : 3000 _ 3500 word per day.
For proofreading :5000_7000 word per day

Same as above.


References are available upon requests.
How many requests do I have to send?


*25 years of translation and interpretation experience between Dutch, English, and Danish.
Between?


*1990- Present:Freelance Translator
* 1988-1995:Dutch Telecommunications
Spacing must be difficult.


(Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher,Excel ).
Excel seems to be very important for a translator, since it appears twice.


 Reports Of Food Production's Department
 Translated A Project Specialized In Manufacturing
 Translation Of Quiz On Business Principles
This c.v. has no lower case letters at the beginning of any word.


Fast Printing Skills In Finnish, French, Portuguese And English
What are printing skills?


 The Ability To Understand Web Sites
At least, this appears in the section of "Activities And Interests"


Address: Hildebrandstraße 46 46
I don't believe that the number has to appear twice.

2000 – 2001: Market research: Questionnaires, especially in the medical
field but other topics as well, e.g. roadworthiness.
2001-date: Freelance financial & scientific translator for agencies and
private clients (financial/scientific publications, study
documents, pharmaceutical documentation, textbooks,
educational and training materials and marketing materials.
Doesn't look too good, does it?


1999: Heidelberg University, Technical
Translations: Mechanical, Electrical,
'and Environmental Engineering ,
Associated Press Releases
Every line begins at a different place. And the ' is really there; just slipped in?


2008-Current: Freelancer Translator for Multi-language(Dutch, English and
German) for International Companies and Translation agencies.
Spacing again.


Translation of Scripts in English and German for TV
programmers
 Over twenty published book translations on varied subjects
 Translation of Commercial contract, Certification, Agreement
 Translation of legal documents and contracts.
Upper case, lower case, upper, lower.


Bienroder Wag instead of Bienroder Weg
Some people don't write their address correctly!


A dope Frame Maker .
Not a fake! Word spell check?


Year of Experience: 17 year.
No plurals please!


English and vise versa.
Vise must be from another language.


From 1998 until now Teacher of English language and literature.
From 2000 until now, freelance French/English translator.
Comma here, comma there.


-Translation of technical file of (18400) word.
-Proofreading 50000 word in low field.
Brackets or not? Word has no plural? And where is low field?


French: native language.
English: Near native.
Spanish: advanced level.
Near must have an upper case N?


Moneybookers and PayPal are acceptable.
Other are better?


the czech republic
Ok, The Czech Republic might be a small country ...


TRANSLTION EXPERIENCE:
Too many vowels to control.


Professional user for Trados, Memo Q and wordfast.
ICDL Certificate holder.
Professional in paint shop pro
Microsoft Office , AutoCAD , Outlook and Photoshop.
The above four lines appear in two different C.V.s from (supposedly) two different translators. Same errors!


Address: Maria-Hansen-Straße 2a24955 Harrislee
No space between the number of the house and the postal code.
AND: the font changes after the letter ß from Arial to Times New Roman


Translatio directory :
In this case, there were too many consonants to be controlled.


Work Experience:
Shop Assistant, Germany
Is that really a good idea for a translator's c.v.?


Translator and proofreader, France ARIAL
Part-time TIMES NEW ROMAN


English Fluent, in speaking reading and in writing
German Fluent, in speaking reading and in writing
Only one comma per line?


November 2011: Translation of PowerPoint documents on the
 non-inferiority of short term
 catheterization following fistula repair surgery for World Health
 Organization (WHO)
Serious topic, unserious formatting.


Consulting. September 2010: Proofreading of three projects respectively on the
 production of charcoal for
 sale, manufacture and marketing of natural fruit juices and
 acquisition of equipment for
 evangelical campaigns in
One project, many lines long.
By the way, the above examples are taken from an eight pages long c.v.


EDUCATION\ EXPERIENCE
Only backslashes in this c.v.


Thanks
In huge, red letters at the end of a c.v.


Portuguese to English 0.09 USD Per word for translation and 0.04 USD per words for Proof-reading. (Vise Versa).
Per Word or per words? Well, vise versa.


RECENT ASSIGMENTS



2,500 – 3,500 words
80.000 Words
16500 Words
Three different formats for numbers!


Name: Tina xxxx
The four x stand for the four lower case letters of the surname.

Specialization:
Law (Banking & Financial), Law (Taxation, Customs), Localization, Machinery & Tools, Management, Manufacturing, Marketing, Market Research, Mathematics & Statistics, Medicine, Metallurgy, Mining & Minerals, Gems, Printing & Publishing, Science , Sports, Recreation, Fitness, Transportation, Shipping, Social Science, Travel &
Tourism, Accounting & Auditing, Advertising & Public Relations. Computer Hardware, Computer Software,
Finance, Economics, Fisheries, Timber, Games, Computer Games, Gastronomy, General, Genetics, Health Care,
Medicine, Music, Automotive, Engineering, Advertising & Public Relations, Architecture, Art, Crafts, Painting, Arts
and Humanities, Building & Construction, Business, Commerce, Copywriting, Cosmetics, Beauty, Ecology &
Environment, Education, Resources, Journalism, Linguistics, Literature, Poetry, Localization, Management.
At least, all the above fields are correctly separated by commas and no incorrect spacing ... and were certainly copied elsewhere. Nobody can be SO overspecialized!


more than230000 words
about 1,7000 words (comma hopping)
more than 5,623,201 words (how many more?)
Translation and proofreading more than 3000 books (once in a lifetime?)


Translating more than 7,420,970 words
Translation and proofreading more than 5,880,200 words
Millions of words in just one c.v.


Word fast
Another variant of Wordfast.


Poetry & Literature International Org/Dev./Coop.
I don't like abbreviations.


10500 words
2,7800words
6 400 words
Three different format for numbers: no space, comma, space.


3- Translating more than 700,500 web pages for Sports.
4- Translating more than 200,500 words for Literature
Web pages vs. words.


Otherprojectsaresubmitteduponrequest
No fake. Not a single space between words.


Soft ware:
Microsoft office, access, internet, Photoshop.
Hard to understand.


Work Experience:
From 1999-2015: 14 years of experience
Guess where I worked.


Skills:
MS Office (Word, Access, Excel), CCSI, Osprey, MS Windows, e-mail and Internet .
I thought MS Office was a "soft ware".


Word Fast.
Variant number 4(?).


Translating and Proofreading 800,500 articles for Journalism.
Near to a million.


Ability to meet deadline in a time.
What?


3k
369 K
3000 words
Short medical translation of 616 words
3 page divorce paper translation around 1000 words
2.500 WORDS
5800 legal words
38213)
100 K
(7.5 K )
(>10K)*
The fonts also change, even in the same line!


SO, PLEASE, EVERYONE WHO SENDS HIS OR HER C.V. ANYWHERE: PLEASE TAKE A CLOSE LOOK AT IT AND TREAT IT AS IF IT WAS A TRANSLATION BECAUSE HOPEFULLY YOUR TRANSLATIONS ARE BETTER THAN YOUR C.V.s.

If anyone feels that I have mistreated him or her, please apologize. But after having received so many "carelessly" written C.V.s I just had to write this post because otherwise I could have gone mad.

I just do hope that my post contributes to making C.V.s better.

Best regards.

[Edited at 2016-06-03 15:47 GMT]

[Edited at 2016-06-03 15:49 GMT]
Collapse


 
Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:20
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
Will it ever return? Jun 3, 2016



 
Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:20
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
No Jun 4, 2016

it won't.

 
Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:20
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
That Jun 4, 2016

was that

then.


 
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei  Identity Verified
Ghana
Local time: 16:20
Japanese to English
Don't do what? Don't do what? Jun 4, 2016

Can't believe they left us hanging after a clickbait title like that. The suspense is killing me!

 
insighted
insighted

German to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Can you read the post now? Nov 27, 2017

Kuochoe Nikoi wrote:

Can't believe they left us hanging after a clickbait title like that. The suspense is killing me!


 
Mervyn Henderson (X)
Mervyn Henderson (X)  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 17:20
Spanish to English
+ ...
My personal favourite .... Nov 27, 2017

... evangelical campaigns in One project, many lines long.

 
John Fossey
John Fossey  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 12:20
Member (2008)
French to English
+ ...
Analysing CVs Nov 27, 2017

A CV is where a translator presents themselves to you.

Don't like a CV? Discard it and move on. Not worth wasting time and electrons on. There will be others that are more acceptable.


 
Daniel Frisano
Daniel Frisano  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 17:20
Member (2008)
English to Italian
+ ...
... and if you open an account on a website for alleged professionals... Nov 27, 2017

... don't use a meaningless lowercase nickname, right?

 
Matthias Brombach
Matthias Brombach  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 17:20
Member (2007)
Dutch to German
+ ...
Fake CVs and emails Nov 28, 2017

insighted wrote:



Address: Maria-Hansen-Straße 2a24955 Harrislee
No space between the number of the house and the postal code.
AND: the font changes after the letter ß from Arial to Times New Roman




Your quotes are all good examples of fake emails you received on your job offer. Scammers use fake profiles with scanned and somehow amateurish reformatted CVs from real freelancers. I wouldn´t wonder if all of the profiles you quoted had a gmail or yahoo adress, where you can´t locate the IP of the sender. Those scammers (I think it is always still one and the same person or bunch of persons, located in the Gaza area) look for job offers from freelancers who try to outsource their surplus of work and who aren´t too experienced with the outsourcing process and the associated risk management. Therefore, the ball returns back to you.
Have a look here:
http://www.translator-scammers.com/translator-scammers-directory.htm

[Edited at 2017-11-28 07:59 GMT]


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:20
Member (2008)
Italian to English
not Gaza Nov 28, 2017

Matthias Brombach wrote:

..... located in the Gaza area) ....


I've always suspected that those perpetrators are not in Gaza, but in some other nearby country.


 
Michael Newton
Michael Newton  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 12:20
Japanese to English
+ ...
Don't do this Nov 28, 2017

A recent scam offer came from a company located simultaneously in "Gaza", Palestine" and Israel. I asked for specific street address etc. No response.

 
leumas2855
leumas2855  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:20
German to English
Writing and speaking are two different things, obviously Nov 28, 2017

This is the old chestnut of 'attention to detail'. Btw you missed one in specialization: After Science there is a space then the comma, then another space, followed by the rest of the text.
It is quite surprising how many people still use double spacing after end of sentence punctuation; a leftover from the days of the typewriter with fixed width font.


 
Robert Rietvelt
Robert Rietvelt  Identity Verified
Local time: 17:20
Member (2006)
Spanish to Dutch
+ ...
Thank you! Nov 28, 2017

insighted wrote:

Hi,

First of all, I'm not an English native, so please forgive me if I make mistakes; especially because the content of my post consists of criticism of other translators.

I posted a couple of jobs and, as a consequence, I am receiving e-mails with C.V.s from other translators from time to time. What I do not understand is, why fellow translators do not care about the correct format and presentation of their C.V.

Some examples:

(1994_1998) Teacher in English and Swedish in School
(1993-1995) Editing, translation, proof-reading
_ and - are not the same


Wordsfast
Does this person really use this CAT?


Computer literate.
This could have been important 40 years ago!


PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE & Areas of Translation Expertise
Why do you change from upper case to lower case letters?


MA in Political Science , Sheffield University
Norwegian Diploma at Karlstads University
Commas and spacing.


. Adobe Reader
.SDL Trados 2007
.MemoQ
Spacing and commas, are they so difficult to control?


For Translation : 3000 _ 3500 word per day.
For proofreading :5000_7000 word per day

Same as above.


References are available upon requests.
How many requests do I have to send?


*25 years of translation and interpretation experience between Dutch, English, and Danish.
Between?


*1990- Present:Freelance Translator
* 1988-1995:Dutch Telecommunications
Spacing must be difficult.


(Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher,Excel ).
Excel seems to be very important for a translator, since it appears twice.


 Reports Of Food Production's Department
 Translated A Project Specialized In Manufacturing
 Translation Of Quiz On Business Principles
This c.v. has no lower case letters at the beginning of any word.


Fast Printing Skills In Finnish, French, Portuguese And English
What are printing skills?


 The Ability To Understand Web Sites
At least, this appears in the section of "Activities And Interests"


Address: Hildebrandstraße 46 46
I don't believe that the number has to appear twice.

2000 – 2001: Market research: Questionnaires, especially in the medical
field but other topics as well, e.g. roadworthiness.
2001-date: Freelance financial & scientific translator for agencies and
private clients (financial/scientific publications, study
documents, pharmaceutical documentation, textbooks,
educational and training materials and marketing materials.
Doesn't look too good, does it?


1999: Heidelberg University, Technical
Translations: Mechanical, Electrical,
'and Environmental Engineering ,
Associated Press Releases
Every line begins at a different place. And the ' is really there; just slipped in?


2008-Current: Freelancer Translator for Multi-language(Dutch, English and
German) for International Companies and Translation agencies.
Spacing again.


Translation of Scripts in English and German for TV
programmers
 Over twenty published book translations on varied subjects
 Translation of Commercial contract, Certification, Agreement
 Translation of legal documents and contracts.
Upper case, lower case, upper, lower.


Bienroder Wag instead of Bienroder Weg
Some people don't write their address correctly!


A dope Frame Maker .
Not a fake! Word spell check?


Year of Experience: 17 year.
No plurals please!


English and vise versa.
Vise must be from another language.


From 1998 until now Teacher of English language and literature.
From 2000 until now, freelance French/English translator.
Comma here, comma there.


-Translation of technical file of (18400) word.
-Proofreading 50000 word in low field.
Brackets or not? Word has no plural? And where is low field?


French: native language.
English: Near native.
Spanish: advanced level.
Near must have an upper case N?


Moneybookers and PayPal are acceptable.
Other are better?


the czech republic
Ok, The Czech Republic might be a small country ...


TRANSLTION EXPERIENCE:
Too many vowels to control.


Professional user for Trados, Memo Q and wordfast.
ICDL Certificate holder.
Professional in paint shop pro
Microsoft Office , AutoCAD , Outlook and Photoshop.
The above four lines appear in two different C.V.s from (supposedly) two different translators. Same errors!


Address: Maria-Hansen-Straße 2a24955 Harrislee
No space between the number of the house and the postal code.
AND: the font changes after the letter ß from Arial to Times New Roman


Translatio directory :
In this case, there were too many consonants to be controlled.


Work Experience:
Shop Assistant, Germany
Is that really a good idea for a translator's c.v.?


Translator and proofreader, France ARIAL
Part-time TIMES NEW ROMAN


English Fluent, in speaking reading and in writing
German Fluent, in speaking reading and in writing
Only one comma per line?


November 2011: Translation of PowerPoint documents on the
 non-inferiority of short term
 catheterization following fistula repair surgery for World Health
 Organization (WHO)
Serious topic, unserious formatting.


Consulting. September 2010: Proofreading of three projects respectively on the
 production of charcoal for
 sale, manufacture and marketing of natural fruit juices and
 acquisition of equipment for
 evangelical campaigns in
One project, many lines long.
By the way, the above examples are taken from an eight pages long c.v.


EDUCATION\ EXPERIENCE
Only backslashes in this c.v.


Thanks
In huge, red letters at the end of a c.v.


Portuguese to English 0.09 USD Per word for translation and 0.04 USD per words for Proof-reading. (Vise Versa).
Per Word or per words? Well, vise versa.


RECENT ASSIGMENTS



2,500 – 3,500 words
80.000 Words
16500 Words
Three different formats for numbers!


Name: Tina xxxx
The four x stand for the four lower case letters of the surname.

Specialization:
Law (Banking & Financial), Law (Taxation, Customs), Localization, Machinery & Tools, Management, Manufacturing, Marketing, Market Research, Mathematics & Statistics, Medicine, Metallurgy, Mining & Minerals, Gems, Printing & Publishing, Science , Sports, Recreation, Fitness, Transportation, Shipping, Social Science, Travel &
Tourism, Accounting & Auditing, Advertising & Public Relations. Computer Hardware, Computer Software,
Finance, Economics, Fisheries, Timber, Games, Computer Games, Gastronomy, General, Genetics, Health Care,
Medicine, Music, Automotive, Engineering, Advertising & Public Relations, Architecture, Art, Crafts, Painting, Arts
and Humanities, Building & Construction, Business, Commerce, Copywriting, Cosmetics, Beauty, Ecology &
Environment, Education, Resources, Journalism, Linguistics, Literature, Poetry, Localization, Management.
At least, all the above fields are correctly separated by commas and no incorrect spacing ... and were certainly copied elsewhere. Nobody can be SO overspecialized!


more than230000 words
about 1,7000 words (comma hopping)
more than 5,623,201 words (how many more?)
Translation and proofreading more than 3000 books (once in a lifetime?)


Translating more than 7,420,970 words
Translation and proofreading more than 5,880,200 words
Millions of words in just one c.v.


Word fast
Another variant of Wordfast.


Poetry & Literature International Org/Dev./Coop.
I don't like abbreviations.


10500 words
2,7800words
6 400 words
Three different format for numbers: no space, comma, space.


3- Translating more than 700,500 web pages for Sports.
4- Translating more than 200,500 words for Literature
Web pages vs. words.


Otherprojectsaresubmitteduponrequest
No fake. Not a single space between words.


Soft ware:
Microsoft office, access, internet, Photoshop.
Hard to understand.


Work Experience:
From 1999-2015: 14 years of experience
Guess where I worked.


Skills:
MS Office (Word, Access, Excel), CCSI, Osprey, MS Windows, e-mail and Internet .
I thought MS Office was a "soft ware".


Word Fast.
Variant number 4(?).


Translating and Proofreading 800,500 articles for Journalism.
Near to a million.


Ability to meet deadline in a time.
What?


3k
369 K
3000 words
Short medical translation of 616 words
3 page divorce paper translation around 1000 words
2.500 WORDS
5800 legal words
38213)
100 K
(7.5 K )
(>10K)*
The fonts also change, even in the same line!


SO, PLEASE, EVERYONE WHO SENDS HIS OR HER C.V. ANYWHERE: PLEASE TAKE A CLOSE LOOK AT IT AND TREAT IT AS IF IT WAS A TRANSLATION BECAUSE HOPEFULLY YOUR TRANSLATIONS ARE BETTER THAN YOUR C.V.s.

If anyone feels that I have mistreated him or her, please apologize. But after having received so many "carelessly" written C.V.s I just had to write this post because otherwise I could have gone mad.

I just do hope that my post contributes to making C.V.s better.

Best regards.

[Edited at 2016-06-03 15:47 GMT]

[Edited at 2016-06-03 15:49 GMT]


You made our evening. This is pure (written) entertainment. We had a lot of laughs.

[Edited at 2017-11-28 23:13 GMT]


 
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
Nikki Scott-Despaigne  Identity Verified
Local time: 17:20
French to English
Decoration Nov 29, 2017

This could be ideal wallpaper for the smallest room in a translator's home.

 
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If you send your C.V. DON'T DO THIS ....







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