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Getting your CV to many agencies at once?
Thread poster: Michal Shitrit
Michal Shitrit
Michal Shitrit
Israel
Local time: 14:11
English to Hebrew
+ ...
Jun 10, 2020

Hi everyone!
With COVID looming there's less work than usual, and I came across this solution: www.translatorbizwiz.com.
It seems ideal - he promises to get your CV to 5K agencies automatically which I'm sure could generate lots of work. Emailing agencies takes forever. But I'm not sure if it actually works. Anyone ever tried his service before or something like it?
Thanks so much 🙂<
... See more
Hi everyone!
With COVID looming there's less work than usual, and I came across this solution: www.translatorbizwiz.com.
It seems ideal - he promises to get your CV to 5K agencies automatically which I'm sure could generate lots of work. Emailing agencies takes forever. But I'm not sure if it actually works. Anyone ever tried his service before or something like it?
Thanks so much 🙂
Michal
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Dylan J Hartmann
Dylan J Hartmann  Identity Verified
Australia
Member (2014)
Thai to English
+ ...

MODERATOR
Avoid spamming IMHO Jun 10, 2020

You’re asking how best to spam 5k agencies?

Spamming is never a good option. More than likely your CV will be sent to normal freelancers, like myself, and will get deleted on sight. If the email is sent to 5k addresses at once, it would probably get marked as spam and agencies typically have good filters to stop spam messages - like your CV.

Best option is to take care with each application you submit. Follow the correct directions to apply to each ag
... See more
You’re asking how best to spam 5k agencies?

Spamming is never a good option. More than likely your CV will be sent to normal freelancers, like myself, and will get deleted on sight. If the email is sent to 5k addresses at once, it would probably get marked as spam and agencies typically have good filters to stop spam messages - like your CV.

Best option is to take care with each application you submit. Follow the correct directions to apply to each agency.

Avoid spamming! It’ll get your email address marked as a spammer and all your future email messages may end in Junk mailboxes unintentionally.
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Thomas T. Frost
Philippe Etienne
Sheila Wilson
Philip Lees
Dan Lucas
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Joe France
 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
Yellow pages under Dating sites Jun 10, 2020

Michal, it seems you have been in this field for over 10 years, so you should already have your incomes diversified and secured, right? That’s ok.

This unique bedsheet is just $8000 and will last at least 10 years what makes much less than a mere cent a second!
It’s neither about focusing on the 315’360’000 seconds nonsense compared to a price of latte nor sleeping on the same sheet, but rather distracting from the fair trade: Is it really worth
... See more
Michal, it seems you have been in this field for over 10 years, so you should already have your incomes diversified and secured, right? That’s ok.

This unique bedsheet is just $8000 and will last at least 10 years what makes much less than a mere cent a second!
It’s neither about focusing on the 315’360’000 seconds nonsense compared to a price of latte nor sleeping on the same sheet, but rather distracting from the fair trade: Is it really worth it? A big red flag, I must admit.
If something makes you feel awkward, it’s but a blatant manipulation.

First, why offer a 14-day (two-week) moneyback guarantee while promising the early result only after 20-30 days?
Second, how one could be so needy to require some 5000+ peanut middlemen? Besides,
Working more and harder has little to do with earning more.

Third, as far as tastes differ, why no negative or neutral feedback anywhere?

So far, even if such a routine $150 offer to assist with promoting your personal brand for mass-clients once was ok, there are no guarantees it will work for you too. Let’s face it: if you get zillion fake or real proposals to work hard for a penny, it’s very you who will fail for rejecting unfavorable conditions. A real flop
 either way. Hardly would 20+ emails a day help much, IMO.

If I needed to increase the income, I would diversify not only places/clients and niches, but also activities--from rewriting, copywriting, and transcreating to mentoring, consulting, and tutoring, going into interdisciplinary and beyond mere translation.

* However, if you really have some extra $150, then even a slim chance of 1:5000+ might still seem an attractive proposition.

Assess the risks and good luck to daredevils)
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Anton Konashenok
Anton Konashenok  Identity Verified
Czech Republic
Local time: 13:11
French to English
+ ...
Don't do that Jun 10, 2020

Don't ever do that. This is spam, plain and simple. Most of these 5000 copies will come to recipients who have no intention to hire anyone whatsoever, and if just 5 or 10 of them complain to your country's data protection authority, you may be in trouble. Even if the agency in question takes all the measures to make this mailing perfectly legal, it will make you come across as clueless rather than enterprising. The reason is trivial: every CV should be accompanied by a cover letter, and this let... See more
Don't ever do that. This is spam, plain and simple. Most of these 5000 copies will come to recipients who have no intention to hire anyone whatsoever, and if just 5 or 10 of them complain to your country's data protection authority, you may be in trouble. Even if the agency in question takes all the measures to make this mailing perfectly legal, it will make you come across as clueless rather than enterprising. The reason is trivial: every CV should be accompanied by a cover letter, and this letter should be specifically tailored for the recipient; only the CV should remain unchanged.Collapse


Thomas T. Frost
Sheila Wilson
Philip Lees
AMARILDA RUCI
Kevin Fulton
Philippe Etienne
Christophe Delaunay
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 13:11
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
It's fake Jun 10, 2020

Michal Shitrit wrote:
But I'm not sure if it actually works. Anyone ever tried his service before or something like it?


No-one knows who this "Dave Kasper" is. He does not reveal his LinkedIn, TC or ProZ.com profiles.

The photo of "Dave" is a stock image. Now, I understand that agencies use stock images on their sites, but Dave's site creates the impression that this is a photo of Dave. And it isn't.

His web site's domain was registered 30 days ago.

He already has two testimonials on the site. One of them is untraceable (name too generic). It says that "within months, she was turning clients down" and she "heard back from so many talent managers those first few months. ... it's been 18 months since my last email was sent" which is impressive for a service that did not exist 30 days ago.

The other testimonial is a known, potentially contactable translator -- I suggest you attempt to contact her and ask her for more details about her experience with the service (her TC profile was last updated in 2007, LinkedIn does not tell us when last a user updated their profile page, and her web site no longer exists, but she does appear to be alive on her Facebook profile).

Dave's web site has a lot of words on it but it says very little about the actual service. From what I can tell, you would give him your CV and a covering letter, and tell him how many agencies he should send it to per day.

$150 is not exactly cheap, but it's cheaper than you think, if it works (it's about $10-50 per new client). If you don't have a lot of work yet, and you don't want to use the Blue Board to find clients yourself, and you have $150 to gamble, then this may be an option for you. The payment method does not allow you to initiate a chargeback easily, so although he offers a 14-day money back guarantee, you probably won't be able to get your money back unless he is honest enough to return your money manually.

It seems ideal - [Dave] promises to get your CV to 5K agencies automatically which I'm sure could generate lots of work. Emailing agencies takes forever.


The big differences between using his service and simply using the Blue Board to find appropriate agencies yourself are (a) many agencies these days require you to fill in a form online, so sending an e-mail won't work, (b) his service doesn't target agencies that are specific to your fields or your language combination, and (c) you have no control over which agencies the mails are sent to (I mean, it would look bad if an existing client of mine receives a looks rather generic-looking new application from me).

Whether this is "spam" depends on your own personal definition of spam. My own definition of spam is "repetitive unsolicited mail", so if he sends your CV to each client only once, then it's not spam. Others may use a definition like "more than X number of unsolicited commercial mails sent simultaneously" or "any number of unsolicited commercial mails sent using an automated procedure", etc.

[Edited at 2020-06-10 21:23 GMT]


Sheila Wilson
Philip Lees
Agneta Pallinder
Robert Rietvelt
AMARILDA RUCI
Philippe Etienne
Christophe Delaunay
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 13:11
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
The free sample CVs are worth getting Jun 10, 2020

Michal Shitrit wrote:
Thanks so much 🙂 Michal


Capture-1

If you revisit his site, and scroll to the bottom and move your mouse like you're going to leave the site, there is a popup message about a "free toolkit" -- access it here. The "toolkit" is a PPT file with four sample CVs and a DOCX file with four sample covering letters, and they're not bad (useful even, especially if you're new to the industry).

Of course, it won't go down well with agencies if they receive dozens of CVs that look like these templates.


[Edited at 2020-06-10 21:19 GMT]


DZiW (X)
Nikolay Novitskiy
 
Paul Dixon
Paul Dixon  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 09:11
Portuguese to English
+ ...
Forms Jun 10, 2020

Regarding the forms that have been mentioned (agencies ask translators to send data through a form rather than sending CV) I have seen an increasing number of forms showing errors such as Error 402, Error 404, Error 503, security warnings, or unrecognised URLs. Has anyone else had this problem?

 
Anton Konashenok
Anton Konashenok  Identity Verified
Czech Republic
Local time: 13:11
French to English
+ ...
@Paul Jun 10, 2020

Paul Dixon wrote:

Regarding the forms that have been mentioned (agencies ask translators to send data through a form rather than sending CV) I have seen an increasing number of forms showing errors such as Error 402, Error 404, Error 503, security warnings, or unrecognised URLs. Has anyone else had this problem?


Elementary, my dear Watson: it usually means the owner has deleted the form because the offer to apply has ended.


Jorge Payan
 
Susan van den Ende
Susan van den Ende  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 13:11
English to Dutch
+ ...
Personal data & GDPR Jun 12, 2020

I was at a conference last year where a vendor manager almost begged the audience to NOT send unsolicited CVs, because they cause problems with their GDPR compliance. Causing problems is not a good way to start a fruitful cooperation.

P.L.F. Persio
Anton Konashenok
 
Mervyn Henderson (X)
Mervyn Henderson (X)  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 13:11
Spanish to English
+ ...
@Samuel Jun 12, 2020

Well spotted, that man. Especially the fact that he's only been on air for a month, despite the glowing reports from well before that. And ...

"Dave's web site has a lot of words on it but it says very little about the actual service."

Give them a bit of credit, though, because you do need a lot of talent to blaargh and blurb and blether endlessly about The Big Idea, without actually saying what you mean. The "Dave" stock photo has been well chosen in that regard. Not a
... See more
Well spotted, that man. Especially the fact that he's only been on air for a month, despite the glowing reports from well before that. And ...

"Dave's web site has a lot of words on it but it says very little about the actual service."

Give them a bit of credit, though, because you do need a lot of talent to blaargh and blurb and blether endlessly about The Big Idea, without actually saying what you mean. The "Dave" stock photo has been well chosen in that regard. Not a young chap (years of experience, safe pair of hands), the glasses (wisdom in spades), the jeans (not young, as already mentioned, but switched on to youth, the Daves of tomorrow), the arms crossed to disguise the drooping chest as muscular pecs (lots of get-up-and-go), the open-air scene (corporate images of an attractive secretary and a CEO beaming at each other as they point to a map of the world are not for "Dave", definitely not, who prefers to portray a water-saving, leccy-scrimping, recycling, tree-hugging modern man at one with his environment) etc. etc.
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Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
 
Tina Vonhof (X)
Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 06:11
Dutch to English
+ ...
@Michal Jun 13, 2020

I agree with others that a mass mailing would annoy the recipients and would go straight to their trash folder.

I think that, just like in applying for any other job, you need to do your homework. First of all search for some agencies that you would like to work with - size, language pairs, specializations, etc. A good place to look is the Blue Board because there you can see the experiences of other translators and get a good idea of what kind of company it is. Look up the agency'
... See more
I agree with others that a mass mailing would annoy the recipients and would go straight to their trash folder.

I think that, just like in applying for any other job, you need to do your homework. First of all search for some agencies that you would like to work with - size, language pairs, specializations, etc. A good place to look is the Blue Board because there you can see the experiences of other translators and get a good idea of what kind of company it is. Look up the agency's Proz profile and website and approach them from there. Contact each agency individually with a cover letter, mentioning why you would like to work with them specifically, what special skills or experience you can offer them and why you think you would be a good fit. If you get even one or two responses, that may be well worth the effort you put in.
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Mina Chen
Jorge Payan
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:11
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Yes Jun 15, 2020

Dylan Jan Hartmann wrote:

Best option is to take care with each application you submit. Follow the correct directions to apply to each agency.



Agreed. Each agency should be considered individually.


Fatine Echenique
Corbett AM
 
Gina Centanni
Gina Centanni  Identity Verified
United States
Member (2008)
Spanish to English
+ ...
No to purchased email lists but nothing wrong with mail merges and mass mailings Jun 17, 2020

The idea that a freelance translator looking for work with agencies should not send mass mailings because it is a violation of GDPR is simply not true. GDPR protects the personal data of private individuals, not businesses or corporations.

What is the difference between sending out 100 “cold” emails all at once or 2 “warm” emails per day for 50 days, each one with its own carefully crafted cover letter? They are all unsolicited emails, whether you send them as a mass maili
... See more
The idea that a freelance translator looking for work with agencies should not send mass mailings because it is a violation of GDPR is simply not true. GDPR protects the personal data of private individuals, not businesses or corporations.

What is the difference between sending out 100 “cold” emails all at once or 2 “warm” emails per day for 50 days, each one with its own carefully crafted cover letter? They are all unsolicited emails, whether you send them as a mass mailing or individually.

So let’s say you send out 100 emails. No doubt some of them will end up in the trash or, even worse, in the spam folder. And that’s ok. It’s not against the law or a violation of GDPR to send unsolicited emails to businesses. But what if even one of those 100 recipients actually responds and eventually becomes a customer? And what if it turns out that that one customer ends up consistently sending you high volumes of work, enough for you to earn hundreds or even thousands in income each month? Was it worth it? ¡Hasta la pregunta es necia!

Mail merges and email marketing can be effective. They have worked for me over the years and I will continue to use them as needed.
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Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:11
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
All the difference in the world Jun 17, 2020

Gina Centanni wrote:
What is the difference between sending out 100 “cold” emails all at once or 2 “warm” emails per day for 50 days, each one with its own carefully crafted cover letter? They are all unsolicited emails, whether you send them as a mass mailing or individually.

The way you submit a proposal to work with another sends signals to the other party about your approach to business. This is important because good agencies want to work with the best freelancers, and good freelancers want to work with the best agencies. When you are competent, you can afford to be choosy.

Think about how some agencies approach freelancers. Like most successful people on these forums, when I get a mass email asking me to quote for a job, and it comes from an agency that does not use my name, I delete it. That's because I recognise that if the agency hasn't looked at my profile as an individual, it probably doesn't care about my specific skills, which in turn means it views me as an interchangeable cog in the machine, and thus something of low value. I'm never going to get top-of-the-market rates from a client like that.

Now think about how a freelancer approaches an agency. It is precisely because a cover letter from a freelancer has been carefully crafted that agency staff may pause for a second or two to read, and possibly even save the application rather than delete it. This shows care, thought, and consideration on the part of the applicant. It shows that the applicant does not consider all agencies to be the same, that they realise that different companies have different philosophies, business models, and areas of strength, and that they have tailored the application to some extent.

Conversely, the absence of a cover letter indicates a lack of care and effort on the part of the applicant, and to me that suggests that agency staff are far more likely to delete it immediately. Why should they deal with a freelancer who can't even be bothered to consider the nature of the agency they are contacting?

So no, two carefully crafted applications sent every day for 50 days is not the same as 100 emails blasted out in a 3-second mass mailing.

Regards,
Dan

[Edited at 2020-06-17 11:18 GMT]


Thomas T. Frost
Jorge Payan
Michele Fauble
 
Gina Centanni
Gina Centanni  Identity Verified
United States
Member (2008)
Spanish to English
+ ...
All the difference in the world Jun 17, 2020

Dan,

I certainly respect your opinion but I’m sharing what I know to be true based on my own experience and I’ve been in the translation business on a full-time basis for more years than many project managers have been alive.😜

Not saying that one way is better than another. The points I was trying to make were:

1) The notion that sending unsolicited emails to businesses is a violation of GDPR is false.

2) These types of mailings can b
... See more
Dan,

I certainly respect your opinion but I’m sharing what I know to be true based on my own experience and I’ve been in the translation business on a full-time basis for more years than many project managers have been alive.😜

Not saying that one way is better than another. The points I was trying to make were:

1) The notion that sending unsolicited emails to businesses is a violation of GDPR is false.

2) These types of mailings can be effective and in my case have resulted in long-term relationships with agencies over the years.

Finally, it depends on the kinds of materials you’re sending, but for the type of email marketing I do there is no need for a cover letter since I am not “applying” to the agency for a job. I am offering them my services as an independent contractor. There is a difference.
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