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Thread poster: Ariadna Castillo González
Roxane Dow
Roxane Dow  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 14:32
Portuguese to English
+ ...
Try Mass E-Mailing to U.S. Agencies Mar 7, 2002

Hi Ariadna,



I certainly can sympathize with you, as I\'m in the same boat. I\'m an American living in the US, and I got my MA in translation in May 2001. Only now are things looking up a bit. My salvation has been a steady client that gives me a lot of proofreading work, which I like just as well as translation. Also the US government, which needs a lot of Spanish and Portuguese to English translation. I\'ve used lists of translation agencies to send out many marketing
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Hi Ariadna,



I certainly can sympathize with you, as I\'m in the same boat. I\'m an American living in the US, and I got my MA in translation in May 2001. Only now are things looking up a bit. My salvation has been a steady client that gives me a lot of proofreading work, which I like just as well as translation. Also the US government, which needs a lot of Spanish and Portuguese to English translation. I\'ve used lists of translation agencies to send out many marketing e-mails, mainly to US agencies, because they seem to pay more than European ones, and my response rate has been about 15%. However, this only means that they invite you to fill out an application, and then often there\'s no response, until 3 months later suddenly you get a call for a rush translation. If you fill out enough of these applications (many of them on the Internet), you\'ll eventually start to get work. My main recommendations to you would be: 1) get a native speaker of English to edit your ProZ page, your English resume, and your letter that you\'ll be e-mailing to agencies (American English for anything going to US agencies), because anything that doesn\'t sound 100% native reflects negatively on you, even though you\'re upfront about not being a native speaker of English, and 2) focus on US agencies. They need a lot of English to Spanish translators, because they constantly have work in this combination (which is what they always tell me when I ask about work from Spanish to English). They don\'t mind using translators in Europe or wherever, since everything is done by e-mail. 2) send out a short letter detailing your experience, specialties, etc. to as many agencies as you can find on the web or wherever. 3) choose something you like or want to specialize in, and just start educating yourself on the topic, searching the web for articles, etc. Then you can say you specialize in it, although you may not have translated in the topic. 4) If you like editing, proofreading, or desktop publishing, look into doing one of these. Some US agencies look for translators who can also handle desktop publishing programs, and native speakers of Spanish to edit translations. I wish you the best of luck!
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Yolanda Ruiz Luque
Yolanda Ruiz Luque
Local time: 19:32
English to Spanish
Another Ariadna... Mar 8, 2002

Hi!

It has been also very helpful for me to read all the pieces of advice everybody has given to Ariadna... cause I am in the same situation. I have been REALLY trying to get into business for two months now and it is true that you get really desperate when nothing comes up... and you can\'t get any experience. I have sent resumes and emails to almost a hundred companies now... and probably got 8 people to be polite and, at least, answer my emails and requests. But someone told me to b
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Hi!

It has been also very helpful for me to read all the pieces of advice everybody has given to Ariadna... cause I am in the same situation. I have been REALLY trying to get into business for two months now and it is true that you get really desperate when nothing comes up... and you can\'t get any experience. I have sent resumes and emails to almost a hundred companies now... and probably got 8 people to be polite and, at least, answer my emails and requests. But someone told me to be patient... just what you are all saying... and I appreciated so much... cause \"el que la sigue la consigue\" and sometimes you forget that. But I feel that the only way I can get some experience is by VOLUNTEERING for a company or translator. I feel that if I \"dare\" to charge for my job considering my limited experience... I wont even get a \"Thank you. We dont need translators\"... so that is what I am doing... I just \"dare\" to volunteer for companies or people that I think are good. Is volunteering a negative thing even if you are starting on this business??

Thank you so much to everybody!!
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