Whether or not to mention Gengo by name on a CV Thread poster: DARKastheRAIN
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I have no formal translation or source language training and all my experience so far comes from working on the translation platform Gengo.com. When applying to other agencies do you think it would be beneficial or off-putting to mention Gengo? I haven't gotten the impression that they're exactly highly regarded in the translation industry. Would a prospective agency take one look at the name Gengo and scoff, or would the fact that I was able to pass Gengo's professional level test prove that I ... See more I have no formal translation or source language training and all my experience so far comes from working on the translation platform Gengo.com. When applying to other agencies do you think it would be beneficial or off-putting to mention Gengo? I haven't gotten the impression that they're exactly highly regarded in the translation industry. Would a prospective agency take one look at the name Gengo and scoff, or would the fact that I was able to pass Gengo's professional level test prove that I have some translating ability? Would it be better, worse, or just downright dishonest to describe the types of documents I've translated without mentioning the particular intermediary through which they were done? ▲ Collapse
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| Whether or not to mention Gengo by name on a CV | Jan 20, 2016 |
If you're not sure that's all right. I'll settle for a few people's best guesses. What would you do?
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Sheila Wilson 
Spain
Local time: 21:42
Member (2007)
English
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Just a few words as I'm on holiday .
I wouldn't personally mention them by name even if they were well regarded. I see our CVs as the place to say WHAT we've done. When, where, who for etc really aren't going to be uppermost in potential clients' minds. They just want to know what we've done so they can gauge whether we'll be able to handle their texts.
Bear in mind that your CV should not look anything li... See more Just a few words as I'm on holiday.
I wouldn't personally mention them by name even if they were well regarded. I see our CVs as the place to say WHAT we've done. When, where, who for etc really aren't going to be uppermost in potential clients' minds. They just want to know what we've done so they can gauge whether we'll be able to handle their texts.
Bear in mind that your CV should not look anything like a job-seeker's CV. There are some tips in a Wiki article - look under the Education tab of this site. ▲ Collapse
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| Agree with Sheila | Jan 22, 2016 |
I entirely agree with Sheila.
To have an idea what a CV can look like you can have a look on the CVs of experienced colleagues on their ProZ profiles.
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| Whether or not to mention Gengo by name on a CV | Jan 22, 2016 |
I wouldn't personally mention them by name even if they were well regarded. I see our CVs as the place to say WHAT we've done. When, where, who for etc really aren't going to be uppermost in potential clients' minds. They just want to know what we've done so they can gauge whether we'll be able to handle their texts.
Thanks. Your response has been really helpful. I'll definitely keep the work experience category agency-nonspecific like it is now.
But my current draft's got "Professional-level Gengo translator" under other qualifications, and I'm trying to decide whether or not to take that off. (If it's relevant, that's my only item under other qualifications.)
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Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:42
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
DARKastheRAIN wrote:
But my current draft's got "Professional-level Gengo translator" under other qualifications, and I'm trying to decide whether or not to take that off.
I never mention clients by name.
Dan
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:42
Member (2008)
Italian to English
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don't want to ruin whatever reputation you are trying to build straight away, don't.
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Rita Pang
Canada
Local time: 16:42
Member (2011)
Chinese to English
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Moderator of this forum
Dan Lucas wrote:
I never mention clients by name.
Samples of your work maybe, but never a client by name.
[Edited at 2016-01-22 15:43 GMT]
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Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:42
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| Carefully does it | Jan 22, 2016 |
Rita Pang wrote:
Samples of your work maybe, but never a client by name.
Mmmm I'd still be very cautious. I might show hard-copy samples to people in a face-to-face meeting if the documents were already in the public domain. Documents I have translated for government agencies or the accounts of listed companies, for example. Never if they weren't public documents.
Regards
Dan
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 22:42
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| It's a good qualification, but client's won't think so | Jan 22, 2016 |
DARKastheRAIN wrote:
But my current draft's got "Professional-level Gengo translator" under other qualifications, and I'm trying to decide whether or not to take that off.
Unlike with some online translation systems, it takes quite a bit of skill to get a "professional-level" rating on Gengo. However, I think most clients don't know that, and when they find out that Gengo is a crowdsourced translation system, they're likely to put very little store in your "professional-level" rating, despite the fact that it is a reasonably good qualification.
So, no, don't mention the Gengo rating, unless you are able to mention some other ratings as well.
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Ca Mi
Spain
Local time: 22:42
English to Russian
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| Other platforms | Mar 17, 2016 |
Try to work with other similar translation platforms like Onehourtranslation, translated, Tolq...there are a few. They often have a similar approach for getting started to work with them. it will not only give you more experience and income, but more confidence as well. I do mention some clients by name in my CV. The works I mention could be done just for my own practice - however, that's only my point of view.
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