Useful Tips for Applicants

We receive many applications from applicants wanting to join our team either as a freelancer or staff member on a daily basis.

Your job application will be the first (and perhaps only) chance you will get to impress your future employer, so our advice is to take your time and make sure what you send is accurate.

We have a series of job application articles on our blog, which should point you in the right direction: https://www.rosettatranslation.com/blog/

But, to summarise, we advise you to:

• Run a spell-check; accuracy is paramount!
• Keep your application short and relevant to the role you are applying for.
• Research the company you are applying to and tailor your application accordingly
• Provide full contact details and your availability to be contacted
• Highlight your experience and languages

Finally, be patient and persevere. Getting a foothold on the language services industry can be difficult. But if you stick at it, and stand out from the crowd you will eventually succeed.

You may find that translation companies don’t want to work with inexperienced translators, and unfortunately this will be the case more often than not.

At Rosetta we require at least 5 years of experience. Starting out as a freelancer is always fraught with difficulties, more so if you are fresh out of a translation course.

It’s the time old conundrum of ‘I need experience’, but ‘I need experience to gain more experience’. Our advice start small; offer translations to charities or on a probono basis e.g. through www.proz.com or work part or full time and do translations ‘on the side’.

Once you have a few thousand words under your belt, and even a year or two specialising in a certain field you will soon be able to get a foot, or at least a toe on to the freelance ladder.

Good luck!