Hi, this is Robert Gephardt with how to be a successful freelance translator. And this is the first lesson, the part that I like to call the pre game. Now the pre game is the stuff that you need to do before you get started. I know you're probably at this point, ready and itching to get started right away. And that's the exact motivation you need at this point. So these steps might either seem like a waste or seem like something you can get to later.

But trust me, you want these so that the rest can be flowing smoothly, you want these things ready. And so I divided it up into days and later on, it'll be divided into money as well because certain websites or other places where you can sign up for my cause something so I tried to make it as easy as possible. And I divided it up. So this is just a one. This is what you need to concentrate on day one resume specializations and photo or a picture of yourself. So let's start day one.

It's one day maximum or half the day maximum. If you already have a resume, I know that many of you do. Now and these days in general, I'm also quite generous you might be able to do Day one and day two all in one day, if it's a weekend, you have the whole day available or something like that. But either way, feel free to follow along just with, you know, just starting on day one and just taking all day to do this. And to do it right. Now, the first thing you'll need is an updated resume.

Second point is a list of the services you offer. And this is different for the resume, we'll get into it. And and then you want a good picture of yourself. And you know, which means not a glamour professional one, but one where you look like a decent human being. So let's start with an updated resume. First of all, we should point out that this is not the most important part, let's say this is actually not the first thing that the clients will see.

But obviously you do want to resume and it helps to have one detailing any translation or writing or associated material you might have. And this can range from personal blog or published articles or anything in between you also So I want to show you a real person. The problem is if people find you online, you're quite anonymous, and they might not know, you know, if you're hiding anything, or if they can trust you, you'll just disappear or something like that. So you want to show that you can be reached. And this means that you list you know, real institutions, schools, places, you work, stuff like that stuff that seems traceable, if you have a LinkedIn account, obviously linked to that, but people at the beginning, they just want to know that they can trust you. And so you kind of want to want to be able to show that.

Also, you want your resume to be in both your source and your target languages. Just in case you might have clients then either or, and so it helps to have this now, especially when you're starting out one of these languages most likely your source language might not be your native tongue. So don't be shy about hiring someone to proofread it and make sure it's written correctly. Also, remember that different countries have different conventions for writing resumes. So you might want to look up a few events. ambles have written resumes in that language first to be sure.

And and once again, you know, feel free to hire someone for 1020 bucks to look over the resume and make sure that it's reading correctly because you don't want mistakes on it. And last, but definitely not least, remember that no one likes reading resumes? Is that basically a general rule? Nobody enjoys reading the line by line bullet points and all your, you know, carefully crafted words and expressions. No, and I know that sounds a bit you know, you put a lot of work into it and no one telling you that no one likes reading it, but unfortunately, it's the truth. So just keep this in mind.

Keep in mind that you want to get to the point quickly, you want to be able to sell your skills and experience that relate to translation. And obviously, you know, you're applying as a translator, you want this to be typo free and you want it to be well written. That pretty much covers it for updated resume. As I said, many of you might already have one, but I thought I should cover what what people will be looking For so you know, even if you have one, you might want to tweak it a little bit, just to make sure that it's that it's correct for being a freelance translator. Now, the next point is the list of services. This is separate from your resume.

And it's also much more important, this will be the first thing that any potential client will see here, you want to make sure that you can offer any services they require, you know, you have to picture basically a client who has nothing to do with translation, you know, but they need an say a new website and their boss said they need a new website in some language, and they don't know what to look for. So you know, when they go see a search, they're going to find you and they're going to, you know, then judge if they want to hire you or not to translate their website. Now, my recommendation here at least at the beginning, if you if you feel a bit lost is to do it this way. Basically, to have a narrow list of languages. You don't want to say that you know, you can do Portuguese and Spanish and French and Italian and etc, etc.

If you feel more comfortable with say just Portuguese in English, then just have Portuguese in English. Later on, you can see if you want to do variations, but for now I would start with a narrow list of languages. However, I would have a wider list of specializations. Again, just at the beginning by specializations i mean you know in business and finance and or legal or history or religion or travel or stuff like that. I would I would do this because at the beginning you're not sure people what what people are looking for also, you might not really be sure what you're good at, you might be really good at something that you had no clue about. And so, um, be rather generous with your specializations.

Let's say. However, having said that, you obviously do not want to list topics, you're not comfortable translating, and if, you know, if you don't know much about biology, then you don't want to list that as one of your specializations. Because, you know, you definitely don't want to be doing a bad job, because you don't know what you're talking about it something like that will definitely show. Now here I wanted to show an example of what I have, actually, well this is a bit dated. This is from when my book came out. But yeah, you can see on that The top that I only have two languages English and Italian.

So I keep it very simple you know i target English and Italian if someone needs an English Italian translation but they see French and Portuguese and Spanish as well, they might start wondering you know how good I can be in all these languages, but English and Italian because they right to the point but here you know in specializations you can see I have 10 specialties I have, you know, a couple listed there and then and then in the also works in section and this is from proz.com It's a website that we'll get to later I'll explain about it. But you know, they let you list many more and I have many more listed I think basically the the maximum there and you know, if someone needs a translation done and say slang, you know, they'll see that I have slang that also work in slang and so it shows up there.

And I think it's good to have it a wide variety here. Just because you don't know what people are going to target at the beginning. Third point, a picture of yourself. Now this is actually more Important than you think right at the beginning, you're going to be establishing trust, like I mentioned before. And this means that, once again, people find you online, you're anonymous. And so people right away even before the skills, they want to know that they can trust you, they want to know that you're someone that, you know that really exists and that they can turn to and that won't just disappear.

So their first impression is going to be very quick and very decisive. And your picture has a lot to do with this. So I would Well, I wouldn't take you know, don't take a glamour shot or a professional photo or anything like that. But you also don't want anything resembling a mug shot. I would make it slightly candid, don't worry too much about the quality and on any providers website. It won't be that big it'll be a maximum I'd say 300 by 300 pixels, probably less.

So just have something small and easy. Also keep in mind this can be done right away. The picture is not a reason to delay getting started. If you're on a laptop, chances are you know, if you're working in a coffee shop, you can turn on your webcam and take a picture of yourself working at your computer with a cup of coffee right there in front of you. After all, this is the image clients like to have of their freelancers. So I mean, feel free to just show yourself that way.

Otherwise, you can look through some old pictures, I'm sure you can probably find something, something where you look at a human, let's say, you know, you don't want to be stiff as a board. You also don't want to be drunk as a skunk. Now, I've also been told that sometimes smiling or at least looking at the camera conveys more trust. I'm not sure about this, you can get a general idea should you look at the camera, look away whatever you feel more comfortable with. I don't again, you shouldn't delay too much. I probably even talked about it a bit too much.

Just take a picture of yourself average these these and put it up there you definitely do not want to be without a picture. And that pretty much covers it for day one. I would say at this point in time, make sure you have these steps and they're done correctly. Once they are you can feel free to move on to day two, but you don't have to do so right away. You can wait until the next day to do so.