GosTalks: CV

Thursday, 27 March 2014

How about De-Emphasising the CV, Using a Bio Instead?

CV's are somewhat controversial among freelance translators. I stand by my old opinion that it's not demeaning to have one and call it one. Lawyers, politicians, professors, CEO's and all sorts of people have CV's, so a freelance translator also can. If you're interested in the subject, Marta Stelmaszak's Lesson 57 has a compendium in the form of a massive free e-book with very helpful tips from people who have actually sifted through many of them.

On the other hand, in a job line in many ways similar to ours, lawyers are generally using bios, which is short for biograms (tiny biographies). At least 60% law firm website traffic goes to bios, possibly because few other things are either interesting or understandable to clients. Besides, getting 'conversions', selling etc. is largely about selling a story. And a bio is by definition a story.

If you go to the popular lawyerly blog at Lawyerist.com — which contains a massive resource of very accessible and very transferable marketing advice (again, because of the similarities between our job lines) — and if you enter 'bio' in the search query, you will get about 90 results. Curiously, visual CV's mentioned in Randall Ryder's advice/opinion post there are not unheard of among translators, but I don't see many bios out there. And they are really good replacements for a classical CV on a translator's website — and possibly only there for lawyers, though not really for us translators. We could probably use them more extensively than lawyers, notably in all of those directories we're listed in where a free-form profile is allowed (e.g. Proz.com's About me section), perhaps in brochures.

Using a bio allows you to be narrative and engaging, even though you lose the the benefit of a more structured presentation with key facts arranged chronologically or functionally or enumerated in a bullet list. However, you also get a chance to leave the CV contest behind. CVs fit rather closely in the paradigm of competitive variables (price, deadline, and credentials), bios break out of that scheme. Also, where there is no CV — and some of us have already pulled theirs due to the threat of scammers stealing them and replacing contact data with their own — there is less vulnerability to identity theft risks.

What else? If you'd like to give it a go or at least 'a think', I'd suggest you take a look at field experts from your areas of expertises. Lawyers, doctors, actors, writers, other people, how are their bios written? What do they have on their biographical or at least profile pages? What can you adapt from there? Can you use the knowledge to enable them to relate more easily to you? Bios are certainly not the only thing you can adapt once you get there and take a good look.

You will probably benefit the most from having a freeform bio, as opposed to the restrictions of a classic CV, if you're a native speaker writing in your own language (non-natives will find it much harded to keep up with you in creative pursuits than in CV writing) or somewhat of a copywriter/transcreationist, or both.

Disclaimers and all that jazz

REPOSTING AND RIGHTS: Don't worry about copyrights and stuff when printing or sharing these posts for your own benefit or that of your friends. In fact, the point of them is to be read. You can also repost them whole if you think that will reach the audience better than linking to my blog here, or if you want to host a vigorous discussion on the subject among your commenters; it's all fine as long as you don't make a blog that's simply a copy of my blog. Feel free to translate the posts, too, or adapt them, just please mention the fact you did so on your own. Understand, however, that by reposting my posts in any way or form, including paper, you will not gain any sort of copyright or interest in my own copyright, let alone moral rights, other than limited protection of any significant value you actually add, where any such rights such as you may so acquire shall not restrict my own rights and freedom as the author or in any way impede the free, unpaid circulation of the material I created. Always credit me as the author.

NOT PROOFREAD OR EDITED: The posts are not always edited and proofread before posting. They are intended to represent the typical standard of blogs posts rather than printed works; I apologize for any inconvenience you may experience as a result. I simply prefer to write another post or five rather than either go back and reread old stuff or complete five rounds of editing before hitting the send button; this is more or less the point of having a blog. Still welcome to let me know if you find a typo or if anything's unclear, which may very well occasionally be the case due to the timing, such as late at night or in between urgent projects. Hence, before reposting any of this in a more serious setting than a blog or forum post, please drop me a line to give me the chance to apply some finishing touch or even ask me to write a proper article, which I'll be happy to do subject to time constraints.

NO ADVICE, NO CLIENT RELATIONSHIP: Nothing here consitutes legal, business, marketing, career or any other advice, at least not in the sense of establishing a lawyer-client or consultant-client relationship, not in the least because I didn't get a dime and because any implied contract is (hereby, herewith, etc.) expressly disclaimed. If what you find here is useful and informs your course of action, you still need to get proper legal advice appropriate to your jurisdiction and your unique factual situation, without exception. Likewise, consult such other advisors as are appropriate for proper business, marketing, career or other advice relevant to your situation. Whether or not you consult them, you agree to assume and do assume the responsibility and risk, with the consequence being, without limitation, that you can't sue me (and agree not to try) on the grounds of having relied on anything whatsoever on this blog.

NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIRD-PARTY SITES: Any links on this blog that don't expressly lead to other posts here should be presumed to lead to external sites that are outside my control. I am not responsible for the contents of such sites or their availability. Linking does not imply endorsement. By clicking on a link you expressly and enthusiastically declare for the benefit of any pesky government official anywhere that you did so out of the pure, unadulterated, spontaneous desire of your heart miraculously coupled with the informed and deliberate consent of your conscious, sovereign, unbroken will.

NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR COMMENTS YOU READ: If you find something illegal, obscene, hateful, etc., in the comments, let me know and, if I agree with your assessment, I'll axe the comment. You are hereby warned that I don't control the comments otherwise, they are the product of their own authors' expression. If you don't accept the risk that you might see something objectionable, don't read the comments.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITY FOR COMMENTS YOU POST: By posting a comment you agree to assume and do assume full and sole responsibility at law for posting whatever you post, even if I saw it and did not delete it, and even though you also agree that I may delete any comment at ultimately my sole discretion, with no liability to you, though I'll normally do so only if I find it to be spammy or more than just a little offensive. Further, you agree that if you subsequently decide to delete or modify your comment, you will need to do so on your own, and agree to do so on your own without involving me in the process. You agree not to post anything which is illegal, hateful, defamatory, spammy, in breach of a confidentiality obligation (or otherwise contains anything you are not free to disclose, including without limitation personal data) or infringes on anyone's legally protected rights. Advertising is forbidden.

Thursday, 27 March 2014

How about De-Emphasising the CV, Using a Bio Instead?

If You're Overworked, Up Your Rates! (to Up Your Game)