Using a translation agency
for finding additional work

Submitting your resume to a translation agency is one way that translators can go about getting more freelance work.

How can translation agencies help you as a freelance translator? Well, first of all, it's important to understand why translation agencies don't employ full-time translators. They might have a couple that are permanent employees, but for most of their translation work, they contract out to freelancers.

There are a couple of major reasons why translation agencies use freelancers. First of all, it is usually cheaper to employ freelancers because there are no extra costs that are necessary for permanent employees, such as insurance or taxes.

The second major reason that a translation agency would use freelancers is because agencies need translators with a specialization, whether that be a particular language combination or area expertise. It is much easier to have a database of translators that an agency can look at and find the perfect (or near-perfect) combination that they need.

So how can that knowledge help you improve your freelance career? Well, first of all, it's important to realize that there a lot of translation agencies all over the world, and most of them are always looking for freelancers. Because of this, they have made it easy to submit your information to them on their websites.

Another thing to remember is that because agencies are looking for specialized translators, the more you can do to become a specialist (either in language or area of expertise) the better chance you'll have of being chosen for a specific job that they need done.

So if you're looking for some more work as a freelancer, one way to go about getting it is to submit your information to translation agencies. Instead of having to look for these agencies yourself, you can use The Freelance Translator's Ultimate List of Translation Agencies, an ebook I put together just for that purpose.