{"id":9960,"date":"2014-01-16T13:47:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-16T13:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musik.a-z-translation.com\/how-to-protect-your-translator-cv\/"},"modified":"2020-01-03T11:35:40","modified_gmt":"2020-01-03T11:35:40","slug":"how-to-protect-your-translator-cv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/how-to-protect-your-translator-cv\/","title":{"rendered":"How to protect your translator CV"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nThe wonderful Marta Stelmaszak<\/a> over at WantWords<\/a> has recently blogged <\/a>some excellent tips on how to protect your CV as a translator. I had written about this topic before<\/a>, but a reminder\/refresher never hurts, plus, she has some great points in her list I had not thought of before (e.g. Nos. 8 and 10). I’ll have to revamp my CV, too, now!<\/div>\n
\nSo here it is, Marta’s excellent list – enjoy (and apply)!<\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\n1. Research the sender<\/p>\n

When you receive an email with a potential project or an offer of
\ncollaboration, even basic research can help you establish if it\u2019s a
\ngenuine opportunity. Start with verifying the website, then ask your
\ncolleagues or professional circles if anybody has worked with them
\nbefore. Try looking them up on all translation forums and boards. Call
\nthem, or add them on Skype. Joao Roque Dias recommends looking up the
\nsender\u2019s IP and running a geographical search just to be sure this
\nperson is a genuine representative of an agency. If something\u2019s just not
\n right, don\u2019t send your CV.<\/p>\n

2. Use common sense
If an offer looks suspicious, it\u2019s better to be careful than fall for
\n a scam. Unprofessional offers, free email accounts, too few details in a
\n signature, too high rate or poor English (or the other language) should
\n raise an alarm. If you\u2019re not sure if this is a genuine offer, you can
\nalways exchange a few emails with questions before supplying the sender
\nwith your CV.<\/p>\n

3. Keep records
Set up a simple spread sheet where you can keep records of who you\u2019re
\n sending your CV to, when and with which result. By doing that, you\u2019ll
\nnot only have a better control over who has received a copy of your CV,
\nbut you\u2019ll also be better at following up. <\/p>\n

4. Encourage clients to contact you on skype with a webcam
As recommended by Joao Roque Dias and others, you should encourage
\nyour prospective clients to confirm each other\u2019s identify on Skype via
\nvideo chat. To do that, you should place an up-to date photo on your CV.<\/p>\n

5. Remove personal details
As I mentioned before, don\u2019t add your date of birth, place of birth,
\nfull address, or marital status. This is way too dangerous. <\/p>\n

6. Include information specific to you
To protect your CV from being used by others (changing your name and
\nsurname in the headline), include bits of information specific to you
\nthat can easily be verified online, for example awards or published
\ntranslations.<\/p>\n

7. Add links to external URLs
To fight CV theft where your name and surname is replaced, include
\nlinks to external URLs directly pointing to you, for example your
\nwebsite, published translations, articles or online mentions. <\/p>\n

8. Time and name stamp your CV
Adding a line saying: \u201e\u00a9 Marta Stelmaszak. Sent to Sample Agency,
\nLondon, 01\/04\/2013. Void after 01\/06\/2013. Not for further distribution
\nor reproduction without consent.\u201d (as suggested here<\/em><\/a>). <\/p>\n

9. Add a watermark
As suggested by Rose Newell<\/em><\/a> and in a few other sources, you may want to add a watermark to your document, for example containing your logo. More info from Microsoft here<\/em><\/a>. <\/p>\n

10. Include an email statement
It is advisable to include a short statement along the lines of \u201eOnly
\n the following email addresses are genuine and authorised:
\nmarta@wantwords.co.uk and marta.stelmaszak@gmail.com. I will never
\ncontact you from any other email address. If you receive an email from
\nanother address, please do contact me as it may constitute a potential
\nscam.\u201d You may want to add this line to your website, or as an
\nannotation on your CV.<\/p>\n

11. Save your CV using your name and surname
As simple as that, don\u2019t save and send your CV as \u201eresume\u201d but add your name and surname to the file. <\/p>\n

12. In Word, add your name and surname in the author box
When working on your CV, check the Properties of your document and
\nmake sure that your name and surname are added in the author box (more info<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n

13. Save your CV as PDF
It is now possible to convert documents into PDFs in MS Office with
\njust a few clicks and we should be doing that with our CVs. This is the
\n most basic form of protection. If you\u2019ve added your name and surname in
\n Word, the same properties will be carried over to the PDF. (more info<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

14. Save your CV as a non-editable PDF
If you\u2019re using Adobe Acrobat Pro (and if you\u2019re not using it yet,
\nyou may want to consider investing in it), you can save your CV as a
\nnon-editable PDF and change the security settings, restricting editing
\nand printing of your document.<\/p>\n

15. Password-protect your CV saved in PDF
It is not a bullet-proof method, but password-protecting your CV
\nsaved in the PDF format can increase your security. You can distribute
\nthe password only to vetted recipients, for example genuine enquirers,
\nseparately from your CV. You can do that in MS Word, no need to buy
\nAdobe Acrobat Pro. <\/p>\n

16. Remove your CV from online platforms
Don\u2019t make your CV easily available through online platforms or on
\nyour website (I\u2019ve been guilty of the latter until recently). It\u2019s
\nbetter to upload another document inviting clients to contact you, or
\neven a bold statement explaining you\u2019ve removed your CV for security
\nreasons (like Rose Newell does here<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n

17. Use brochures or leaflets online
Instead of a full CV, you can always prepare a short brochure or a
\nleaflet and upload it instead. They will be more secure, and can even
\nhelp your marketing!<\/p>\n

18. Set viewing only but no download
You can ask your programmer to change settings on your website
\nallowing visitors to view content, but prohibiting them from copying or
\ndownloading it.<\/p>\n

19. If your website is WordPress-based, use protected download
WordPress users can use password-protected download of their CVs. Here\u2019s a video<\/em> <\/a>explaining how it works and how to set it up.<\/p>\n

20. Make clients aware
Raising awareness of the issue among our clients can help our
\nefforts. If our clients know about this issue, they will be more careful
\n and alert themselves. You may want to blog about the issue, or just add
\n a short statement explaining the problem on your website.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The wonderful Marta Stelmaszak over at WantWords has recently blogged some excellent tips on how to protect your CV as a translator. I had written about this topic before, but a reminder\/refresher never hurts, plus, she has some great points in her list I had not thought of before (e.g. Nos. 8 and 10). I’ll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[524,703,808,90,323,324],"class_list":["post-9960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unkategorisiert","tag-business","tag-cv","tag-cv-scam","tag-english","tag-identity-theft","tag-scam","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9960"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10569,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9960\/revisions\/10569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}