Transperfect is a global company offering translation and proofreading services from over 90 offices worldwide. Plus a full freelance community, which is what I will review here.
Translating isn’t for everyone, make sure to check out all of the work from home companies hiring now.
In this review, I’ll take a look at the application process, talk about pay, schedule, and see if translating for Transperfect is a scam.
Transperfect Requirements
The Transperfect website doesn’t clearly list what the requirements are to work for them. I would consider having translation, proofreading, or voice-over skills to be a necessary requirement for working for them.
After I went through the application, I saw it noted that their translation memory software is called Wordfast. It’s a requirement that all linguists are proficient in that software. If you want more info, here’s their website: www.wordfast.com.
I would also consider the obvious things, like a computer and reliable internet. Also, equipment and applications that are necessary for translation, such as noise-canceling headphones.
Transperfect Application Process
If you want to apply to be a translator for Transperfect, go here to fill out the freelancer application form. As they state on the form, fill it out as completely as possible. The more they know about you, the more job opportunities you will get from them.
There are 10 Parts to the Freelancer Application Form Here’s what the application form looks like:
- Part 1: Basic personal info
- Name
- Company if you have one
- Address
- Work phone (as an independent contractor, I would consider this my cell phone number)
- Skye ID
- Website
- Preferred contact method
- Country of origin
- Native language
- Citizenship information (current, original, other, and years of in-country residence of each)
- Are you interested in in-house roles?
- Do you have a recruiter you’ve been working with (state their name if you do)
- How did you hear about Transperfect?
- Part 2: They want you to upload a current Resume or CV
- must be less than 5MB
- file types allowed are txt, rtf, pdf, doc, docx, xls, and xlsx
- Part 3: you are selecting all services that apply, from these lists (what do you know):
- Translation and Proofreading
- Interpreting
- Medical Services
- Audiovisual Services
- Other Services (includes Braille, Social Media, SEO and more)
- You will fill in your source and target languages
- They ask you to break down your percent of work in the given fields (they provide checkboxes)
- Part 4: You will elaborate on your year’s experience and the number of projects you’ve done in your areas of expertise (each of these categories has multiple options within them:
- Communication
- Marketing
- Education
- Food and Beverage
- Retail
- Insurance
- Financial
- Human Resources
- Learning and Development
- Legal
- Patents
- Technical
- Life Sciences
- Medical Areas
- Medical Devices
- Medical Materials
- Other
- Part 5: Was any of your work directly for an EU institution? Yes or No (European Union)
- Part 6: Do you have any experience interpreting? Yes or No
- Part 7: List your rates! They list four categories and ask you to list your rates:
- Regular Translation in US Dollars; per word, per hour, using CAT Tools with 100% matches, and CAT Tools with 75-99% fuzzy matches
- Regular Proofreading rates in US Dollars; same as above
- Other Services; list the services and your rate
- Interpretation Rates
- Part 8: Technology
- What kind of system are you using (Mac or PC)
- Desktop or Laptop
- What software do you use (long checkbox list to select all that apply)
- Part 9: This section is about your availability
- Are you full-time or part-time?
- What is your daily translation output in words?
- When are you most available to take new translation requests? (morning, afternoon, evening, weekends)
- Do you already work with a proofreader or another outside reviewer?
- How long have you been a translator, and what is the total approximate word count?
- What is your top to fields of expertise for translating?
- Do you have any academic experience or training relating to either of the fields you claim as having expertise?
- List any specific types of texts that you’ve translated or proofread pertaining to your fields of expertise
- List past clients (by name, or by field)
- How do you report, as a US-owned business or Non-US owned business? I selected US owned business and another question appears: Small or large business. I chose small business and a follow-up question appeared allowing me to classify my business as woman-owned. There was also HUBZone small business, small disadvantaged, Veteran-owned, and Service-disabled.
- Part 10: Qualifications and Education
- Professional qualifications
- List your education following High School
- Do you have any level of government security clearance?
- Professional linguistic references, at least 1 being a client
How Much Does Transperfect Pay?
As I said in the application process, Transperfect actually asks you for your rates. It probably doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily get that, but they take your skills seriously, and it sounds as though your pay rate will be consistent with your skills and abilities.
Someone commented in a review that the pay is OK and they pay within 30-45 days.
Transperfect Schedule
Translation services are often needed during the daytime. But you tell them in the application what your best time is to receive projects, morning, afternoon, evenings, or weekends. Proofreading can be done anytime, and there are likely other projects that can be done any time of day.
Transperfect Feedback
I found some reviews on Glassdoor. They received 2.9 out of 5 stars. Only 37% would recommend to a friend.
It sounds like over the past 5 years, Transperfect has had significant growth, and with growth has come a decline on several fronts. Rates have dropped, deadlines have gotten tighter, and bonuses have disappeared.
Freelancers have been asked to give free translation advice. The owners and project managers are guilty (according to a current freelancer’s review) of giving jobs to freelance translators because of who they know, not because of their skills. Someone else turned this into a ‘pro’ by saying that work is steady once you have formed a relationship with your project manager.
On the bright side, you do get to pick your schedule as a freelancer. And the ability to work from home is always a plus.
Is Translating for Transperfect a Scam?
Based on my research, translating and proofreading for Transperfect is not a scam. They might be going through some growing pains, but they are a legitimate company. If you have the skills that they need, you can send in your application and see what happens! Here’s the application if you want to get it started.
If transcription isn’t for you, check out these helpful links for some other work at home ideas:
A few points to keep in mind
-the language industry is one sector among many others in which professionals are self-employed and often work from home. You do not typically decide you want a “work from home” job, then decide to be a translator. Rather, you study for several years, and may gain experience with a language service provider, then go freelance.
-TransPerfect is, among other things, a language service provider. It covers a full range of language services, remote and in-house. It is not an “Appen”-style work-from-home company (or worse).
-It is not clear whether the author of this post is a language professional, or is assessing a variety of companies with which it is possible to work for from home. Some background would have been welcome.
-Among language professionals (and others), TPT has a terrible reputation, which has, as the author points out, been getting worse (rates are lower and lower, post-editing terrible MT output is the default now, deadlines are ridiculous, and you can work for them for years and no-one will know who you are -turnover in-house works like lightening). Most important of all, quality management is criminally bad. Clients do not get what they pay for, much of the time. Linguists are unquestionably exploited. BUT they do have a ton of work. Some of it reasonably interesting.
Is TransPerfect a scam? In many ways yes. But not in the sense of being an illegitimate company.
Work for them (if you are a linguist or similarly trained professional) only if you can find nowhere better offering regular work to freelancers.