Toward a Universal Freelancer Application (UFA)

Every year just before the Fourth of July I get a strong uptick in inquiries from agencies for new translators. This is because so many translators go on vacation around this time but agencies have sustained demand for translations, particularly for clients outside the United States. The same thing happens in August when the whole world, except the United States, goes on vacation. This is why I vacation in October, typically, and not in August.

Anyway, when you get an inquiry like this, especially from a heavily bureaucratized or ISO-certified agency, you end up spending 15-20 minutes filling out their elaborate vendor/freelancer forms. (For one ISO-certified client this year I spent around two hours completing paperwork, but in that case it paid off since they have used me reliably since.) I have calculated that over the course of my translation career I have in fact spent upward of 600 hours filling out all these forms. It’s not a good use of my time, either, because I think I end up getting an actual job from a minority of those inquiring agencies, and an even smaller percentage give me sustained work.

A lot of inquiries like these have to do with “potential” jobs as well, or for an agency to make a bid (“tender”) on a large project they actually don’t have, so the time spent by any freelancer filling out forms related to projects like these is of rare and scant benefit.

What’s the solution?

There needs to be a “universal freelancer application” (UFA). One standard application (in lieu of or in conjunction with a resume where you can still highlight what makes you special) with all the relevant information any agency in the world might want or need. No fancy formatting, just a simple Word document or Excel spreadsheet. (With an Excel spreadsheet, technologically inclined agencies can then automate the databasing of the information in the spreadsheet, saving even more time and money.) Then, every time someone makes an inquiry you simply forward your most recently updated version of the UFA already saved somewhere on your hard drive, and you’re all set.

This would be a great project for the ATA to take up: get their agency members to develop a single, simple, standard UFA for everyone to use. Freelancers should be involved, too, but since agencies are best able to say what such applications should or should not include, it should primarily be an agency-driven industry service. The UFA could be set up in only one standard language everywhere, or it could be set up using features in Microsoft Office or in Adobe Acrobat to switch automatically to any number of localized versions.

Many fields and institutions are using standardized applications already, including the Pennsylvania Department of Education (single application for all teaching positions) and FAFSA (standardized federal student aid application, which many scholarship charities and schools now use as well instead of requiring separate applications).

I actually do something similar already: to most inquiries I simply send my resume, my fee schedule, and my terms of business, and I leave it up to them to get the information out of it that they need. I find that Europe-based inquirers are less happy with this solution, but North America-based inquirers think that’s just fine.