 Hi, so as some of you might know or might not know, I am a freelance translator, but I also have an agency So I work with other freelance translators for clients in other languages that I have nothing to do with So my agency is by no means big in fact, it's very small and I don't actively look for new translators or stuff like that Unless I have a specific job going on. Having said that I get contacted very often. I would say every day between five and ten emails from prospective freelance translators who are looking for a job and So I want to go through briefly the do's and don'ts at least from my point of view of These letters when you're trying to contact an agency to work with them I've seen some disasters and I've also seen some very good letters And so I want to go through and share my experience with that So first of all is a subject line the subject line is very important in the subject line You put your language combination if you translate from Swedish to English then the subject line should say Swedish to English translator Because that's the main thing I'm interested in at any given point in time when I see an Email coming in if it is a language combination that I'm currently working in I'm going to be quite interested If it's another language combination, I probably won't be very interested at the moment My system is to send you to my page and on my on my Website where you can fill out a form when people give me the information is always all over the place You know some people put the language as first some people put this or that experience or certification or whatever So at least on the form is standardized and I can look at everything in a standardized way Well, if you're someone that I might be interested in right away I will still ask you to fill out the form by the way because if you don't fill out the form Then I know you're not really serious, but I'll only know that you're what I'm looking for if on the Subject line it gives your language combination. So put it in the subject line Even if I'm not interested in you, I'll always want you in the database anyway And with that you give a clear indication to any prospective employer secondly Don't start off your letter with hello dear Okay, your English needs to be good even if your languages aren't English If you're writing the letter in English It shows that you have attention to detail that you're not sloppy and that you you know have access to an editor Now I'm not thinking that email you sent to me is personal. I don't I wouldn't expect it So obviously you're sending it to many different agencies So that means you can find an editor to look over your English And if one of your languages is English then absolutely it has to be impeccable English I don't know why but I get so many emails that start off with hello dear. Hello dear is not an expression Why do I get so many of these? I feel like at least once a day someone writes hello dear You can write hello, you can write dear sir or madam dear Name you know and then the name or something but hello dear is something you say to your wife or husband. Hello dear Oh, hi dear. How's it going? So don't write that and make sure your language is impeccable Also, your strongest point has to be the first thing that I get all these emails I'm sure other agencies that are bigger get many more emails We're only gonna, you know have so much time to look at it if you studied at Oxford got a master's in Translation there or something like that. That's your first sentence if you're certified by the ATA or anything Whatever is your most impressive important point put it up there. I once had a translator in fact recently who you know gave No information almost and then at the very bottom there was a website So I happened to click on the website just because it was something I was already looking for It was only after surfing around for a while I realized she had translated some books published books with her name on the book But this is something you need to put right up top Otherwise your email should be short and sweet because I imagine most other agencies like me Will just look for the standardized information or just have you fill out a standardized form Well, I look for the language combination. I sure as hell don't want to see any typos and grammar mistakes And if you have something impressive, it'll be in the first couple lines because that's as far as you can be guaranteed The look you can't really guarantee much more any attachment. It's good to attach a resume, but if it's on a solicited email I'm not opening an attachment. I'm sorry. I don't know where who you are and you know where it's been Don't expect people to open the attachments. It's good to send your resume as well but if they ask you to fill out the information on their online form anyway, then you're gonna have to do it I'm sorry. That's pretty much it in the preliminary I can get more into detail and I can actually go through the emails or if you have an email that you've been sending prospective Agencies that you want me to critique I'd be happy to do so But these are just some main pointers to please keep in mind when you contact agencies if you want them to take you seriously Just keep in mind also that they're really busy with what they do And so you need to catch your eye right away your most impressive points your specializations and your Language combination should be up in the subject. That should be the first thing they see that's pretty much it I hope you found this useful. If you did, please feel free to subscribe for more videos like this And please click like since that helps me and I'll see you next time. Thanks. Sabedun