In-House Translator Position: German->English

A few days ago, we received this interesting job posting from an American Translators Association Colleague who works at Credit Suisse. He asked us to pass this along, so if you are looking for that rare in-house position in the German->English combination, read on!


Credit Suisse is looking for a new German-to-English translator for its Language Services team in New York. This is a full-time, in-house position. Candidates should apply here. The job ID is 1041495.


This is all the information we have, but it sure sounds exciting. If you apply, please do keep us posted!

Colorado Translators Association Mid-Year Conference

Gorgeous Colorado, 2009.

Our friends at the Colorado Translators Association have put together an impressive mid-year conference for this May (14 and 15). They are also offering an ATA certification and a Trados Studio 2009 training session. It's a fantastic line-up of speakers and sessions, and now you have an excuse to head to beautiful Boulder, Colorado. Unfortunately, we won't be able to make it, as it conflicts with the NAJIT conference for Judy and it's too far for Dagy, but hopefully many of you can make it. For more information, please visit the CTA's website.

Guerrilla Marketing: Food for Thought (Images)

Happy Friday from Santiago, Chile! We haven't written about marketing in a while, so we wanted to share the following slideshow with you. Our dear Tom Gruber discovered it, and while not all of these guerilla marketing techniques can be applied to the sale of services like ours, they will amaze and maybe inspire you. It's all about thinking beyond traditional marketing and about how to have the  most impact with the least amount of money spent. Enjoy!

If you have a great guerilla marketing idea, we'd love to hear it. Simply leave a comment below.

100+ Guerrilla Marketing examples

In-House Job Opportunity: Kiva

Our readers might remember a posting about Kiva, the micro-lending company, which we think is pretty great. We posted about volunteer activities a few months ago, and now Kiva just shared a paid in-house translator position. Read on for details. For any questions, please contact the Kiva HR department. The deadline to apply is May 4, 2011.

Review and Translation Coordinator

Position: Review and Translation Coordinator

Reports to: Review and Translation Manager, Program Operations

Location: San Francisco, CA – Downtown/Mission District

Job Type: Contractor, full-time

The Company

Kiva (www.kiva.org) lets everyday people on the web lend small amounts of money to the working poor worldwide. Since launching in 2005, Kiva has connected over 1 million people through lending to alleviate poverty in 57 countries, including the United States. We aim to democratize capital through the power of small actions, technology and believing in each other. Kiva, a San Francisco based non-profit with offices worldwide, has 75 people and 500+ volunteers.

The Job

The Review and Translation Coordinator helps manage the preparation of loan content for the Kiva website, supporting program staff and working with a large team of skilled volunteers to deliver translated and verified loan profiles for funding by Kiva lenders. The Review and Translation Coordinator is responsible for directly managing the volunteer Team Leaders of several teams of translators; coordinating the screening, testing, and onboarding of new volunteers; supporting established procedures for volunteer recognition and community development; and handling various other tasks to support overall program effectiveness.

Your Responsibilities

• Loan Review Team Leader management
• Monitor unreviewed loan volume and motivate teams to translate/review required volume
• Manage up to 10 Loan Review Team Leaders (corresponds to team of  250+ volunteers)
• Provide regular recognition for participation and feedback as required
• Support Team Leader responses to volunteer queries on loan policy, Kiva processes, translation techniques, terminology, and volunteer involvement
• Lead initial trainings, along with other Review & Translation Program staff
• Manage format for monthly conference calls and schedule calls
• Provide technical support for Viva and other Kiva systems to Team Leaders

• Translator & Editor recruitment, testing, and onboarding
• Develop recruitment network that can be leveraged to increase flow of volunteers for specific language needs
• Manage recruitment & screening messages in all Kiva systems
• Oversee screening process for translator applications
• Manage test evaluation process with internal & external test evaluators
• Manage onboarding process for translation volunteers, including accepted, rejected, and wait listed applicants

• Volunteer support and community engagement
• Provide technical support for Kiva’s review and translation systems to volunteers
• Develop volunteer and team leader wiki, creating and modifying content, monitoring usage, and developing leadership on wiki among volunteer teams
• Develop and monitor volunteer and team leader discussion forums
• Plan and coordinate volunteer recognition events, work parties, and trainings

Required Skills and Qualifications

• Native or near-native English speaker with fluency in Spanish and/or French
• 2+ years professional translation experience and/or a certificate or degree in translation
• 2+ years of professional experience, including project management
• Excellent people skills, with friendly and motivational communication style
• Adept with new technologies
• Creative problem-solver who is interested in innovation and enjoys a high-growth environment

Preferred

• Experience managing volunteers or remote teams
• Knowledge of more than one Kiva language (Spanish, French, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic)

To Apply

• Email cover letter and resume to jobs@viva.kiva.org by May 4, 2011.
• Please do not contact the office directly with any questions or follow-up inquiries

Meeting Mox's Creator

Alejandro and Judy in Vegas.

Even though Judy had the chance to briefly meet the creator of the most hilarious translation cartoons we've ever seen, Alejandro Moreno-Ramos, in New York in 2009, she was delighted to hear that they'd have the chance to spend more time together. During a last-minute trip to the U.S. West Coast with his charming wife Hélène, Alejandro decided to stop in Vegas (they live in France).

The awesome mug.

Judy loves nothing more than having fellow linguists in Vegas and at her house, so she invited them to dinner. Even though they were really tired because of a long trip to the Grand Canyon, they showed up with several presents in tow (so not necessary, but thank you!). Judy is over the moon with her Mox cartoon mug (see picture). They went out to Red Rock, the nearby state park, for an evening drive and then had a lovely dinner at home.

If you are not familiar with Alejandro's cartoons, which feature Mox, Mina and a parade of other delightful characters, you are in for a treat. Alejandro is extraordinarily creative and talented. You might remember that he contributed all the cartoons to our book, which have, not surprisingly, been very popular.  He might have some exciting Mox-related news, but we'll let him tell that story.

What about you? Have you hosted fellow linguists at your house? Isn't it wonderful to have these worldwide connections?

What's Your Favorite Project Length?

We've talked about this interesting issue with colleagues, and now we'd love to know what your favorite project length is, in either word count, page count, line count, or general duration. Usually, we really like  5,000 to 7,000 word projects, even though the very large 100,000 + word translations have also been challenging and exciting. The upside with the extensive projects is that the research we do "lasts" for a long time, while with shorter projects, new research is necessary each time. However, the quicker projects seem to drain us less mentally, and it's nice to get them off our desks, issue the invoice, and get paid. We also like the diversity of working on several smaller projects at the same time. We've found that working exclusively on one big project for several months makes us long for variation. 

At the moment, we are working from Santiago, Chile, where we will be the entire month of April. We have eight projects in the queue, and they are all relatively short (between 500 and 4,000 words), with the exception of a 60-page monster, on which we've been working for weeks. All are due this week or the beginning of next week, and we are making good progress. This feels like a good work load to us (and yes, we are trying to fit in a trip to see the Andes up close and personal).

What about you? Do you rejoice when your client assigns a 50,000 word translation or does that make you cringe? How long, ideally, would you work on a translation before moving on to the next one? We'd love to hear from you in the comments section. Now, back to our multiple projects!