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Hire a linguist at Smartcat Marketplace

Hire a linguist at Smartcat Marketplace Find out how to easily hire a qualified linguist to assist with your translation needs. There will be times when you need a human professional to do the translation or editing for you. Smartcat hosts the industry's largest database of vetted linguists and translation agencies. There are two ways you can hire a freelancer for your task. Using Smartcat AI to hire a linguistClick the Invite in tasks button on the Overview tab. Smartcat will send the invitation to review your translation to the first linguist seleceted by the Smarcat AI based on your language pair. Our algorithm is capable of finding the best rated professional at the lowest cost for your language pair. 2. The selected linguist will accept the invitation and do the work. You'll be able to track the progress on the Translation overview page. 3. As soon as the translation is finished you'll find the invoice on the Payments page. For more information about paying freelancers via Smartcat, refer to this article. Hiring a professional from your project page 1. Go to Find Freelancers tab of the Team page and use different criteria (shown on the right side of the page) to screen freelancers. 2. Explore the list of freelancers. Use additional filters such as subject matter or pricing if needed. Click on a freelancer profile to get the detailed information such as the number of words and projects translated in Smartcat, productivity, availability, and so on. You can choose to post a job on the Smartcat board and wait for freelancers to offer their services to you or offer them a small test assignment to make sure they are competent enough for your project. 3. Invite the selected freelancer to a project by clicking the corresponding button, selecting the project and the files/segments to assign. You can also add freelancers to your team for long-term collaboration. FAQ If one of my translators is already in the Marketplace, do I have to pay them via Smartcat? If a company invites a freelancer to an account using the My Team email invitation, they can pay this freelancer outside the Smartcat system even if the freelancer is already registered on the marketplace. If tasks are completed in Smartcat and jobs are added to the Payment page, they can be deleted and payment made using previous methods.

Set up your freelancer profile

Freelancer profile setup | Smartcat Help Center Any customer wants to receive high-quality services. At Smartcat, potential clients carefully review translators’ profiles to ensure that the candidate has the required skills and sufficient experience.Read on for suggestions on how to make sure your profile attracts potential customers and land exciting jobs on a regular basis. Name and photo Be sure to use your real name. For a potential client, anonymity means lack of accountability. Experienced translators work hard to make a name for themselves, which, in turn, helps them get new clients.According to our statistics, profiles with a photo get 14 times more views. Go for a portrait photo that looks professional. Services Specify the services you provide, the language pairs you work in, and your per-word rate. Once you do that, your profile will become visible in the search results. You will also be able to apply to job offers and receive invitations to participate in tests. The four basic language services provided in Smartcat are:Translation. A translator reproduces the source text written in one language by means of another language.Editing. An editor reviews the adequacy and literacy of the translation, as well as the consistency of terminology, checks if the translation is in line with the source text, and corrects stylistic errors.Proofreading. A proofreader checks if the translation is complete and eliminates spelling and punctuation errors.Post-editing. A post-editor edits machine translation output and ensures it is in line with the required quality level, correcting incorrectly rendered words and coordination errors. We also recommend that you add additional services if you’re confident that you will be able to ensure high-quality performance of such tasks. Often, clients are urgently looking for suppliers of additional services. This may be your chance to get your first order. Language pairs Specify which language pairs you work in. You can specify a language version as well, such as “Spanish (Mexico)” or “Spanish (Argentina)”. Don’t specify language pairs in which you are not able to provide high quality results. If you only translate in one direction, for example, from English to Spanish, specify only that language pair. If you have experience translating from Spanish to English as well, you can also add a separate service for that direction. Rates Enter your rate per word in local currency. If you are unsure about your rate, browse the profiles of other specialists working with the same language pairs and subjects as you. This way, you will be able to determine how much you should charge for your services on average. Subjects Define up to five subjects in which you specialize. Selecting all available topics is not a good idea and is unlikely to bring you more work. Adding too many subjects may cause you to be seen as less trustworthy as a specialist. Try to make sure that the subjects you add align with each other in a logical way. Personal details Location and time zone “Smartcat has helped us to achieve the consistency and scalability we were looking for. It’s been a game-changer for our team at expondo, and I would recommend it to any company looking to expand their global reach.” Julia Emge Head of Translations, Expondo Explore case study It is important for clients to know where in the world you are located and in what time zone you work in order to understand when they can expect a response and the result from you. Your location can also make a difference if the client needs a specialist with a native level of the target language. Native language By filling in this field, you will let potential clients know that you are a native speaker of the target language you work with. Some clients need translators that come from a particular culture, understand its subtleties, and are able to reproduce them accurately. Work experience Specify how long you have worked in the language industry. For some clients, this information is important in order to determine your level of proficiency. About me Describe the services you provide in a free-form manner. This is the information potential clients will see in a pop-up window that appears when they hover over your name in the search results. We recommend that you specify here the main language pair you work in, as well as the specialization and types of projects you are most competent in. Contacts Your contact details can only be seen by you and our technical support specialists. They are not available to Smartcat customers. Clients and suppliers should communicate only in the project chat within the platform. However, be sure to provide your email address or phone number in order to receive notifications about invitations to projects. Education Actually, not all good translators have a degree related to translation or linguistics. Many professionals have gained skills and experience through work in other fields.However, some jobs require special knowledge such as medicine or engineering. If you have a specialized education, and you use this knowledge in your work as a translator, please indicate this. Work experience The most sought-after translators are those who have expert knowledge in a particular field. If you specified in the “Services” section that you specialize in, for example, technical or engineering translations, it is assumed that in this section you will describe the relevant experience in order to confirm your knowledge in the subject matter. Be sure to only add the previous positions and experiences that are related to the services you provide. If you are unable to disclose the names of any companies you worked at, describe your experience in general terms, for example: “English-to-Spanish translator in a large oil & gas company” or “Legal translations”. Your rate is expected to be in line with your experience. If you are a beginner, set a lower rate for now. Sooner or later, a client will invite you to participate in some small, simple project, you will get a good review thus securing a higher position in the search results and later will be able to score a larger, more profitable project. If you are a top-quality expert and your rate is above the market rate, be sure to provide evidence here. Portfolio Examples of your previous work should correspond to the language pairs and subjects you have specified in the “Services” section. Be sure to remove any confidential and personal information from the samples or replace them with pseudonyms, such as “Company X” or “Person Z”. You can also upload any diplomas and certificates you have. Reviews After you have delivered a project to the client, they will be asked to review your work. Clients can rate suppliers based on two parameters: quality of work and compliance with deadlines. In addition, the client can add a free-form comment to the rating.Three stars — “Recommended”. The client was satisfied.Two stars — “Satisfactory”. There were some issues.One star — “Not recommended”. The client was not satisfied. Rankings Your rankings and position in the search results are composed of the following indicators:Quality of services based on client ratingsCompliance with deadlines based on client ratingsNumber of words translated on the platformNumber of projects completed on the platformActivity index For many potential clients, feedback from other customers is the most important piece of information they can learn about you. This is a guarantee that other customers have previously trusted you with their tasks and were satisfied with the outcome. Another important indicator is how many words you have translated in Smartcat. If a translator has plenty of work, she is likely to have good skills as well as experience using the platform. If you have not yet received your first job in Smartcat, you can use it free of charge to complete orders you receive outside the platform. Simply create a project by uploading any document you got from a client. Open the document. Smartcat Editor breaks down any text into segments and creates a table with two columns, the left one contains source text and the right one contains fields in which translations should be inserted. Translations are automatically saved to a translation memory so that you can later reuse them for similar documents and even other projects. You can download the completed translation in any of the available formats. With each completed project, the number of words indicated in your profile will increase. Your rating will grow accordingly. In addition, you will get a better understanding of the platform’s features in the process. Use our recommendations to complete your profile to 100%, be active, respond to job openings, participate in tests and sooner than you know you will get your first Smartcat job. Good luck!

Test and assess freelancers

Assessing freelancers | Smartcat Help Center You’re more likely to receive professional-level translation services in Smartcat than anywhere else. Freelancers who work in Smartcat take their clients’ assignments very seriously as they expect to earn not only money but also good reviews. Here are a few tips to help you find the best candidate for your project:Good reviews from other clients, education, and experience matter equally. Add extra points to the translators who have passed tests.If there is enough time, you may test your candidate’s skills yourself before hiring them (see Testing Translators).Add an experienced editor to your project who will ensure the translation is consistent and error-free. This is especially relevant when multiple translators are involved in a project.Make use of a glossary. A terminology database, or glossary, contains a list of terms specific to a particular field and their translations. Glossaries are widely used by companies, especially in large-scale translation projects, as this is a proven tool to increase the quality of translations (see Glossaries)Brief a freelancer you’re hiring via the Chat or leave a comment to your project. If creating a glossary is not required, simply give a freelancer some details about the assignment by specifying required translations of personal names, company names, or any specific terms within the text. Testing freelancers You don’t have to compromise quality in urgent projects. Simply test freelancers in a quick and reliable way:Submit a request by sending us an email or by completing the form. Make sure you specify how many translators you need, how much you’re willing to pay, the topic of your content, and provide any other details you believe can help us find the best candidates for your project. We also recommend you attach a sample of the text you need to be translated.We will find freelancers who fit your requirements in our database and invite them to complete the test based on your text sample right in Smartcat.Once the first applications start rolling in, you will receive a notification email with a link to the page where you can check out the applicants’ profiles and review their test results.Select the best candidates by marking their translations as Excellent (★) — those freelancers will be added to your Team. In Smartcat, freelancers do not get paid for completing tests. Instead, they are rewarded with the Test Passed badge, which will be shown in their profiles, if the customer marks their translation as Excellent (★) or Acceptable (✔). Marking the translation as Rejected (Ø) will not affect an applicant in any way. Need help? You may ask for a hand with searching for a freelancer who fits your project requirements by submitting a request right on the Marketplace page. Our specialists will help you line freelancers up for the project.

Promote your translation company on Marketplace

Translation company promotion | Smartcat Help Center Setting up your translation company profile is a fairly straightforward task which makes a big difference to the company’s presence on the Smartcat Marketplace. This article explains the best practices for setting up your company profile to increase its appeal and visibility for potential clients. For starters, navigate to the Clients section, open the Corporate Profile tab and choose your company's contact person. This person will be the recipient of all incoming messages from clients. To do this:Start editing the Corporate Profile tab and make the required selection in the Choose the contact person field.Enable the option Show in search results for translation companies. Specify the services your company provides so that we can automatically calculate their cost for the client. Proceed as follows: Open the Services tab and start editing the Add service tab.Add the relevant services and select only one workflow stage for each service, as shown in the table below. ServiceWorkflow stageUnit typeSubjectsMT Post EditingMT Post EditingwordsoptionalTranslationTranslationwordsoptionalEditingEditingwordsoptionalProofreadingProofreadingwordsoptionaletc. Now open the Custom Rates tab and create the rate for each service specified. To do this, click Add rate and specify the service, language pair, and cost. Alternatively, you can upload client data in a spreadsheet using the template referred to in the right-side panel.

Add services and rates on the Client Portal

Adding services and rates | Smartcat Help Center When all the preparations for the portal launch are done, the next step is to add services and rates for these services to make the portal operable. Let's take a look at what should be done. Please note that the portal page will be blank until you add a service to your account in Smartcat. Service addition All services provided by the company are located in the Services tab of the Clients section. The plus sign will trigger opening the form for adding a new service, to which you need to specify general information about the service:Service name and description;Workflow stages;Unit type for calculating the cost and relevant subjects. Don't forget to save the service at the end (4). After adding the very first service, the plus button disappears, and hence all new services will be ordered in the list. The add service button will also move at the top left of the page. Service rates We're not yet done here because a service has to have the rate and language pair to come into view on the portal page. Let’s quickly overview of how we can add rates and languages. The next tab to go is Custom Rates, where the system displays rates already added and where new ones can be set. Here are available fields in the form for adding rates:Name of a service already added;Language pair (there may be several target languages);Currency and rate per unit. The process is pretty straightforward and thus easy to follow in case you are planning to add a dozen rates. The rate per unit field (3) is not mandatory for filling. This will do the job if you don't need to bill a particular client.In case you want to set up a specific rate for some client from your list, create the rate and specify the client in the form. Bulk import of services and rates Smartcat also supports an option for importing services and rates in bulk. It is worth noting that you should follow a two-step order — first import services and only then rates related to the services. There's a template in the Service tab to facilitate the import. The template extension is the.csv format that has several fields, including the following:Service name;Service description;Workflow stages (you can specify several stages separated by commas);Subject (you can specify several separated by commas);Unit type. Excellent! We have already added services, so the next step is to download the template with rates in the corresponding tab where we are heading right now. The filter panel conceals the rate import settings and therefore needs to get closed. There you will find a template for rates that resembles the one used for services, which we already covered. Filling in the template, you need to put in the following data:1. Service name that you've added or imported earlier;A specific client's name or All clients, if you're planning to apply the rate for all your clients;Source language code;4. Target language code;5. Rate per unit, a valid separator is the point;6. Currency code of the rate. This is a more convenient way to add services and rates if you plan to add dozens of services with different rates. Operable portal After adding services, the portal page will automatically update and show the services previously set in your Smartcat account. Now your customers can place an order from this page following the step-by-step workflow.You can find a more detailed description of this workflow in the article on how to use the client portal. Corporate profile Besides the portal, added services and rates about your services will be visible in your corporate profile, thus being available to customers who search for suppliers using the Smartcat Marketplace. Also, here you can edit company details, including description, company history, contacts, reviews, etc.

Add vendors

Adding vendors | Smartcat Help Center Most Smartcat corporate users are implementing a model where some projects are split between internal team members, freelancers, and other LSPs. Smartcat is making it easy to build projects around this model. Internal team members and freelancers can be added to the My Team section but now vendors can also be added to an account and assigned tasks to projects. Adding a vendor to a client’s account can be done in two different ways. If a potential vendor is already listed in the Smartcat vendor marketplace, the client can simply go to the Find a vendor tab and search for the vendor there. Once the vendor has been located, clicking on the Learn more option on the vendor card will open the profile page. There the user can click on Add as Vendor in the description section of the profile to add the vendor to the Smartcat account: The vendor will then be automatically added to the My vendor page. Once a vendor has been added, the option becomes Remove vendor allowing you to remove a vendor from the account if you don’t plan on working with that vendor again. Note: In order for a vendor to be added to the account, both accounts need to be hosted on the same server location. For example, if a client’s account is hosted on the USA server, it will not be possible to add a vendor which account is hosted on the European server. An easy solution would be for one of the parties to create another Smartcat account located on the appropriate server and link the accounts then. A vendor added to the vendor list of a client can get assigned to individual tasks in projects. See the article about Assigning tasks for more information. When a vendor is added to the My vendor list, it becomes possible to add additional information about the company: Depending on the relationship with the vendor, the client may grant greater access rights to linguistic assets. The client can also add contact information and if payments to the vendor will be made using Smartcat, the billing email is used for processing payments to the vendor corporate balance in Smartcat.

Manage freelancer capacity

Freelancer capacity management | Smartcat Help Center It is common knowledge that Smartcat makes it easy to assign freelancers to a task in a project. It might, however, get tricky if you do not know in advance whether the freelancer is ready to take on a new task, and whether they are able to complete it on time. Smartcat relieves project managers of this difficulty by calculating freelancer capacity in advance and presenting it in a clear and accessible way. To enable Smartcat to assess capacity correctly, freelancers are requested to update their profile with the pertinent information. This information includes the following:Average daily performance in words per day. This parameter should be set for every service offered by the freelancer. Indication whether the freelancer is open for work, that is whether they are ready to take on a new project; what are their working days during the week, and what days they will be unavailable on. This information is entered into the Availability section in the freelancer profile. Providing these parameters makes capacity assessment significantly more accurate. If they are not indicated, Smartcat will go by industry-average productivity and typical work week. When looking for the supplier for a specific task, the project manager navigates to the Tasks tab in the project settings, opens the required task and clicks Find suppliers. Smartcat then sifts through the suitable suppliers, assesses their capacity and productivity, and displays those suppliers in a list sorted by their availability: Hovering over the Estimated completion date for a specific freelancer shows what this calculation is based on. Note, however, that Smartcat also takes into account the tasks currently assigned to the freelancer. Consider, for example, a freelancer who works five days a week with the Daily performance of 1,500 words per day. This freelancer is currently assigned with two tasks of 3,000 words each. Therefore, when calculating this freelancer's availability, Smartcat will factor in the four days that the freelancer needs to have completed the outstanding tasks before taking on a new one. If the task deadline is specified, Smartcat evaluates whether it will be met according the the estimated completion date. If yes, the clock icon next to the date will be green; if not, it will be red. If the deadline is not specified, the clock icon will remain grey. Unavailable freelancers are displayed after the available ones and their status is set to Busy. There are various reasons for Smartcat to determine that the freelancer is not available. In addition to the obvious cases when the freelancer's profile indicates that they are currently not available, freelancers who do not log in to Smartcat for over 2 weeks will be automatically assigned with Busy status.

Use search filters on the Marketplace

Marketplace search filters | Smartcat Help Center More than 250,000 linguists fluent in different languages with specializations in different fields are registered in Smartcat. To find the freelancers you need, you can search the Marketplace and explore each freelancer’s profile. Using search filters So how to narrow down the search looking for the right candidate on the Smartcat Marketplace? The first thing to do is to select the source and the target language. If you need an editor, a proofreader, or a post-editor instead of a translator, then change the service type. If you want to be more specific, you can use any of the following search criteria: Native language. Freelancers who translate into their native language usually deliver better quality. However, that does not imply that a native Spanish speaker who is qualified enough cannot deliver high-quality translations into English. Keep in mind, though, that native speakers often charge higher rates.Specializations. Specialization matters a lot. It is generally not a good idea to order a legal translation from a medical expert, so it’s best to look for someone with expertise in the areas relevant to your needs to ensure the highest quality.Test passed. Translators who have successfully passed one or more tests have confirmed their expertise in relevant fields. Tests are either reviewed by translation agencies or Smartcat’s own quality assurance experts. (See How to Test a Translator).Online now. This box will significantly help with the search in cases when you need to start working on a project right now.Portfolio. Portfolios usually contain samples of previous work, training certificates, résumés and other evidence of the translator’s experience and qualifications.Daytime. If you’re in a hurry, select this option to filter out the translators who are most likely unavailable due to the late hour in their time zones.Search by all dialects. Selecting this option allows you to expand your search results to include all translators who translate into the target language you specified regardless of the dialect.Rate per word. Specify a minimum and a maximum rate per word to filter the candidates who fit your budget. When estimating the cost, make sure you take discounts for fuzzy matches and repetitions into account. Sending out invitations To start working with a freelancer (or multiple freelancers), invite them to your project. Press “Assign” on the project page.Check the assignment settings, such as the number of documents that need to be translated and their word count.Set the deadline.Select linguists from your team, invite someone who isn’t signed up in Smartcat yet to your account, or hire freelancers from the Marketplace.You can either assign the whole document or only its selected parts. The candidates you selected will receive invitations to your project and will be able to preview the documents you assigned to them. Keep in mind that the assignees may want to check with you regarding the details of the project.Confirm assignments for those who accept your invitation. After that, the assignees will be able to start working on their tasks. You can follow their progress on the project page under the Team tab. Hint: Invite more than one translator to ensure successful and timely project completion.

Get client reviews

Getting client reviews | Smartcat Help Center Getting reviews from clients is crucial to keeping your Smartcat profile up-to-date, professional-looking and eye-catching to other potential customers looking to hire linguists for their projects. Scoring at least three positive reviews is a good start. A customer review consists of three parts. The customer is expected to:Rate the quality of your services.Rate the interaction they’ve had with you.Write a free-form comment about their overall experience with you. Unsurprisingly, reviews with comments stand out more, so we recommend getting in touch with the customer using the built-in chat function and asking them whether they enjoyed working with you. If they did, suggest that they add a few words in the Comments field. How do I get my first review? There are three ways you can get a nice, shiny review on your profile. From a Smartcat customer The most obvious and effortless one is by accepting an invitation from a Smartcat customer and making sure you do your best to provide top-notch services. After your work is accepted by the client, they will be prompted to rate your services and add a few comments below. If after a few days you still can’t see the review on your profile, don’t hesitate to contact the client using the built-in chat function to remind them about the rating and the comments you’d like to receive. For the next job you get outside of Smartcat Don’t worry, if you haven’t yet landed any job opportunities in Smartcat. Simply suggest the next client who offers you a job try Smartcat to assign it to you. They’ll need to sign up, create a project using the docs they need you to translate, assign the task to you and, ultimately, leave a review. If you’ve already had some experience with that customer, they will probably write you a good one. This is not to mention that if the customer ends up happy with their experience interacting with you via Smartcat, it’d become easier for you to work on their projects. Along with a payment made via Smartcat Have any non-Smartcat clients who owe you money? Suggest they pay via Smartcat and also give you a review ( How it works ). In this case, the job doesn’t even need to be completed using Smartcat’s editor, it might be a small editing task that didn’t take any tools to get done. Once you receive the payment, ask your customer to rate the quality of your services and the interaction they’ve had with you a rating of between 1 and 3 stars, and summarize their experience with you. Once you get your hands on the feedback, send it to search@smartcat.ai with “Customer review” in the subject line providing the payment date and the project name in the email body so we can add the review to your profile. FAQ What if I disagree with the client’s feedback? Using the chat function, provide the client with a detailed and substantiated explanation of why you think their feedback is unfair. If the client agrees to remove the review, send an email with a screenshot of their consent to us at search@smartcat.ai.If the client refuses to withdraw the review or fails to respond, let us know by sending an email to the same address. We will assess your situation and come up with relevant solutions. What if the client still hasn’t provided feedback on a project I’ve completed recently? Try contacting the client via chat and ask them for feedback. When they reply, send us a screenshot of their response to search@smartcat.ai.Another way the client can leave a review about your work is by sending an email to search@smartcat.ai — we will be sure to add it to your profile. The email must include: the email address of the manager who wrote the review; the company’s name;the language pair;the subject matter;the review itself.

Set up a freelancer account

Freelancer account setup | Smartcat Help Center With Smartcat, freelancers can focus on translation and not waste time on non-productive chores. Here’s a short guide to get you started. Step 1. Fill in your profile In Smartcat, each translator is the master of their profile. You choose your language pairs, services, and rates. Here, it is customers who find you and not the other way round. Here’s how it looks for a customer: In theory, having a completed profile is enough to start getting orders. In practice, with 150,000 translators registered on the platform, getting to the top of the search results is not that easy. But not too hard either. Step 2. Import assets from other CAT tools If you have already worked in other CAT tools, you can import all your projects and resources from them.From SDL Studio Trados: SDLXLIFF projects, SDLPPX packages, SDLTM translation memories.From MemoQ: MQXLIFF projects, TMX translation memories.From other CAT tools: XLIFF projects, TMX translation memories.Glossaries from Excel spreadsheets. If you have no previous experience with CAT tools — don’t worry, Smartcat is easy to use even for a beginner. Step 3. Translate your documents in Smartcat We use various parameters to order the list of translators in each pair, but one of the main ones is the number of words they have translated in Smartcat. Why? Because it means that the translator (a) has enough work, so it is more likely that they provide good quality, and (b) knows how to use the platform. So how do you increase this number without new orders coming? Is it a chicken-and-egg problem? Not at all, because you can use Smartcat — for free — for translating texts you receive outside the platform. Just take any document and create a project based on it. Open the document in the Editor. See how Smartcat has split all the text into sentences and put them in a bilingual grid? This makes it easier to work with any document. In addition, Smartcat saves all your translations to the project’s translation memory, so you can reuse them in future projects. Getting paid for jobs done out of Smartcat Besides helping with managing translation, Smartcat allows you to receive payments for work done outside the platform — DTP, interpreting, and so on. To do this, fill out the payment request form in the Payouts section. Your client will receive a link to pay for your work by bank card or wire transfer. Then you will get the payment according to the method selected, that is, via a bank card, wire transfer, or some other methods that depends on the country specified on your profile page. By the way, if the client stays in Smartcat and hires you for future work right here on the platform, this will further increase your chances to get to the top of the search results. Good luck and on to exciting translation projects!

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