TransPerfect reviews

3.0

40% would recommend to a friend

(2,860 total reviews)

Phil Shawe

44% approve of CEO

33% positive business outlook

TransPerfect has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 2,860 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The TransPerfect employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Administración y consultoría industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

3K reviews
2.0
Mar 14, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

As an employee for more than 3 years, I learnt lots of skills at Transperfect (software, management, training). Being a huge company, there are employees from any country in the world and the environment was mostly good thanks to that. I would only recommend working for Transperfect if you cannot find anything better.

Cons

Employees are exploited, translator rates are really low and in dollars (which are even lower against the Euro, for example). Salaries are quite low (sorry, but I got a better salary working in a bar). Employees are forced to penalize translators when client spots a mistake, this penalization comes through a reduction of the PO obviously. Most mistakes are due to the fact that all translations are rush and budget is very limited, which means project managers have to contact the cheapest linguists. Business representatives (sales people) have no idea about the translation business. They accept any request from the client and estimate absurd budgets and deadlines. Then the Project Managers have to deal with it. Little chance of negotation in order to get a better deadline or budget even if the quality of the translation is at stake. Project managers are penalized if they don't reach a monthly goal (high number of projects, high income obtained for the company, few errors and positive feedback). Some employees have been fired due to that. I have seen employees crying, staying until midnight in the office, on sick leave due to stress and even skin diseases (due to stress and scratching). I have even seen employees quitting on the same day because they couldn't stand it anymore. It's impossible to have a life of your own if you're working for them. Obviously this is a company that only cares about the money, not about the quality. It's like comparing McDonalds with a cozy family restaurant. We all know which one is bigger, cheaper and faster. Still, big clients prefer bad translations, otherwise Transperfect wouldn't be that huge. It's a big concern if we consider we are taking medications and many investigations are being translated by this company.

1.0
Jun 26, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Nice view from the 38th floor. Young work environment. Company-sponsored dinners and happy hours. A reliable paycheck/Health insurance

Cons

12+ hour work days with no overtime! -Managers are well aware that the workload they are handing out could not potentially be accomplished in 8 hours, especially for new people who don't have any connections. The office is also severely understaffed because of the incredibly high turnover rate. Taking a lunch is impossible. I calculated that if I had been working at an hourly rate with overtime, my pay rate would be less than $12/hour. What a joke!! This shouldn't be acceptable for anyone with a college degree. Non-transferrable skills. -the "experience" mentioned in other reviews is simply having an office job to put on your resume. The project coordinator position is all about sending out mass e-mails to find linguists who are willing to work for bottom dollar in a very short amount of time. Most transactions between PCs and linguists occur with very little professionalism, which would not fly at almost any other work place. There is little to no thinking in this job- just processing and meeting an overload of insanely tight deadlines. Poor training/Treated with disrespect -I spent the first 2 weeks I was there doing nothing but watching boring powerpoint presentations! There are over 100 power point presentations to watch and do a quiz that would ask for very specific information. These presentations usually took 45 min. each. They've got to be insane if they actually think this is effective in training anyone. When I actually started doing work, the amount of micro-managing was beyond belief. They expect you to ask a manager for approval with basically every click of the mouse. However, my trainer was always busy and seemed to get ticked off everytime I asked her to come over, but if I sent an e-mail or clicked a button without her, she would become infuriated. If I made a mistake she would point it out to me with absolute disprespect and intolerance. One of my coworkers actually told me she wouldn't speak to a dog the way the trainer addressed me!! Unhappy employees/Dismal workplace A lot of other reviews seem to convey an image of a fun environment with lots of smart young people that just have to work long hours. Some even say that their are rewards for "hard" work. The truth: There is absolutely no time for fun conversation or teamwork throughout the day. You are glued to your computer for 12 plus hours- processing projects and managing deadlines; there is no comraderie or socializing at all during office hours. Managers would come down HARD on mistakes- leaving employees who just worked 20 hours of unpaid overtime to the point of tears, with absolutely no thanks.

2.0
Dec 22, 2011

This company will consume your entire life

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I've received numerous promotions in a short period of time, I've gotten to travel (both of these things are very uncommon for production), and I really enjoy working with linguists. I'm good at what I do here, and it will help me get another job where I'm paid and valued more

Cons

Very low pay with no raises; unpaid overtime (and an expectation that you work overtime); and as a result of these things, high turnover--including firings, people suddenly quitting and people constantly applying for new jobs--which, in turn, makes the other people in production have to work harder in order to make up for the constant loss of employees; in general, morale is very, very low because of how little this company invests in good employees.

Viewing 130 - 132 of 2,860 Reviews

Glassdoor has 4,282 TransPerfect reviews submitted anonymously by TransPerfect employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if TransPerfect is right for you.