I worked as a Director of Business Development at TransPerfect. Although my job title may have been impressive the job comes down to endless cold calling, envelope stuffing and telling half truths or downright lies to naive clients. Everyone in Sales does this, it is a fully accepted way of making your money. Clients are considered suckers, and if they are stupid, they deserve to be cheated.
The overall atmosphere is very negative: if a client places a big order, there is no feeling of gratitude for getting the business but just glee at how clueless the client was to buy your story. I have never encountered such a strange attitude anywhere else. The game here is not about winning, but about seeing someone else losing out.
Many people around you will be heavy drinkers (in TransPerfect-speak: work hard, play hard) and co-workers will try to steal clients from each other (in TransPerfect-speak: a healthy, competitive environment). The game here is to set up your reports for failure. If they cannot handle the stress anymore, it's your chance to claim their accounts and start collecting commission.
Earnings are based on recoverable draw. Your sole income will derive from commission, which is paid as an advance against bonuses. TransPerfect will do its best to avoid paying out your commission by posing insane requirements about mark up and profitability. If a job is billed late (something outside your control), you lose your commission. If minimum mark up is not made, same story. If a client pays late, no commission. If a client has a quality issue, your commission will be docked.
This intricate system of fines, deductions and penalties is applied throughout the company and sales, project managers and translators alike will be penalized on any pretence. The customer is always charged in full, of course. Woe the client who pays a bill twice because of an accounting error. They will never get back the amount they overpaid. And guess who they will be harassing to get their money back? The sales person, of course, since he is the point of contact.
When you give in your notice, you will not receive the bonuses owed to you. TransPerfect will recalculate your recoverable draw, and invariably come to the conclusion that you owe the company, instead of the other way round.
Avoid this place.
