A translator cover letter where the matcher recognised nothing at all
One translator cover letter, printed exactly as the builder wrote it. The translator and the bureau are invented. Zero recognised requirements, zero gaps, and a letter that still works.
— zero requirements recognised. the numbers carried it.
This is the extreme case in this set, and the most honest page on the site about what an automated matcher is worth. Ilse Vandragen is invented, Wrensfield Language Services is invented, and so are both of her employers. The letter is real output: the evidence below was handed to the cover letter builder and the reply is printed word for word.
The post, and the evidence the letter may use
An invented person. Not a real document, and not yours.
The role
Translator, German to English · Wrensfield Language Services
The posting
Wrensfield Language Services is hiring a German to English translator for technical and legal work. The role covers translation of manuals and contracts, terminology management, proofreading of colleagues' work and subtitling for corporate video. SDL Trados and a CAT tool workflow are used throughout.
What the letter may claim
- Delivered 640 000 words of technical translation a year across 4 industrial clients.
- Built a terminology base of 9 000 entries that cut query rounds by 38%.
- Managed proofreading for 3 colleagues and returned 1 200 pages a year.
- Reduced average turnaround on legal contracts from 5 days to 3.
- Trained 2 junior translators on the CAT tool workflow and the query protocol.
Where it happened
- Translator · Kellinghurst Language Bureau · 2020 — present
- Junior Translator · Ravenstoke Translations · 2017 — 2020
Skills it may name
- German to English translation
- terminology management
- proofreading
- SDL Trados
- legal translation
- technical translation
- subtitling
The letter the builder wrote
Direct voice, the one the door opens with. Seven paragraphs rather than eight, and three of them are Ilse's own sentences.
Dear Wrensfield Language Services Hiring Team,
I'm applying for the Translator, German to English role at Wrensfield Language Services.
Delivered 640 000 words of technical translation a year across 4 industrial clients.
Built a terminology base of 9 000 entries that cut query rounds by 38%.
Managed proofreading for 3 colleagues and returned 1 200 pages a year.
I'd welcome the chance to talk through any of this.
Ilse Vandragen
Zero requirements recognised
The engine reported that it found no requirements at all in this advertisement. Its skills list holds no translation vocabulary: translation, localisation, terminology management, proofreading, SDL Trados, CAT tools and subtitling are all absent from it, measured against the product's own matcher while this page was written. A posting made almost entirely of those words is, to the matcher, an empty posting.
Two consequences follow, and both are printed above. There is no fit sentence, because that paragraph is built only from skills the engine actually matched, and with nothing matched it left the paragraph out rather than writing something vague. And the gaps list is empty, which here means nothing whatsoever. The honest limits of every tool is the companion piece.
The letter still works
Lines 5, 6 and 7 of the evidence list, selected purely on measurable evidence: words a year and clients, terminology entries and the query rounds they saved, colleagues proofread and pages returned. The ranking has a second leg, and when the first one finds nothing the second one carries the letter on its own.
That is why the figures matter more in a trade the matcher cannot read. A letter of adjectives would have produced three weak paragraphs here. Quantifying an achievement covers how to count language work, which mostly means words, clients, turnaround and query rounds.
What it refused to claim
Nothing was claimed that Ilse's lines do not say, which is the one guarantee that never depends on vocabulary. Subtitling is asked for in the posting and appears in her skills rather than in any achievement, so the letter says nothing about it, and a bureau that cares will ask. The gaps list is the interview still applies, with the list you make yourself.
No language model is involved at any stage, which in this trade is worth stating plainly: nothing here translated, rewrote or paraphrased a word of hers.
What a translator's letter has to prove
Volume, domain and discipline. Volume is words a year, which is the unit every bureau buys in. Domain is technical and legal, which decides whether you can be given a contract on a Friday. Discipline is the terminology base and the query protocol, because a translator who reduces queries reduces the client's cost.
Name your tools in your own lines. The matcher will not find them for you here, and a human project manager reads them in two seconds. Languages on a document covers how to state a pair and a level without overclaiming.
The same evidence in the other two voices
Three voices ship with the builder, and changing one rewrites the connectors rather than the evidence. The ranking never sees the voice, so the same lines are selected in the same order in all three. Run on this page's own evidence, the warm voice opens "I'd like to be considered for the Translator, German to English role at Wrensfield Language Services." and closes "I'd be glad to walk through any of this with you." The formal voice opens "I am writing to apply for the position of Translator, German to English at Wrensfield Language Services." and closes "I would welcome the opportunity to discuss my application further." In the product, switching voice keeps the draft you already have as a version before it writes the new one, so nothing is lost by trying the other two.
The design, and what the door does
Academic sets a centred correspondence block. The paper changes and the words do not, across all 12 designs in the gallery.
The door below opens 02 · Details with the role, the bureau, the posting and the four evidence groups loaded and removable. Nothing is composed until you press Write the letter. Put your own words and turnarounds in, paste the real advertisement, and the same ranking runs on your lines. The matching translator résumé example holds the document those lines come from.
Open it on the Details step
Loads Ilse's role, bureau, posting and evidence into the cover letter builder in the Academic design. Nothing is written until you press Write the letter. Free, no account.
Use this exampleSee the letter designsQuestions
- Is Ilse Vandragen a real person
- No. She is invented for this page, and so are Wrensfield Language Services, Kellinghurst Language Bureau and Ravenstoke Translations. No real client is described and no hire is claimed.
- Did the product really write this letter
- Yes. The evidence list was posted to the same endpoint the Write the letter button posts to, and the reply is printed above unchanged: seven paragraphs, no fit sentence, no gaps, three selected lines.
- Zero recognised requirements. Is that a fault
- It is a limit, and this page exists to show it. The matcher's skills list holds no translation vocabulary: translation, localisation, terminology management, proofreading, SDL Trados, CAT tools and subtitling are all invisible to it. Measured against the product's own matcher while this page was written.
- So what is the gaps list worth here
- Nothing, and the page says so rather than letting an empty list flatter the application. On a posting the matcher cannot read, read the requirements yourself and make sure your evidence list answers them in your own words.
- What does “Use this example” do
- It opens the cover letter builder on 02 · Details with the role, the bureau, the posting and the four evidence groups already loaded. No letter and no application record exists until you press Write the letter.
- Which design is this example in
- Academic, centred correspondence, which suits an application to a language bureau or a university. Any of the 12 designs carries the same words.
Conxfolio is a free set of four career tools: a résumé builder with 37 rendered layouts, an ATS résumé checker that prints its own arithmetic, a cover letter builder that traces every proof paragraph back to the line it came from, and a portfolio builder with 20 authored designs. There is no account to create, nothing is held back for a paid plan, and no language model is used anywhere in the product, so the readers, the score and the letter are deterministic code you can check.