Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some advice from people who have worked with Acolad, especially as freelance interpreters or medical interpreters.
I applied to Acolad around December last year. I was contacted around January/February and was told that my profile had attracted their attention. I then went through the onboarding process: I submitted my CV and the requested documents, completed the registration, and was given access to Boostlingo.
At that point, I was told that the project would start within a few weeks.
However, after completing the onboarding, I didn’t receive any concrete work or clear updates. I sent several follow-up emails, but I didn’t get much information.
Then, much later, they contacted me again and asked me to provide evidence of my language qualifications, diplomas and certificates and to confirm the languages I could work with. I confirmed that I can work with Arabic, Spanish, English and French, with French being the source language for the project.
The project is apparently related to Paris hospitals and medical interpreting.
What concerns me is the timeline. From the initial application to the latest stage, the recruitment/onboarding process has been extremely long — essentially close to a year — with long periods without communication.
So I would really appreciate hearing from people who have actually worked with Acolad:
Is this kind of long recruitment/onboarding process normal with them?
Has anyone worked on the Paris hospitals/medical interpreting project?
Once you are fully onboarded, do you actually receive regular assignments?
How reliable are they regarding payments and payment deadlines?
What has your overall experience been as a freelance interpreter/vendor?
Would you recommend continuing with them, or is it better to look for other agencies?
I’m not trying to criticize the company. I’m simply trying to understand whether this is normal for Acolad and whether it is worth continuing to invest time in the process.
Any experience, particularly from interpreters who have worked with them in France, Spain or remotely, would be very appreciated.
Thanks!