5 things you need to know before starting working as a translator/interpreter
Published on
, Last updated 15 October 2020
1. Clarification.
First and foremost you should know that the work of a translator has little to do with that of an interpreter. The right path for you to choose mostly depends on your individual skills and preferences. Some people would rather sit at a desk for a few hours every day and do translation work in a stress-free environment, which may be their home or office. Others are more into communication and the challenges of face-to-face human interaction; if that is your case, you should become an interpreter. However, there are many professionals who do both jobs with flying colours and enjoy themselves along the way.
2. Can anyone work as a translator/interpreter?
You may be a mixed ethnicity college graduate whose parents did their best to turn their offspring into a proficient bilingual speaker or just a bachelor of arts with a good foreign language degree; once you have decided to become a translator and/or interpreter, you need a bit of further education in this field and also to obtain a degree. That will enable you to prove your level of knowledge and skills to potential employers. If that has been done and dusted, you will have to analyse your strong and weak points as well as the specific area that would make translation work both fun and rewarding for you.
3. Do I have to excel in all fields?
Nobody knows everything about everything; at least not when they are very young. While it is good practice to tackle different kinds of texts and language areas for your professional development, there will be one or two fields that will make you feel more at home than others. Find out that field and stick to it until you are ready to expand your territory. Dealing with something familiar will bring better results in a short time and will also boost your self-confidence.
4. Shall I freelance individually or join a team?
If you are a beginner and would like to try your hand at translating a wide variety of written material, you can advertise your services online and accept each and every challenge that will come your way. Yet, the policy and the daily routine of a team of translators belonging to a firm enable its members to develop professionally much faster. Each member will stick to a specific field and the chances for their individual knowledge and skills to improve are much higher. Thus, if legal stuff or economy is your cup of tea, there will be someone else from your team to cover technical translation or literature.
5. Is translation/interpreting well-paid?
The amount of money that you can earn depends on the amount of work done and the quality (sometimes even the turnaround) of your services/work. If you are inexperienced you may need more time to complete a page but little by little you will surely increase your speed and your lexis (as well as the vocabulary database on your computer) will also expand. Besides, you will gradually become familiar with several CAT tools which are a precious aid to any professional translator. Being an interpreter might sound more challenging for a beginner as it involves more than language knowledge. It requires spontaneity, assertiveness, good diction, speed as well as anticipation which you can only develop and perfect by practising.
If you have a full-time job at a translation firm, the good name of your employer combined with your professional expertise will result in more and better-paid work for you to do. Name and fame do matter. However, if you are planning to make a living out of online freelance work, you can prepare a killer website with a powerful CV and various supporting work samples of yours. You won’t have to wait long before you land your first job.
Alina Cincan
In her 15 years as a translation professional, Alina has been wearing many hats: translator, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, Chartered Linguist (Language Specialist), member of the Mediterranean Editors and Translators, project manager, member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (Language Services), international conference speaker and author. Her #1 passion? Languages! She speaks six languages with various degrees of fluency.
Some of her articles were published in translation journals and magazines, such as Traduire in France, MDÜ Magazine in Germany, La Linterna del Traductor in Spain, the ITI Bulletin in the UK and De Taalkundige/Le Linguiste In Belgium. Her latest project is an extensive research study on the freelance translation landscape.
More about her experience and work can be read on Alina Cincan's page.
10 Comments
I read your article on the website. can I know how many languages do you speak?
I need to your advice on starting to work as translator and don’t know how to start.
please advice me if there is a certain way to start .
Hi Nancy. Although I speak 5 and a half languages :), I only translate from English into Romanian (my mother tongue). How to start depends on a lot of factors: your skills and qualifications, where you are located (each country may be different). Without any information, it is difficult to give specific advice.
A good article (with audio included) is a recent one from Joseph Lambert, on starting out, so the timing was perfect. Here’s the link: https://jaltranslation.com/2015/12/09/starting-out-as-a-freelance-translator/
I hope this helps.
Hello Alina,
Thank you for this article, it is very helpful.
I too, speak a few languages. However, this is the first time I thought of puting my knowledge to use. I do have a BA in Psychology. Do you think I should take courses or even have another Bachelor Degree done for interpreter/translator?
Hi Tanya, having a degree in another field will definitely make it easier when choosing what to specialise in 🙂 Of course, speaking a language is different from translating from or into it. Nikki Graham has gathered a number of great articles for people new to translations, and they are also grouped by topic – https://nikkigrahamtranix.com/articles-of-special-interest-to-new-translators/?wref=tp I am sure you’ll find them interesting and useful. Hope this helps.
Hi. I read your article and your article give me a motivation to do something . And now I will learning more languages( like Russian, Japanese) to do something as a translator.
Glad to hear this was helpful. And good luck in the chosen career! 🙂
I want to do a job abroad and right now I’m staying in India. So, can I get some job opportunities abroad when I’m a translator or interpreter?
Hi Pratiksha, once you are a qualified translator or interpreter, you can choose to work in-house or as a freelancer. If you choose the latter, you can work from anywhere in principle. With interpreting, this may be a bit more restrictive, as it may be unfeasible to travel long distances for short assignments for example. Of course, as a translator, you need to consider your time zone and those of your clients’ too.
Hope this helps.
Hello, I am thinking of becoming a translator and/or interpreter but my college does not offer a degree in that. So, I was thinking to earn an associate degree in English and then gain a certificate for translation and interpretation. Is this a good idea?
Hi Di,
Whether it’s a good idea or not depends on so many factors that I cannot possibly advise 🙂 It depends on where you are based or where you want to practise first and foremost (as each country will have a different system of recognising the profession), it depends on the areas you want to specialise in etc. These are just a few things that spring to mind. Not all translators and interpreters follow the same path to the profession, so what works/worked for one may not work for another.