Today I would like to speak about my own profession – about a translator. It will be useful for many of my colleagues who are just starting their career.
Who is really a translator? This is a person who knows perfectly at least one foreign language, who helps other people to understand this language by giving a written translation of different documents or by translating one’s speech (if you are an interpreter). It’s a person who must know also some customs, culture, traditions of the country where people speak this language. Simply – it’s someone who connects nations. Without him no international affairs would be possible.
But, having all these qualities doesn’t mean that you will become a good professional. Besides, you must have at least some simple marketing skills, in order to find your potential customer and to show yourself as a real professional.What to do if you are just beginning? Simply try to be a freelancer (see more about freelancing). I also started like this. At first try to register at such a big translator portals as ProZ.com and TranslatorsCafe.com. Many potential clients can find you there. You can stop at this point, as lots of freelance translators earn enough to make it a full-time job.
And if want to go on developing your career, you can join some freelance groups, or even establish your own small translation agency (as I did it once). But, I must tell you that it’s much harder to do this than to be a freelancer. The decision is yours.
So, let me summarize, what are the main steps, when starting your translator’s career:
- Build your resume/CV.
- Register at translation portals.
- Start sending your resume to different agencies.
- Give your bid to translation jobs, posted on these websites (there are plenty of them there).
Use these tips and you will start to build your career as a translator right now.
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