Getting on the write path: A career in translation
For newcomers, the translation business is becoming an increasingly hard nut to crack. Fierce competition and freefalling rates may put aspiring translators off, but if you can provide quality and make a name for yourself, the rewards can be well worth the effort.
Is translation a good business to get into?
The work can, it seems, be a mixed bag and go from the tedious to the very interesting. Budding translators should also bear in mind that the internet and online bidding sites have brought a significant drop in rates and a highly competitive arena:
“The translation business is as strong as it’s ever been but more people are offering the service”, says Gabriel Brunner, specialist in English-German translation and the face behind G.Brunner Translation. “Some bilingual people are selling themselves cheap in the online marketplace for as little as 4 cents per word – that’s 4 euros, not dollars! That’s quite ridiculous, and it harms the global translation community. Plus, there are millions of translation businesses out there, and competition is fierce.”
How can newcomers stand out?
Given the high competition and falling rates, many aspiring translators could well be discouraged. According to Mr Brunner, however, if you can offer quality, your customers will keep coming back for more.”The quality will make the difference. Not only do they need to do a good translating job, they need to think how they can add value – for instance, we offer SEO consultancy and we can also put work directly onto our customers’ websites, saving them valuable time. Things that like that add value, and make our clients come back.”
What qualifications do you need?
Strictly speaking, qualifications are not necessary to be eligible to work as a translator, although for some areas such as court interpreting, you need to do a special course and get an official certificate.
Translation degrees are roughly 80% linguistic training so if you grow up completely bilingual, this part is obviously not necessary. However, translation degrees do give you credibility as well as a grounding in the more technical aspects of translation.As our expert points out, “For the more complex translations, the really important aspects to observe are professional formatting and layout, a proper command of translation software and a lot of other aspects which are not strictly connected to linguistics. So I only ever work with people who have a translation degree or even better, an interpreting degree, just to make sure they are up to the task technically.”
How many languages do you need to speak?
Obviously, you will need to speak at least two languages fluently and most translators and interpreters speak three or four. However, as in most walks of life, it’s a case of quality and not quantity.
“I speak German, English, Spanish and Italian, and dabbled in French and even Greek at one point”, says Brunner. “As an interpreter or translator, four languages is pretty much all that you can do though – if you want to maintain them to a high standard, that is, and have a life at the same time, of course.”
Where can translators and interpreters work?
Whether you work for a translation company, form your own business, work as an intepreter or get involved in sectors such as dubbing, subtitling and gaming, the options are numerous.
A highly popular destination is the EU, which currently employs about 2,000 translators to handle eleven languages. As Brunner says, “The EU certainly offers one of the most interesting and well-paid employment possibilities for translators. The admission exams are awfully hard though, and I’ve seen some excellent people fail there.”With monthly salaries for permanent EU translators starting at a highly respectable €4,349 and going up to a whopping €18.370, the difficult exams certainly seem worth a crack.
So, the journey to the top could well be a hard one but if you can reach the summit, whether it is with the EU or as a value-adding freelance translator with a good reputation, the hard work should pay dividends.
I am looking for consistent translation work.
Can you provide?
Hi, it depends on your languages and skills. Send us an email and we will see. Cheers
