A Guest post by Christian Arno founder of global translation company Lingo24.
It’s a tough market out there – finding work as a student or graduate has never been harder, with less jobs available and more competition for the few vacancies. If you can speak more than one language fluently, though, you’ve got a secret ace hidden up your sleeve, and you may not even know it.
One of the few industries to have experienced growth during the economic crisis was translation and localisation – with the purchasing power of individual local markets diminishing, companies have been forced to look to foreign markets to keep their profits up, and this means getting professional linguists to translate everything from their business proposals and legal contracts to their marketing materials.
There’s a massive world-wide demand for talented translators, and the good thing for students, or those with full-time careers, is that the majority of work is freelance – few companies can afford to hire full-time in-office translators, so they will outsource their translation work to either agencies with a number of translators on their books, or to individual freelancers sourced through translation networking sites such as ProZ.
Being fluent in another language can also be a massive boost to your regular career – whether you’re a lawyer, doctor, designer or account manager, having language skills shows that you have the intelligence and tenacity to learn multiple languages, and also makes you more valuable as a specialist for liaising with people in that language. This means more job opportunities both in your own country and overseas, with the opportunity for postings abroad. Besides, if your main career goes down the drain, you can always rely on your language skills for a back-up profession as a translator.
Before launching into a new career as a freelance translator, though, there are a few things you should take into consideration. Firstly, you really do need to be fluent in both languages you are translating. If you’re only intermediate, then your clients will soon find out and your career will be quickly cut short.
Secondly, it really helps if you live in the country which speaks the language that you’re specialising in translating into. For instance, if you speak fluent French and English, but live in Manchester, then you’ll be best as a translator from French into English, as you will have a better and more current understanding of the English language, slang and culture being Mancunian than if you live in Montparnasse.
It also helps to be accredited as a professional translator through a professional body such as the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) or the Chartered Institute of Linguists (IOL) in the UK. This isn’t always necessary, but never hurts for your credibility. More important is having a decent portfolio of translation work to show potential clients – doing some work for free early on to build up your portfolio is par for the course for anyone involved in the communication industry.
You can then choose to either go it alone and market yourself via job sites and forums such as Translation Directory and ProZ, or you can join an agency, who will find jobs for you, but will take a cut of your pay – your choice will depend on how much time you’re willing and able to dedicate to marketing yourself.
The best way to make yourself stand out from the crowd of other translators – and command a higher price per word – is to have a specialist field. For instance, if you work in the medical profession, but also happen to be fluent in both German and English, then you’ll be 100% more desirable as the German to English translator for a medical company than a translator who may be more experienced but has no knowledge of the terminology and industry practices of medicine. The same goes for marketing, engineering, law, IT, or any other industry you can think of – in fact, the more niche and specialised the better, as there’ll be less competition with other translators.
So don’t write off your bilingual skills as a talent that only comes in handy on holidays, and don’t dismiss studying a second language as a discipline that’s only of use to diplomats - having a second language in your skill-set, in combination with your professional education and industry experience, can open up a whole world of employment opportunities.
Image by Insight Imaging