At
the beginning of the 2015-2016 academic year, my interpreting students asked me
if the curriculum included a module on the business side of interpreting. It
was obvious that they were thinking of the eventual return of their
investment in a Master’s level degree in interpreting. Knowing the program
does include a couple of modules on this important issue, I told them I would
wait until the winter semester to address this topic. The idea was to avoid
topic overlap during their program of studies. They recently had a session on
the interpreting market in their respective places of residence and found the
session to be extremely helpful but still wanted to know more. Thus, I prepared
a handout with some ideas on how to tackle the work market.
Giving
useful advice to your students, some of whom do not have work experience and are
looking forward to getting started, requires an effort to come up with a
cohesive set of suggestions. What follows is a summary of the tips I provided
to them. Of course, some of them may look obvious but I thought they were all
worth including.
Networking and a little investment.
Be ready to invest time to explore and create opportunities and money to
invest in them.
Getting started.
Preparing your entry to the T&I market starts in school, for those
without prior interpreting experience. Some classmates, especially in graduate
school, become lifelong friends. Shared efforts of furthering oneself often engender
extraordinary bonds. Classmates sharing the
same language pair and similar interests and commitment can become colleagues
and associates. Instructors can also be
a terrific source of information. For example, thanks to one of his
instructors, English-Arabic student Ahmed Al-Tameemi got a remarkable opportunity to
interpret for Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when the first Syrian
refugees arrived in Toronto a few months ago.
Internships and other opportunities
through your program of studies: An internship is an extremely
valuable experience that allows for strengthening skills in a real-world
situation and exposes students to key players of the profession.
Joining a professional association
while enrolled in a program of studies. Most professional associations have lower membership fees for
students. Keep abreast of your
association’s activities and try to participate in them. Also, volunteer in your professional
association by serving as a committee member, contributing articles to a
newsletter, etc.
Knowing the interpreting market for
your language pair.
All efforts to find work locally will be unproductive if there is limited or no
demand in your immediate city in your language pair. So it is worth doing some
inquiry.
Knowing government trends in the
hiring of interpreters and translators. As is well-known, most translators and
interpreters are independent workers, but job opportunities do exist. It is
important, however, to be abreast of current hiring trends. It appears, for example, that the Translation
Bureau of the Canadian government is not filling vacant positions. This might be temporary, however, so it is
good to keep informed about trends like this.
Offering services to government agencies
and law offices. While government tends to be at the lower end
of the fee range for T&I service, law offices seem to be willing to pay
more for professional services. Also, government
agencies may farm out interpreting services to a T&I agency and working
opportunities are to be channeled through it. It is worth doing some
investigation of local trends on this account.
Conference-like interpreting. International festivals, embassies, consulates,
language schools of local universities, convention centers, international centers, international
chambers of commerce, and multi-national and large corporations are likely to
require interpreting services.
Being entrepreneurial.
T&I agencies are part of our industry and they are not about to go
away. In fact, they seem to be thriving.
If you wonder why, the answer is simple: convenience. Agencies are appealing to
both clients and interpreters and translators.
Oftentimes clients do not know where to find these professionals.
Translators and interpreters, on the other hand, find it convenient not to have
to look for clients. Both parties in this equation seem to be willing to pay
for that convenience: the client pays the agency’s rate and the interpreters/translators
get a cut for their services. Of course, the agency keeps a percentage of the
amount to cover the cost of business and to make a profit. Depending on how
much profit the agency wants to make, the cut for the interpreter/translator is
smaller. Translators and interpreters
should be more entrepreneurial and cater to those clients who are looking for
convenience. This means, of course, creating your own T&I practice. If
lawyers create their own practices, why can’t interpreters and translators? When
trying to cater to a specific type of client; for example, legal professionals
– the courts included – it important to highlight advantages of contacting the
interpreter directly; for example, personalized attention, reliability,
competitive rates (no middle man), etc.
When
setting up one’s own practice, it matters to not look like an agency. It is
best to use identifiers such as studio
or practice; For example, Beyond Words Interpretation Studio.
Client Education and translator and
interpreter protection. Lay people tend to not know the
difference between translation and interpretation. This can be seen in the media where reporters
refer to the interpreter as the translator. Buyers of translation services very
often times do not know what to look for when contracting the services of an
interpreter or translator or what to expect. As the American Translators
Association (ATA) rightly points out, “there are hundreds of ways a translation
project can go off track – ridiculous deadlines, misapplied machine
translation, poor project management.” The ATA web site provides several resources
free of charge to help novice translators and interpreters know how to best help
their clients. They include Getting it Right – a guide for clients to be
informed when buying translation services. This guide is available in Brazilian
Portuguese, French, Russian, and Spanish, among other languages. ATA also
provides separate agreement templates for the provision of both translation and interpretation services. T&I agencies usually have their own
provision of services agreement, but when the terms and conditions of those
agreements are unacceptable, the samples provided by the ATA can prove
extremely useful.
Having your own website
/ blog. Of course, there are supporters and detractors
of the idea of having a website or a blog.
Those who argue against it seem to be convinced that the annual cost of
a website or blog (domain name, hosting, anti-virus protection etc.) does not
warrant the effort or the money. Those
in favor argue that a website helps in establishing credibility and allows one to
connect to one’s client base, provided it well designed and search engine
optimization
is done. For bloggers who maintain their own blogs, like me, the annual cost is
virtually zero.
Registering on T&I directories.
The following are
just a few examples of sites that post job and work opportunities (contract
work) for several industries, including T&I.
Proz. It claims to be the largest translation
network in the world. Upwork. The site says that freelancers can
do “[a]nything that can be done on a computer – from web and mobile programming
to graphic design.” The Open Mic. This
site offers the option of creating a profile, sharing stories about the T&I
industry, discussing important topics, and following colleagues. Translation directory. This
is a paying platform (8€/month)
Note:
The cost/benefit ratio would need to be assessed when registering and
paying for these directories as the cost could rapidly add up. Also, it seems
that compensation for some translation contracts can be as low as 0.1USD cent
per word. This is can be downside of
these platforms.
Word-of-mouth.
Do not underestimate the value of this way of getting business. We all
are part of an immediate community, which leads me to an extremely important
issue. While this might sound like a platitude, I cannot insist more on the
importance of ethical behavior and
professional conduct. Unethical behavior will only take you so far. It will
be known, and sooner or later it will catch up with you.
Publications for entrepreneurial
translators and interpreters
While
the following publications focus on translation, they may prove useful for language
professionals in general.
1.
Dagmar, Jenner and Judy. 2010. The
Entrepreneurial Linguist: The Business-School Approach to Freelance Translation. Paperback: 20 - 25 US$, Kindle: 8.99 US$
The
authors dispense tips and tricks on how to run a translation and interpreting
business through their blog Translation Times.
They also offer a workshop called "The Entrepreneurial Linguist."
2.
McKay,
Corinne. 2016. How to succeed as a
freelance translator. Third edition. Paperback: 20US$
This publication includes over 250
pages of practical tips on writing a translation-targeted resume and cover
letter, preparing a marketing plan, setting up a functional home office, and finding
and keeping well-paying clients. It includes separate sections on marketing to
agencies and direct clients, a chapter focusing on your first year as a
freelance translator and a chapter on online networking and social media.
I never
suspected that talking about marketing one’s services would raise so much
interest. All above tips may sound obvious to the seasoned, established
professional, but it is amazing to learn first-hand how important it is for
those who want to enter the profession.
It seems to be so important that European Terminology, a Facebook page
for terminologist of the European Union recently shared a post on this topic.
It is worth that it’s addressed to translators but interpreters can benefit
from it nonetheless.