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Getting Started As A Freelance Translator
By Corinne McKay
Freelance Writer and Translator
ATA-Certified for French to English Translation
corinne@translatewrite.com
www.translatewrite.com
Become a member of TranslationDirectory.com at just
$12 per month (paid per year)
Background
I became a translator via a series of happy
accidents. After taking French in school since seventh
grade, I studied abroad at the University of Grenoble,
France, for my junior year of college. There, a
professor recommended me for a part-time job as
a trainee translator at the University's graduate
school of business. This ended up involving work
on an international marketing textbook that was
subsequently published by Prentice-Hall. Back in
the U.S., I taught high school French for 8 years,
did a few translations on the side when people asked
me, and earned an M.A. in French from Boston College.
After relocating to Colorado and having a child,
I wanted to find a career that would allow me to
use French and work from home, so I decided to try
to make a go as a professional translator. Several
years later, I'm certified by the American Translators
Association and happily employed by a growing list
of regular clients. I hope that these tips will
be helpful to aspiring translators! Please note
that the examples provided here reflect my personal
experience; everyone's mileage will vary depending
on your language pairs, professional background,
geographic location, etc.
First Steps
Although the translation industry is booming, it's
hard to find well-paying work if you don't have
either a degree in translation, some translation
experience, or excellent language skills plus training
and/or experience in a technical field.
The easiest way to get samples and references is
either to volunteer/intern, or work for low-paying
agencies who will hire beginner translators. Organizations
such as the American Red Cross, Translators Without
Borders, refugee assistance programs, and public
health clinics are often looking for volunteer translators
and interpreters. In addition, many translation
agencies offer unpaid or paid internships, and some
low-paying agencies are willing and even eager to
work with beginners. For example I was recently
contacted by an agency looking for interpreters
with "at least some college" and paying $15-$20
an hour, or about half to one quarter of what an
experienced, professional interpreter would probably
charge. These are all good places for a beginner
to start.
In addition, although many people think that anyone
who is familiar with two languages can be a translator,
this isn't the case, for several reasons. First,
translators are also writers. Your translation might
be correct "word for word," but sound horrible when
read as a whole, which won't make the client happy.
Second, there are some conventions in the profession
that beginners are often ignorant of. For example,
when you translate an official document like a diploma
or birth certificate, you need to format the translation
as closely as possible to the original, not just
type up the translation in paragraph form. Last,
but possibly most important, in order to translate
subject-specific documents, you need subject-specific
knowledge in your own language. If you're translating
a computer hardware document and you don't know
the difference between a hub and a router in English,
you'll be even more lost when reading this type
of information in another language.
Once you have a degree in translation, some work
experience or some translation samples, it's time
to look for clients. Some of my best suggestions,
with examples from my experience, are:
- Be realistic. When you're looking for a full-time
job, all you need is one offer. To work full-time
or close to it as a translator, you need a sizeable
list of regular clients. Unless you have very
marketable skills in an in-demand language pair,
it may take a year or more until you are working
full time. In my case, I contacted about 400 translation
agencies (not a typo) over the course of my first
year in business, and it was about 18 months until
I was earning an amount equivalent to my previous
full time job.
- Never quit marketing. Once you have steady work,
it's tempting to think that agencies will keep
contacting you, freeing you from the hassle of
contacting new prospective clients and touching
base with previous contacts. However, this is
a bad assumption. Work flows go up and down, agencies
go out of business, the project manager who loves
you quits and is replaced by someone who brings
in his/her own person, etc. Plus, you never know
when an "out of nowhere" project offer will be
perfect for you, and/or allow you to raise your
rates. Even though I usually have about as much
work as I can handle, I still send my resume to
3-5 new agencies per week just to keep the ball
rolling. Recently, one of these agencies (in Europe)
contacted me with a multi-thousand dollar project
because I was the only U.S.-based French to English
translator in their database, and a client wanted
a project translated into U.S. English.
- Don't ignore the local market, especially if
you present yourself better in person than on
paper. My first clients, who I still work for
today, were local agencies who I contacted and
offered to meet with to show them a portfolio
of my work. Check the yellow pages or Internet
under "translators and interpreters." Even if
the agencies say that they don't hire beginners
or don't have work in your language pair, go visit
them anyway and find out what they do. You'll
understand more about what your potential clients
want, and they'll know you for when your skills
are more in line with their needs.
- Join some associations. The American
Translators Association and its local chapters
(a list is available on the ATA website, or Google
"translators your state," replacing "your state"
with your actual state) are a great way to establish
your seriousness as a translator, and to meet
other translators.
- Ask for advice. While it's somewhat risky to
contact a translator in your own language pair
for risk of sounding like you're trying to swoop
in on his/her clients, most translators enjoy
their work and like to talk about their jobs and
how they got started. A freelancers group I'm
in (for women only) has a tradition called "Take
a successful woman to lunch," where an aspiring
translator/writer/web designer/artist, etc. offers
to buy lunch for a more experienced person in
exchange for a conversation about the profession.
- Orient your resume toward translation. Especially
for people who are native speakers of a language
other than English and have specialized professional
skills, this is key. Highlight specific skills
right away, such as "Spanish-bilingual software
specialist," "Native speaker of Arabic with mechanical
engineering background," etc. rather than expecting
the agency or client to see that you have these
capabilities.
- Offer services that more experienced translators
probably don't. The translation industry is booming,
and many experienced translators with a full house
of regular clients don't have a financial need
to work nights, weekends, rush jobs, etc. Make
it clear to prospective clients that you can fill
in in a pinch, and be willing to actually do this!
- Get certified. Certification by the American
Translators Association isn't a must, but
can lead to a big increase in business as the
credential becomes more recognized. In my case
this happened when, shortly after I passed the
certification exam in French to English, an agency
I work with was requested by a major client to
use only certified translators on certain projects.
- Be realistic your earning potential. While translation
is definitely well-paying as compared with other
careers that allow you to work from home in your
pajamas on projects that are often very interesting,
remember that 25-40% of your income as a freelancer
will go to things that your employer normally
pays for when you have a full time job. Most people
count in the biggies- taxes, health insurance,
retirement plan contributions and vacation/personal/sick
time, but over the years other expenses like dictionaries,
office equipment, continuing education and professional
travel add up too. Over the course of the 8 years
I worked full time, my employer paid for literally
thousands of dollars of "extra" stuff like this,
including half the tuition for my M.A. degree
and two trips to France. These days, I spend about
a thousand dollars a year just to attend the annual
conference of the American Translators Association,
plus various other workshops. Remember also that
the time it takes to do non-translation activities
like accounting, collections, billing, updating
computer systems, even cleaning your office, is
"off the clock."
- Find the economic advantages to freelancing.
As a corollary to the tip above, freelancing is
far from all bad news when it comes to earnings.
You may be able to take significant tax deductions
for business related expenses, unlike when you
have a salaried job (talk to a tax professional
about this). Furthermore, if you work from home
you won't be paying commuting expenses, lunch
out, work clothes, etc. Depending on your particular
situation, there may be even bigger hidden benefits.
In my case, I have a small child; if I worked
30 hours a week at an employer's office, I would
need at least 35 hours of child care, and high-quality
child care in my area is $10-$12 an hour. As a
freelancer, I'm able to work about 30 hours a
week with 15 hours of child care by making up
the rest of the time at night or when my child
is with a friend. This savings alone, plus the
additional time to spend with the family, makes
freelancing a very attractive option if you have
small kids.
- Keep in touch. As you apply to agencies, keep
a file of the person you talked to or e-mailed
with, and what his or her response was to your
inquiry. As you get more experience, periodically
contact these people again to let them know a)
you're still there and b) you have some new projects
to tell them about.
- Show an interest in the profession. Once you
explore the tip of the translation iceberg, you'll
be amazed at the number of translation-related
websites, magazines and newsletters out there.
Contributing to them allows you to both educate
yourself and present yourself as someone who's
really passionate about the industry, not just
someone who likes to work in your pajamas!
- Never (never) take on work you can't handle.
Especially in a small community of translators
and translation consumers, the surest way to sabotage
your emerging freelance business is to take on
something that's too technical, too long, or too
complex. Clients will appreciate your honesty
and use you for projects that you can handle.
Sometimes this involves protecting clients from
hiring you for work that *they* think that you
can do, such as translating into your second (third,
etc) language. Politely explain that this work
is best handled by a native speaker of that language
and offer a referral.
- Keep your clients happy. While this could be
an article in itself (when I have time!) it's
worthy of mention. Finish every project on time
and on budget, and NEVER miss a deadline without
notifying a client as soon as you realize that
despite your good planning, the project won't
be done on time. Return all phone calls and e-mails
as soon as you can, always within one business
day. When you're not available, help solve the
client's problem by referring them to a colleague.
In all of your dealings with your clients, remain
professional. If you encounter a problem, it hurts
to have your skills or qualifications questioned,
but remember that the client is already in high-anxiety
mode if they're not happy with your work, and
you need to remain calm rather than making the
client more upset. Probably one of the best pieces
of advice I've ever been given is "don't hold
onto your clients by charging less, hold onto
your clients by charging more and proving that
you're worth it." Of course there are some agencies
and direct clients who only care about getting
the work done for one cent per word cheaper than
the last translator they used, but most clients
care just as much about quality as they do about
price. Keeping a good relationship with the client
and doing outstanding work proves to them that
often, you get the level of service you pay for.
These tips reflect my experience as a translator
and my own opinions, not those of my clients. Feel
free to use them in your own work, and let
me know if they are helpful!
This article may
be freely reproduced or redistributed
for non-commercial use with attribution to the author
Copyright 2004 by Corinne McKay
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