How to Be a Professional Translator

Being a professional translator is listed in the top ten professions right now.

It is a highly requested service throughout the world and almost in every field of industry. Having said that, language translation is a highly competitive market. Becoming a successful professional translator is not easy, nonetheless, once you prove yourself to be a capable linguist, a career as a professional translator can be financially and personally rewarding.

Road to be a professional translator

Just like any career, the road to be a translator is that easy.

It takes dedication and perseverance and a genuine passion for languages. Also, the standard of education to become a professional translator is very high, you need to have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent in linguistics and translation; getting higher degrees is always a privilege. To increase your chances of finding work, you must be able to write to an impeccable standard in your mother tongue. You must also demonstrate that you are fluent in the language you want to translate, but you must also be familiar with the country’s customs and culture. Competition within the translation industry is fierce. The same is also true with translators, because the number of professional translators is small compared to the market demand for their services. So, you have to be equipped with talent, knowledge, intelligence and translation tools; translation memory software is desirable together with computer-aided translation (CAT) tools as they help speed up the process and make your work more efficient.

On the other hand, you have to market your services, build your own website, set out your rate and always keep learning. If you are working in a specialized field, you should be keeping up to date with the latest news, trends, laws and technologies. The more knowledge you have about the field you are working in, the easier it is to translate documents accurately and with authority.

A professional translator should comply follow the procedures required by client; know how to provide the details and comply with the client’s as well as the agency’s rules. The translator should be flexible, responsive, duty-bound, dedicated and a professional through and through. To become a good and effective translator, you should ensure that each and every translation project you handle is treated with respect and will be consistently of the highest quality. On-time delivery is also a requirement.

To sum it all up, a professional translator should have a mastery of the source and target languages, deep knowledge of the subject matter and has top-level skill in doing research. The translator must possess an analytical mind and capable of critical thinking. Lastly, a professional translator is fully committed to the task and delivers a top-quality work.