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Starting up as a translator directly after University
Thread poster: Marc Fisher
Marc Fisher
Marc Fisher
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you Jun 25, 2020

Kay Denney wrote:

OK, I see you are still here so I shall add my two cents

I agree that a third language would not help much unless you go out on a limb and learn a language that no other native English speakers learn. But that doesn't help you in the short-term with getting established as a translator directly after University, which after all was the specific question you asked.

I only have one source language. When I see the infinite shades of nuance in my source texts, and see how I have had to stretch my knowledge of my source language even after learning it for over 40 years, I just don't believe anybody could have enough knowledge of three languages to be able to translate from them all in any given subject.

Unlike learning another language, learning a specialist subject is more of a narrowing down than a broadening out, so it's easier to achieve (apart from rocket science of course ). You can gain knowledge of a specialist subject in a variety of ways, such as in part-time jobs you take on to pay your bills while you build up your customer base (if possible in different countries or failing that, in fields where you are in contact with people in different countries). I worked for a woman in the film industry who left to work as a translator from home simply to be with her children more. She obviously knew the jargon, and also had many contacts who knew she could translate and immediately started sending her work.

Your specialist subject can also be your hobby. My primary specialist subject is fashion and textiles, and I got into that partly because I learned dressmaking with my mother, and picked up all sorts of vocabulary simply by reading pattern instructions. These were multi-lingual even back in the day, so I kind of picked that specialist jargon without even trying.
When working as a PM in an agency, I once needed a translator specialising in horse-riding. I just did a search in our database, thinking it'd be a long shot, and lo and behold, a translator we occasionally sent finance translations to had listed horse-riding as a hobby. She was utterly delighted to do all the translations, it made a great change to the dry as dust stuff she normally ploughed through.

Nowadays I do a lot of work for museums, artists and art galleries (OK this has been on hold since lockdown but it will surely pick up again). I have zero qualifications in the subject, unless you count my enthusiasm. This is a passion I share with my daughter, we often go to exhibitions together. Again, I have picked up a lot of jargon simply by reading the catalogues in both my languages.
A former colleague worked as a PA in a law firm for a while before striking out as a translator. With the name of a well-known law firm on her CV, and again, thanks to her contacts there, she quickly specialised in legal translations, and of course she can command very good rates in that field.

Another advantage of adding specialist subjects rather than another language: if you use a CAT tool, you'll quickly build up a beautiful memory and termbase which will help you for all clients in that field.

Hope that helps.


This is very helpful, thank you Kay.

My specialist subject would be sport. I am a fully qualified tennis coach (which I do not wish to pursue as a career) and I have played tennis throughout my life and follow the sport at all levels. I have also translated parts of the French Tennis Federation website for an undergraduate project and I am currently subtitling a Spanish documentary about the tennis player David Ferrer for a postgraduate project. The same would go for football, which despite not playing at a high level, I have followed religiously since a young age.

I had perhaps thought that there would not be a market for a translator with sport as a sole specialism?


Kay Denney
 
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Germany
Local time: 03:14
English to German
In memoriam
It's a start Jun 25, 2020

Marc Fisher wrote:
I had perhaps thought that there would not be a market for a translator with sport as a sole specialism?


While that might be correct, there is no such thing as a "sole" specialism. A specialism is only the core of what you do as a translator. It's the reason why clients give you jobs, but it will not be the limit of the jobs you do. First of all, no text is limited to only one field, it always touches other fields as well. And then, if your name is out as "the" go-to person regarding sports translations, there will be tons of opportunities where you might be offered subjects like e-sports, sports betting, sports fashion and shoes, sports celebrity gossip, apps, advertising, contracts, sponsoring, journalism, events, products, you name it. And if you did a good job translating sports content for an agency or client, they will also ask you to do things like banking, archeology, or rocket science, simply because they got a job on their table and have no specialist at hand, and they at least know you for a diligent and reliable partner.


Rachel Waddington
Marc Fisher
Sheila Wilson
Kay Denney
Gethin Sugar
Joe France
Fatine Echenique
 
Rachel Waddington
Rachel Waddington  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
Dutch to English
+ ...
Sport Jun 25, 2020

Marc Fisher wrote:

This is very helpful, thank you Kay.

My specialist subject would be sport. I am a fully qualified tennis coach (which I do not wish to pursue as a career) and I have played tennis throughout my life and follow the sport at all levels. I have also translated parts of the French Tennis Federation website for an undergraduate project and I am currently subtitling a Spanish documentary about the tennis player David Ferrer for a postgraduate project. The same would go for football, which despite not playing at a high level, I have followed religiously since a young age.

I had perhaps thought that there would not be a market for a translator with sport as a sole specialism?



Do you ever write or blog about sports? That could be a good way to show off your writing skills and get noticed. Sports is big business, so there will definitely be a market, though you will probably not end up working exclusively in that field.

Why not put up some sports-related sample translations and write a profile intro along the lines of what you have written above?

Working in a sports-related company whilst building your translation business might be a possible route to look into.


Sheila Wilson
Mr.Q
 
Marc Fisher
Marc Fisher
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
@Rachel Jun 25, 2020

Rachel Waddington wrote:

Marc Fisher wrote:

This is very helpful, thank you Kay.

My specialist subject would be sport. I am a fully qualified tennis coach (which I do not wish to pursue as a career) and I have played tennis throughout my life and follow the sport at all levels. I have also translated parts of the French Tennis Federation website for an undergraduate project and I am currently subtitling a Spanish documentary about the tennis player David Ferrer for a postgraduate project. The same would go for football, which despite not playing at a high level, I have followed religiously since a young age.

I had perhaps thought that there would not be a market for a translator with sport as a sole specialism?



Do you ever write or blog about sports? That could be a good way to show off your writing skills and get noticed. Sports is big business, so there will definitely be a market, though you will probably not end up working exclusively in that field.

Why not put up some sports-related sample translations and write a profile intro along the lines of what you have written above?

Working in a sports-related company whilst building your translation business might be a possible route to look into.


I don't own a blog. I do regularly post on forums, but these are obviously more informal by nature.

Thank you for the advice Rachel, I will look to produce some sports-related sample translations and further develop my profile going forward.


 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 03:14
French to English
. Jun 25, 2020

Marc Fisher wrote:

My specialist subject would be sport. I am a fully qualified tennis coach (which I do not wish to pursue as a career) and I have played tennis throughout my life and follow the sport at all levels. I have also translated parts of the French Tennis Federation website for an undergraduate project and I am currently subtitling a Spanish documentary about the tennis player David Ferrer for a postgraduate project. The same would go for football, which despite not playing at a high level, I have followed religiously since a young age.

I had perhaps thought that there would not be a market for a translator with sport as a sole specialism?



Hey, it's one of my specialist subjects too!

When I worked in-house, the agency's biggest client was a multi-national sports retailer. They actually required the agency to confirm that the translator was interested in sport. I had to translate factsheets, newsletters and marketing documents for their new products. I learned a lot about how to repair my bike, translating the instructions for a new type of tyre!

I also had to manage a project translating news articles for the European Cup once - I remember they made us translate two different articles about the final depending on the result.

No need to limit yourself to the sports you happen to love - if you can translate texts about tennis gear, you can do the same for badminton and skiing and swimming. With the exception of yoga, there's always the same emphasis on how to improve performance, run faster, jump higher etc. and how your gear will help achieve that.

Put some samples of your translations on your profile here to show what you're capable of, and watch out for postings - I have seen several on here. In fact IIRC I applied to a company looking for translators for the women's World Cup and even passed their test, although I didn't work for them in the end, probably because I had too much work elsewhere, or they may have wanted me to use some stupid interface. All I remember now is that they liked how I jokingly reassured them that I knew about the offside rule despite my gender (I looked it up before writing it ).


Mr.Q
Marc Fisher
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
Member (2008)
Italian to English
. Jun 25, 2020

Kay Denney wrote:
.


It would help if you would give a title to your posts- even if it's only gobbledegook like DIPBVe78rgibdcm


 
Mervyn Henderson (X)
Mervyn Henderson (X)  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 03:14
Spanish to English
+ ...
Construction Jun 25, 2020

I thought architects focused on useful construction, not useless destruction.





[Edited at 2020-06-25 17:06 GMT]

[Edited at 2020-06-25 17:09 GMT]

[Edited at 2020-06-26 05:48 GMT]


Kay Denney
Joe France
 
Lincoln Hui
Lincoln Hui  Identity Verified
Hong Kong
Local time: 10:14
Member
Chinese to English
+ ...
Start now Jun 25, 2020

I'm going to cut against the grain and say that if your career goal is to be a freelance translator, you should start now. That's not to say you can't find a real job, but you need to find a job that allows you to pursue side jobs (which may be easier in a country where the standard work week is 40 hours rather than 60 hours). That way, you'll be in a position to make the transition knowing that you already have something waiting for you, and you're not jumping from a salary into a void when (if... See more
I'm going to cut against the grain and say that if your career goal is to be a freelance translator, you should start now. That's not to say you can't find a real job, but you need to find a job that allows you to pursue side jobs (which may be easier in a country where the standard work week is 40 hours rather than 60 hours). That way, you'll be in a position to make the transition knowing that you already have something waiting for you, and you're not jumping from a salary into a void when (if) you decide to freelance full-time. Plus, better to find out that you're just not cut out for this in your 20s than in your late 30s.

I don't know what kind of market you're going to find for in-house translators. This is first and foremost not a good time to be looking for brick-and-mortar jobs, but more to the point, I'm not sure which organizations are looking for someone like you.

I think of specialization as something that you grow into, organically. It's something that evolves as you go along and certain types of jobs start landing in your lap more than others, or you decide to favor certain types of jobs over others when you have a choice to make. Down the road, it might be the thing that gets you to the 40% income tax bracket, but I don't think it's what gets you up and running in the early years. I'm not saying you can't try to identify specializations right now, but don't let it guide your career decisions, because I all but guarantee that in 5-10 years your specializations are going to look very different from what you expect them to be right now. You're not somebody who comes into translation with decades of high-level experience in another professional industry, and what works for those people is not all that likely to work for you.

[Edited at 2020-06-25 18:49 GMT]
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Marc Fisher
Samuel Murray
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
DIPBVe78rgibdcm Jun 25, 2020

Turns out DIPBVe78rgibdcm isn’t only gobbledegook. Tom, I just cleared out your bank account.

Mahad Abdisalan Yusuf
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Another useful contribution Jun 26, 2020

Chris S wrote:

nothing important




[Edited at 2020-06-26 07:59 GMT]


Mahad Abdisalan Yusuf
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 03:14
French to English
Jun 26, 2020



[Edited at 2020-06-26 08:17 GMT]


 
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