Translator Career Advice - Being Successful in Your Profession

Translator Career Advice - Being Successful in Your Profession

Everyone wants to be successful. It is unlikely that anyone has ever stood up and said that they wanted to fail. However, that doesn't mean that no one never has. In fact, chances are very good that everyone has failed at one time or another. There is such a thing a preparing for success, though, and doing so can save you a lot of trouble and anxiety. If you have decided that you want a career as a translator, there are some things you can to do help you achieve your goal and be wonderful at it. Here are a few pieces of advice that will contribute to your success.

It will be tempting, especially at the start of your career, to over commit to projects. You may be trying to impress your boss or you may be working to maximize your salary. Either way, taking on too many projects can actually backfire on you. Clients will expect to have their projects completed in a reasonable amount of time. They will also need them to be high quality translations they can count on to get their point across. When you are overloaded on projects, you may end up turning in work late or rushing to complete projects which results in poor quality work. Protect your reputation by only accepting a few projects at a time.

Being a translator is more than transcribing documents word for word. If that were the case then your customers would use free online tools which did that. When you are translating work, you are taking the meaning of a sentence and writing, or speaking, the equivalent meaning in the secondary language. To do this effectively, you will need cultural knowledge of the languages you are speaking. Oftentimes, a word will have several meanings and you will need to understand the context in order to translate it correctly. Knowing the culture will provide you with that context. If possible, spend time in a country that speaks the language.

To maximize your success as a translator, you should give a lot of thought to specializing in a specific field. There are tons of general translators. However, if you specialize in an area, like medical documents, then you will attract attention and more business from people who need that specific service. You can still offer general translation services to clients who need them. Do your best work and you will achieve your goals.

-By Adriana Tassini

The following Translator Q & A is part of our Translator FAQ Series.Question:Answer: Learn more:Tags: