Corinne McKay (classes@trainingfortranslators.com) is the founder of Training for Translators, and has been a full-time freelancer since 2002. An ATA-certified French to English translator and Colorado court-certified interpreter, she also holds a Master of Conference Interpreting from Glendon College. For more tips and insights, join the Training for Translators mailing list!
This week, I thought I’d take a look at options for in-house jobs. The reader who asked this question is interested in jobs as a translator, editor, or project manager; that covers a lot of bases, but I’ll also talk about options for interpreters and writers.
Also: If you’re in the opposite situation (in-house, looking to go freelance), I wrote a bonus post for the T4T blog, specifically for government and military linguists/language analysts thinking about shifting to the private sector.
The changing landscape
As I said, it’s a turbulent time in the world. In particular, translator/interpreter jobs with the U.S. government–typically one of my go-to recommendations–are looking a lot less stable than in the past. The situation seems to change day-by-day, if not within the course of one day. Most employees of the U.S. federal government were offered what might be termed a buy-out (resign by February 6 and get full pay and benefits until September), which was then amended to not include defense or intelligence workers, and then perhaps put on hold by a court order. Really, who knows. But regardless of where this heads, I would not apply for a U.S. government linguist/language analyst position right now, if any of those positions are even open, unless you have a very high tolerance for uncertainty.
In typical times, this would be one of my first suggestions. I worked for three years as an FBI contract linguist in the early 2000s. That job really helped me continue freelancing until I had enough of my own clients to earn a viable living, and I enjoyed the work (mostly listening to audio surveillance footage). And U.S. federal government linguist/language analyst jobs typically pay well: from people I’ve talked to and some cursory research on LinkedIn, I’d estimate a starting salary of around 80-95K plus federal government benefits for your whole family. But let’s take this option off the table for now.
What are your goals?
Perhaps you’ve already thought about this and you don’t need me to talk you through it. But before you dive into an in-house job search, make sure you’ve identified your goals. Are you looking for:
- A more predictable income stream than you get from freelancing
- A more predictable schedule than you get from freelancing
- Benefits (for those who aren’t familiar with the U.S. system, employer-provided health insurance and retirement plans are a big deal here)
- Freedom from having to hustle for work
- Co-workers, instead of working by yourself all the time
- Something else
These answers can help guide your search. If you’re hungry for co-workers, you probably don’t want to apply for fully remote jobs. If you want a stable salary and good benefits, maybe don’t apply to startups.
What are you going to give up?
Most decisions in life have tradeoffs. Again, maybe you’ve thought this through, but I wanted to mention it. Particularly if you have young kids, you’ll need to consider what you’re going to do with them during school vacations and whether extra child care could consume a significant portion of your income. If you have time-consuming non-work interests, are those going to align with a salaried job on a set schedule? This is partially a matter of how much you value the “free” in freelancing. For me, that’s a lot: I’ve always felt that in order for me to take an in-house job, it would have to pay at least the cash equivalent of what I earn from freelancing, plus good benefits and a generous amount of vacation. Maybe you’re of the opposite mindset: you’d rather have the stable salary and benefits than the freedom.
Where to look
If you’ve made it this far and you’re still convinced, let’s help you find a job. I think you’ll want to go about this in two ways:
- Applying to open positions that you find or hear about
- Prospecting for opportunities that aren’t advertised
I’ve been out of the salaried job market for too long to add anything helpful here, but I have a number of twentysomethings in my life (my daughter and her friends) who are on the internship or job market. They’ve told me that the return rate on job applications is about the same as when you’re prospecting for freelance clients. Case in point: my daughter is currently searching for a summer engineering internship; she applied to 90+ internships, got maybe five interviews, and so far has gotten three offers, and that’s actually much better than her return rate from last year (first internship year, between year 2 and year 3 of college/university), which was more like 90 applications to get two interviews and one offer. Set your expectations appropriately and aim to apply for a lot of jobs.
Start with LinkedIn
I would start on LinkedIn. As long as you don’t mind people knowing that you’re looking for a job, put the “Open to Work” banner on your LinkedIn profile, and make a LinkedIn post about your search. Be as specific as possible. “I’m a Spanish to English translator and editor with 9 years of experience as a freelancer. I’d like to transition from freelancing to an in-house job, and I’m looking for a full-time position as a Spanish to English translator, a translation reviser, an English-only editor, or a translation project manager. I’m most interested in fully remote positions, although I’m open to working in an office in the Chicago area.” Just put it out there, because networking and referrals will be a good source of leads for you.
Next, I would set up an alert on LinkedIn, although you’re likely to get a lot of irrelevant alerts for languages you don’t do. Go on LinkedIn and click “Jobs” in the top navigation bar, and you’ll get (or at least I get) a bar asking you, are you actively looking for a job or casually looking for a job. After you answer that question, you’ll be prompted to enter criteria for a job search alert. I would recommend doing this, why not, even though LinkedIn’s algorithm seems to send you anything and everything with the word “translation” or “interpreting” in it.
One thing you’ll definitely find on LinkedIn: project manager jobs with agencies. Those seem to be relatively plentiful, presumably because people don’t tend to stay too long in those positions.
Another thing you’ll glean from LinkedIn: intel about who is hiring. In the “suggested jobs for you” section on LinkedIn, I saw multiple jobs at a software development company called Epic. They seem to be hiring translators for multiple languages. They state right away that the job requires you to move to Wisconsin, but point being, you can get a sense of companies that are actively hiring, then go to their websites and see what’s there: maybe you can set up an alert for new positions, or contact them directly.
Specialized job search sites
Next, I would look at specialized job search sites for your specializations. Examples include Devex for international development (another sector in turmoil right now, but worth looking at), and all of the specialized job search sites listed in this article on the muse, including finance, architecture, media, tourism, etc. The chance of finding a translator/interpreter/editor job on here may not be huge, but you may find something (I’ve found freelance clients on Devex), and as with LinkedIn, you may find companies that are hiring for other positions and may need you. You might also try FlexJobs, a site that lists only remote and hybrid jobs. For what it’s worth, I put “translator” into the FlexJobs, there were some decent-looking results; likewise for “editor.” I’ve heard FlexJobs promoted or endorsed on a couple of the remote work/digital nomad podcasts I listen to.
Under the radar
Poke around under the radar. For example, a fellow student in my conference interpreting program told me about IAMLAPD, a site that advertises positions within the UN system. I’m in a couple of WhatsApp groups for freelance translation and interpreting work; maybe such things exist for in-house jobs?
Above the radar
Finally, go above the radar. If you’re interested in project manager jobs, contact all of your current clients and tell them this. A client who already knows you is much more likely to tell you about a job that’s upcoming but not listed yet.
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