Category: Getting started as a translator
A reader asks: It seems like when I talk to experienced translators and ask how they started out, nearly all of them started by working with agencies that gave a lot of feedback or at least let them see the edited versions of their translations. Then after some amount of time, they started working with direct …
This Wednesday (April 12), I’ll be giving a free webinar through SDL’s professional development series, on Three ways to find your first translation clients. Inspired by my blog post on the same topic, I’ll describe how to: work the local market apply to translation agencies that base their hiring only on their own tests cultivate a …
“Is this whole freelance thing worth it?” It’s a somewhat pessimistic question, but one that I hear with some frequency from readers and students. Corollaries include “I worry about machine translation putting us out of business.” “I’m 57 and only plan on working for another 8-10 years.” “I’m working too hard for the amount of money …
Last week’s ATA conference reminded me how very intimidating and scary one’s first few years as a freelancer can be. What’s stressful? Basically everything. Everything you write or say to a client or a potential client; every translation you proofread and re-proof and re-proof, worrying that there’s a horrific error hiding in there somewhere; every marketing …
A brief thought here, before Thoughts on Translation goes on hiatus for Spring Break! It’s a crossover thought from another area of my life, playing the lute (my mid-life crisis obsession!). I don’t have a ton of musical talent; actually way, way less than a ton. I can carry a tune and clap to the beat …
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been enjoying hosting In the Balance (video series on work-life balance). It’s a topic I think about a lot, probably not least of all because I live in a “lifestyle town” (an expression that I learned only recently!) where prioritizing one’s non-work interests is very much the norm. …
Since the beginning of September, I’ve been doing a video series called In the Balance for Andrew Morris’ Facebook group, Standing Out. The series focuses on work-life balance issues that translators, and freelancers in general, face. It’s been a lot of fun to create the (very basic; I’m not much of an a/v person!) videos, and …
Just a little fun thing here: Kidsville News (a “fun family newspaper and educational resource”) recently interviewed me about what it’s like to work as a translator. Here’s the article, and it was actually really interesting to think about how to explain translation to elementary-schoolers!
The next session of my online course Getting Started as a Freelance Translator starts on April 1, and registrations are starting to roll in. This is a four-week online course for beginning translators (in any language combination) who want to launch and run a successful freelance business. I take a maximum of ten students per session, …
A reader asks: I’d like to apply to more translation agencies, but how do I find good agencies to apply to? This question applies to a lot of people who want to work with agencies, so let’s talk about it. There are various online databases of translation agencies; for example I launched my freelance business back …
