| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] > | The key steps to becoming a freelance translator Thread poster: SamuelDJones (X)
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Jamasian
United States
Chinese to English
+ ...
| MA really a Boost? | Aug 22, 2016 |
I'm in the same situation really. I would like to kick up my skills and have decided to enroll in school. Has an MA helped anyone that started freelance without a full time? It doesn't seem like many agencies request diplomas at all.
| | | | Jamasian
United States
Chinese to English
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| Client types | Aug 22, 2016 |
Kristina Cosumano wrote:
Maybe I am one of the lucky ones, but I started just about a year ago, pretty much completely from scratch (no training, no certification, just good with both languages and very motivated), and started reaching the $2000 per month mark about six months in.
Did you go the agency route to start or mostly dealt with direct clients?
| | | | Ilan Rubin (X) 
Russian Federation
Local time: 07:58
Russian to English
| Everybody's experience is different | Aug 22, 2016 |
Kristina Cosumano wrote: LegalTransform wrote:
People are generally over optimistic when it comes to becoming a translator. Although, some people get lucky, you can generally expect:
Year one: between $500 and $2000.00 per year
Year two: between $3000 and $7000.00 per year
[Edited at 2016-08-21 18:26 GMT] Maybe I am one of the lucky ones, but I started just about a year ago, pretty much completely from scratch (no training, no certification, just good with both languages and very motivated), and started reaching the $2000 per month mark about six months in. And that has been rising slowly but surely even through the summer.
Everybody will have a different experience freelancing, and it's very much what you make of it and the thought and effort you put in. I think that very few UK-based people would consider translating were they to be making what Legal Transform suggests and in my view a decent translator can make those amounts per month, not per year, once they build up their business. So no, I wouldn't say that Kristina is one of the lucky ones, her experience is quite normal I would think.
Some of you guys are no doubt too young to remember Norman Tebbit in his heyday but metaphorically speaking you need to 'get on your bike' and go looking for the work (like Tebbit's Dad apparently did). I can't imagine an MA in translation making much difference unless it's to learn interpreting skills. You just need to get a thorough knowledge of your source language in the areas in which you will specialize, make sure you are a good linguist (this depends on you and how detailed-oriented you are, how much of a perfectionist you are) and then go and target those permanent clients that you need. Build up your profile with positive feedback and seek it out politely but firmly from anybody you have done work for.
Also you need to assess the risks of going full-time freelance versus maintaining the current situation. Assume that for 6 months you don't make more than your current private clients have brought you. Can you survive on that? What are your commitments? Mortgage, kids? If you don't have these commitments and you meet the criteria I suggested in my previous para then go for it, sure. If you do have them then before going full-time freelance you should at least have a well-thought out 'Plan B'.
And in relation to this have you talked to your current private clients? Can they commit to providing you a certain level of work going forwards?
Also, I really disagree with polyglot45.
polyglot45 wrote:
Most of the people active on this site are people who had no formal training in translation. Some, perhaps many, manage to make a decent living by having honed their skills over the years, good marketing, working long hours at low rates, being at the mercy of the agencies, etc.
...
My advice is ALWAYS that if you really want to be a good translator, earn decent money and generally find yourself working on subjects you are interested in, then an MA in Translation is a 'must'.
I had no formal translation training in the sense of an MA. But we did a lot of translation at undergraduate level and that was sufficient to teach the skills to those of us who made the effort to learn them. I make a decent living and no, I don't charge low rates and I'm not at the mercy of any agencies. In fact agency work over the last year has probably been less than 10% of my total income, as I've worked solidly with 3 direct clients most of the time. You just need to find those direct clients. According to polyglot45 the MA gives you an instant network of clients. Maybe it does, but normally clients can reach out to translators on proz, to agencies and elsewhere, so the fact that they know you doesn't mean they will give you work. So I think the network is quite an individual experience and you can build it up elsewhere and for free. Like Norman Tebbit's Dad. If somebody was an excellent plumber would they spend a year on a plumbing MA just to build up a client network? I don't think so.
[Edited at 2016-08-22 08:29 GMT]
| | | | | Reason of income | Aug 24, 2016 |
ILAN RUBIN wrote:
I had no formal translation training in the sense of an MA. But we did a lot of translation at undergraduate level and that was sufficient to teach the skills to those of us who made the effort to learn them. I make a decent living and no, I don't charge low rates and I'm not at the mercy of any agencies. In fact agency work over the last year has probably been less than 10% of my total income, as I've worked solidly with 3 direct clients most of the time. You just need to find those direct clients. According to polyglot45 the MA gives you an instant network of clients. Maybe it does, but normally clients can reach out to translators on proz, to agencies and elsewhere, so the fact that they know you doesn't mean they will give you work. So I think the network is quite an individual experience and you can build it up elsewhere and for free. Like Norman Tebbit's Dad. If somebody was an excellent plumber would they spend a year on a plumbing MA just to build up a client network? I don't think so.
I have a silly reason to have started my translation/interpretation job: my full-time employment wage was badly low if compared with my freelance jobs as a linguist. I found I am happy the learn of new information (of various clients) as well.
Soonthon L.
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Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:58
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| On incomes, luck and competence | Aug 24, 2016 |
ILAN RUBIN wrote: Kristina Cosumano wrote:
...started reaching the $2000 per month mark about six months in. And that has been rising slowly but surely even through the summer. I think that very few UK-based people would consider translating were they to be making what Legal Transform suggests and in my view a decent translator can make those amounts per month, not per year, once they build up their business. So no, I wouldn't say that Kristina is one of the lucky ones, her experience is quite normal I would think.
I agree with Ilan Rubin. Like Kristina I found that I was able to make decent money within a few months of starting out. My income this year has been consistently well above the median income for the UK as a whole.
I take issue with the word "lucky" as used in this thread. Bad luck does happen to everybody and how you overcome bad luck depends largely on your character. Good luck, on the other hand, is something you can make for yourself. People have said to me "Oh, you're so lucky that you work in a difficult language pair with high rates".
No, I didn't "get lucky". Thirty years ago I looked at which languages seemed likely to be commercially useful as an adjunct to my other studies and decided (correctly) that Japanese was one of them. The appropriate terms are "planning" and "hard work". And in any case, there are plenty of low rates in my pair if you fail to find the higher end clients.
As for polyglot45's response, we look at the world through the lenses of personal experience. I disagree that an MA is any more useful than other qualifications. I trade heavily on my first-hand industry experience and I build my own network; for me that has worked. However, there are no doubt many others who have hacked out great careers without any industry track record. My conclusion is that there are many, many ways to succeed in translation.
There are a few obvious ways to fail: having a poor professional image; not doing enough marketing to find clients; consistently turning in work of poor quality; consistently turning in work late; worst of all, giving up and blaming this enormous, diverse and growing industry for your lack of success.
To the original poster I would say this: in such a diverse market beware of individuals - myself or anybody else on this thread - claiming that their experience alone represents the industry.
Dan
| | | | | Counterweight | Aug 24, 2016 |
To all those who have damned my comments about the value of translation studies, I should like to offer the following reply.
Every time someone posts a question on the subject of becoming a translator, there are always those on sites like this who will defend to the death the irrelevance of a Masters degree in translation and/or interpreting and they do so in very categorical terms. I am sick and fed up with this one-sided picture, so I decided to present the other side of the coin... See more To all those who have damned my comments about the value of translation studies, I should like to offer the following reply.
Every time someone posts a question on the subject of becoming a translator, there are always those on sites like this who will defend to the death the irrelevance of a Masters degree in translation and/or interpreting and they do so in very categorical terms. I am sick and fed up with this one-sided picture, so I decided to present the other side of the coin and to adopt a similar categorical approach.
I stand by what I said, which is that the students I have taught and teach have very little difficulty in finding work once they qualify. They have the strength of a prestigious graduate school behind them, which is a leg-up in itself. They do not only learn how to translate, the tricks of the trade, the pitfalls to avoid, the way to research a subject, etc. etc., they also learn to manage projects and how to write reports on their field experience. By rubbing shoulders with their peers and their teachers, they can glean a wealth of knowledge. They can easily find jobs in international organisations, firms or even as freelancers. But beginner freelancers with a plus!
To Dan (and many others), I would say that people who have worked in other professions, who have good enough language knowledge and who decide to transfer to translation represent another route into the profession that I respect. Indeed, the only translators (other than those with translation qualifications) that I would recommend to my clients would be people with this profile. I didn't mention it in my earlier comment so as not to dilute my case.
But OP made it clear he does not have such a background, whence my recommendation of a course.
The choice will be his but he should remember that there are very few people on sites like this with "official" backgrounds. Those of us who went the diploma route don't have to come here for work. I lurk here for other reasons that I prefer not to mention so as to to give my game away! Most of the seasoned and experienced professionals I know are like me but we are NOT the people for whom sites such as this are intended.
So to Samuel I would say that it is possible to dive in the deep end and to flail around until you learn to swim. You won't be able to charge much and will have to work hard to eek out a living but it can be done. Far be it from me to fly in the face of reality. But if you want a good, satisfying and well-paid life as a translator (think rates from 0.25 € and upwards), then maybe a bit of initial investment is worth the price. Better that than to be a bottom feeder forced to accept the peanut rates that clients on these sites find they can impose. The thought makes me shudder!
Just so you see both sides......before you decide (and assuming you would be accepted on a course!) ▲ Collapse
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 05:58
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
| You need to offer clients something solid | Aug 24, 2016 |
SamuelDJones wrote:
I'm currently working in a full-time administration job (with interpreting a key part of my role) while also taking on a few projects on the side as a freelancer. I've done this for about 2 years now and am now keen to make a decision with regards to my next step towards eventually going freelance full-time.
For me, the options available are the following:
- Find an in-house translation role Well, you can try. But they are few and far between. If you do find a position, it's more likely that you'd be working as a PM (more administrative work than anything else), with some proofreading. But it could be good experience nonetheless.
- Complete a MA in Translation Certainly a good idea if you have the time and the money. But I see that you give no experience of speaking French in France on your CV (although you've spent time in Spain). It would be a really good move for you to do an MA there, or of course in another French-speaking country. Or maybe you're thinking of a distance course?
- Pass the DipTrans exam Also a good idea, if you can manage it. It's supposed to be for quite experienced translators though, and even then the pass rate is very low. The private company that I did my basic training with also run a course preparing you for the DipTrans. Might be worth looking at.
Basically, my question is to ask whether people have done all of the above (if so, in which order?) or whether they've managed to enjoy relative success without doing a Masters, for example. There isn't just one route into translating; there are many. They all have their pros and cons. For many of us, most of the decisions had already been made. Personally, I was in my forties, with a family, loads of life experience to offer clients, but absolutely no wish to be a student again. Fortunately, I found my feet after a basic course.
You, on the other hand, have lots of choices but relatively little at the moment to offer clients. You don't have much experience in translation; I don't suppose at your age you have that much experience in subject areas either; and you probably aren't an ace at marketing and managing to get jobs just by smiling at people (I don't know how that one works either ). Something solid for your CV (or whatever you call your marketing text) is essential to justify your claim to be able to translate clients' texts well. So a well-known qualification might be a good idea both for you personally (knowledge, networking, confidence...) and for your clients' opinion of you. It may also be that you would find it difficult to handle yourself in negotiations with agencies at the moment. Too many young people get bossed around and "forced" into complying with abusive practices, peanut rates being just one of many. That can sour an entire career as you work all hours just to scrape a living, with no time or money to invest in your business. So, training in how to run a business may be of great value.
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:58
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| Time in the country | Aug 24, 2016 |
Sheila Wilson wrote:
But I see that you give no experience of speaking French in France on your CV (although you've spent time in Spain). It would be a really good move for you to do an MA there, or of course in another French-speaking country.
Seconded. I suppose in theory you can be a good translator without having lived in a source language country, but spending some time as a resident in such a place would give you a much more rounded view of the society and its people.
There are some things you never encounter until you live there. I refer not only to the spoken language, but also to the "invisible literature" of road signs, labels, billboards, toilet instructions, transit advertisements, shop frontages and so on. It's things like decoding the rules for putting out the rubbish every week and filling out your tax return that stretch you.
Living in a source language country should also boost your credibility. Most people will instinctively / subconsciously assume that somebody who can uproot to a new country and live there successfully for a time not only has a fuller understanding of the language, but is also (ceteris paribus) likely to be more resourceful and competent than somebody who has never left their home state.
Dan
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Simon Taylor (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:58
Italian to English
| Bewildering array of choices | Aug 24, 2016 |
I am in the position of recently deciding to make use of the language skills I've acquired over the last seven years or so. However, I am a latecomer to translation; indeed, I'm relatively late to the desire to learn a second/third language to a high level of fluency. I am also constrained by personal circumstances to learning on my own. Without going into too much detail, I am a full time carer [caregiver, depending on where you are] for my wife. Formal education routes are all but closed t... See more I am in the position of recently deciding to make use of the language skills I've acquired over the last seven years or so. However, I am a latecomer to translation; indeed, I'm relatively late to the desire to learn a second/third language to a high level of fluency. I am also constrained by personal circumstances to learning on my own. Without going into too much detail, I am a full time carer [caregiver, depending on where you are] for my wife. Formal education routes are all but closed to me because of my responsibilities at home (and finances at my disposal). Yet I have a marketable skill and I want to use it.
In the past, I have asked advice from professionals in the translation arena and have got some very good guidance in response. I have also had replies which tell me that because my circumstances prevent me from taking up formal qualifications to the degree they advise, I'm wasting my time. This isn't helpful. People may think they're merely being honest but it appears to be demoralisation for the sake of demoralisation.
I do understand the value of formal qualifications and am in no position to criticise them. But are they the be all and end all of becoming a translator? I also understand that qualifications provide a shorthand to help prospective clients/agencies determine suitability of a candidate translator. Whenever I send an introductory letter, I tell the recipient that I'm available to do a test text. I've done some tests with very positive reactions.
I guess my contributory question is: is there still room in today's world of translation for someone who knows a second language, is able to turn that language into their mother tongue so that it reads fluently and changes nothing of the meaning, has no formal qualification, but has the determination to market their skill and make something of it? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Michael Beijer
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:58
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
| Yes, most definitely. | Aug 24, 2016 |
Simon Taylor wrote:
I am in the position of recently deciding to make use of the language skills I've acquired over the last seven years or so. However, I am a latecomer to translation; indeed, I'm relatively late to the desire to learn a second/third language to a high level of fluency. I am also constrained by personal circumstances to learning on my own. Without going into too much detail, I am a full time carer [caregiver, depending on where you are] for my wife. Formal education routes are all but closed to me because of my responsibilities at home (and finances at my disposal). Yet I have a marketable skill and I want to use it.
In the past, I have asked advice from professionals in the translation arena and have got some very good guidance in response. I have also had replies which tell me that because my circumstances prevent me from taking up formal qualifications to the degree they advise, I'm wasting my time. This isn't helpful. People may think they're merely being honest but it appears to be demoralisation for the sake of demoralisation.
I do understand the value of formal qualifications and am in no position to criticise them. But are they the be all and end all of becoming a translator? I also understand that qualifications provide a shorthand to help prospective clients/agencies determine suitability of a candidate translator. Whenever I send an introductory letter, I tell the recipient that I'm available to do a test text. I've done some tests with very positive reactions.
I guess my contributory question is: is there still room in today's world of translation for someone who knows a second language, is able to turn that language into their mother tongue so that it reads fluently and changes nothing of the meaning, has no formal qualification, but has the determination to market their skill and make something of it?
Michael
| | | | Ilan Rubin (X)
Russian Federation
Local time: 07:58
Russian to English
| If you have the knowledge and skills then go for it | Aug 24, 2016 |
Simon Taylor wrote:
I am in the position of recently deciding to make use of the language skills I've acquired over the last seven years or so. However, I am a latecomer to translation
I guess my contributory question is: is there still room in today's world of translation for someone who knows a second language, is able to turn that language into their mother tongue so that it reads fluently and changes nothing of the meaning, has no formal qualification, but has the determination to market their skill and make something of it?
All that anybody cares about is whether you can turn that text from Italian to perfect English. If you've had good feedback then that's your answer.
And whilst I don't know anything about your language pair I would be surprised if there wasn't enough work in that pair to keep a good translator fully occupied - so learning another language shouldn't be necessary.
And there's no such thing as a 'latecomer to translation', I reckon that the majority of translators on this site had a different profession previously (as I recall there was a poll about this - in fact I have a feeling that I instigated it...).
| | | | Ilan Rubin (X)
Russian Federation
Local time: 07:58
Russian to English
| €0.25 per word? | Aug 24, 2016 |
polyglot45 wrote:
But if you want a good, satisfying and well-paid life as a translator (think rates from 0.25 € and upwards), then maybe a bit of initial investment is worth the price.
If this is true (Rus>En in my case) then send me the evidence and I'll sign up for your course pronto.
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| sorry for the late reply | Aug 29, 2016 |
I was away interpreting.
Two points :
a) the prices I quote are NOT for beginners but for people with experience. However, to reach those levels you cannot afford to start too low, since as another contributor said, it is hard to climb the rates ranks from rock bottom. Clients spoiled with low rates don't take too kindly to increases and tend to hoof off elsewhere.
b) sorry - I know nothing much about the Russian - English pair.
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polyglot45 wrote:
Most of the people active on this site are people who had no formal training in translation. Some, perhaps many, manage to make a decent living by having honed their skills over the years, good marketing, working long hours at low rates, being at the mercy of the agencies, etc.
HTH
Do you have any evidence for your assertion that those of us without an MA work long hours at low rates and are at the mercy of agencies?
| | | | | I was talking about the vast majority | Aug 30, 2016 |
as you probably realised.
As to evidence that lots of translators are badly paid, you only have to read all the threads on rates and see the bids for low rate work to get the bigger picture.
I am not saying all graduates do brilliantly. What I am saying is that they have a head's start, good contacts, professional nous and the capacity to start much higher up the rates ladder.
As to the rates I quoted, I know lots of people who charge even higher rates but ... See more as you probably realised.
As to evidence that lots of translators are badly paid, you only have to read all the threads on rates and see the bids for low rate work to get the bigger picture.
I am not saying all graduates do brilliantly. What I am saying is that they have a head's start, good contacts, professional nous and the capacity to start much higher up the rates ladder.
As to the rates I quoted, I know lots of people who charge even higher rates but you won't see them going public here.
And, if you read my other comments, you will see that I made a proviso for those without formal training in translation but with specialist knowledge in a field like law, medicine, finance, etc. That knowledge and a decent grasp of a language can be a winning combination and people with that profile often come with lots of contacts and a big network.
As I said once before, OP does not seem to fall into that category. Whence my advice on studies.
You know it makes sense !!!! ▲ Collapse
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