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A chance to prove yourself

by Sarah Dillon

The soon-to-be-updated National Occupational Standards* in translation look pretty exciting (in a way that only a standard can be) and a great opportunity to prove your worth as a newcomer to the industry.

At a session at the recent ITI Conference, Gill Musk from CILT explained that these standards have been developed by professional translators for professional translators, and are designed to describe two levels of expertise. In this way, they meet the needs of both end users and translators themselves in establishing clarity and transparency on the skills required by a good translator.

This will be helpful in a range of situations and can only serve to increase visibility of the profession. Those considering careers in translation can establish a realistic idea of the skills required before embarking on studies. Employers of translators can appraise staff, write job descriptions, assess candidates and create development plans. Providers of translator training can map their courses to an approved set of criteria. Finally, because they define competence, are a distillation of best practice and are updated on a regular basis, translation professionals can ensure their skills remain sharp.

So how do I plan to use these standards once they’re released? I’ll use them to:

  • identify my strengths and weaknesses (eek! always scary – but necessary :))
  • highlight opportunities and priorities for my CPD
  • reflect and develop skills by assessing my own work
  • get a clear understanding of current best practice

Bring it on!!

(BTW, Gill also mentioned that there is such a severe shortage of native English speaking Spanish interpreters, that EU bodies are forced to cancel conferences and meetings on a daily basis. Encouraging for anyone considering a career as an interpreter then! 🙂 )

*(Not to be confused with the CEN standards for translation, which focus more on procedures and procurement practices)

Last updated: 25 April, 2007 by Sarah Dillon. Filed Under: Professional development, Starting up in translation, Translation profession and industry Tagged With: Professional development

Opportunities for translators at the World Olympic Games

by Sarah Dillon

The Olympic Games may be a leading international sporting event with representatives from over 200 nations, but contrary to popular belief, they do not usually offer many opportunities for professional translators.

I once attended a very informative talk by the president of the Hellenic Association of Translation Companies who offered invaluable advice for translation companies following the Athens Games, but she also painted a cautionary tale. Equally, a talk I attended prior to the London Olympic Games supposedly outlined opportunities for linguists, but was long on inspirational facts about international relations and the like, but very short on talk of cold, hard business.

Given the large team of volunteers that are generally roped in to help run these events, much language service provision tends to be ad hoc and carried out by non-professionals. (Only 150 people were actually employed in language services for the Sydney Games, for example.) This is great for language students or those with a general interest in language who are motivated by being part of such a historic event, but it’s hardly going to pay the bills for your average jobbing translator.

If I were looking for paid projects in this area in the run-up to a Games, I would target translation agencies who may be supplying services to two kinds of businesses: those in the host country who are bidding to work as contractors or suppliers during the Games, and those based in countries where my source languages are spoken, who might be supplying products or services to their country’s contingencies.

But I suspect I’d eventually decide to just chalk it up as a bit of fun, make the most of the unique multilingual atmosphere and volunteer. Play it right, and it could be a great source of professional development.

Last updated: 24 April, 2007 by Sarah Dillon. Filed Under: Business of translation, Translation profession and industry

Throw your career plan out the window

by Sarah Dillon

I was offered a set of passes to attend this event way back in March, and writing it up in my CPD booklet the other day reminded me of how inspiring it was. I’d never been to a networking event of this sort before, let alone one for International Women’s Day, and I really wasn’t quite sure what I would make of it. But wow! The speakers were just fantastic and I don’t think there was a single man or woman who didn’t leave feeling excited and energised about their career, regardless of the field they worked in.

I found Susan Hooper, a Managing Director with Royal Caribbean Cruises, especially inspiring. I loved how she advocated the importance of doing what you truly enjoy, even when that leads you off a more traditional or safe career path. She also said that NOT having a career plan was the best thing she’s ever done as it’s left her free to seize new opportunities that she’d otherwise never have considered. That gave me great food for thought as it’s contrary to received wisdom, and gave me confidence in the choices I’ve made.

So what has this got to do with translation? Well, most freelance translators will probably tell you that there is no such thing as a traditional career path into translation. I happen to disagree. Yes, there are plenty of translators in the UK from a range of backgrounds who have turned to freelance translation as a second career. But for every one of these, there is also a translator, either freelance or inhouse, who has slowly and steadily worked their way up the industry ladder (again, I’m referring to the UK here. A native English-speaking translator living in say, Germany, would have a very different set of options available to them). First, an inhouse position as a proofreader, checker or production assistant. Then, a promotion to project manager. Eventually, after several years, they may get some translation work. Finally, the time is right to go freelance.

Of course there is so much to be gained from this path – not only do you take the big leap to freelance with the benefit of several years’ worth of industry experience and contacts behind you, you also probably have a guarantee of work from your former employers. But attractive as it sounded, I just didn’t feel this was right for me.

I spent a lot of time speaking to those already established in the industry and even successfully interviewed for a few really great companies. But I never really felt any of these roles enabled me to make full use of my transferable skills and experience. What’s more, I just couldn’t see a way of creating just such a role inhouse either. I knew I’d be bored and I knew the excitement and buzz of working for myself was just what I needed. But this went against the advice of everyone I spoke to. So, wary of putting my long-suffering hsuband through yet another financially unstable couple of years, I chickened out after graduating from an MA in Specialised and Technical Translation and took a corporate job for a while. The plan was to work hard and gather a tidy little nest egg, before turning my attentions back to freelance translation.

Needless to say, it was a mistake and I very quickly realised it just wasn’t for me. In a way, that forced my hand and with a big gulp and very little savings I struck out on my own. And the rest, as they say, is history. That’s not to say it has been easy, or that I haven’t made mistakes (oh! the mistakes!), but going against the grain and throwing my career path out the window was the best thing I could have ever done.

By the way, the other speakers were Mary McPhail from WAGGGS, Minister Margaret Hodge, John Rendall from HSBC Business Banking and Jo Salter, Britain’s first female fast jet pilot. If you ever get a chance to hear any of them speak, I’d recommend it (er… except for maybe the Minister, who arrived late, rushed her speech then left as soon as she finished… happy International Women’s Day indeed!)

Last updated: 16 April, 2007 by Sarah Dillon. Filed Under: Professional development, Starting up in translation, Translation profession and industry Tagged With: Professional development

Spring has sprung

by Sarah Dillon

I saw two things today that put a spring in my step. They are:

1. an article in New Scientist on why multitasking is not all it’s cracked up to be (subscription required – but The New York Times has also run a piece on it here.) As a professional paid for the volume of my output, I’ve read endless books, articles and studies on how to increase my productivity. It’s such a relief to see solid scientific evidence to support what I’ve already discovered the hard way – hooray! Juggling several things at once leaves me feeling like a headless chicken. And I still can’t even begin to translate until I’ve cleared my mind of every last bit of clutter, so I can focus 100% on the text (I’d hoped this process would get easier with experience, but I’m still waiting 🙂 )

2. a blog post on Slow Leadership about the positive aspects of procrastination. So just because I don’t rush off the first couple of thousand words of a job just as soon as it arrives in my inbox doesn’t make me a lazy disorganised bum, doomed to failure – yipee!! Does this also mean it’s OK if I find myself working long hours the day before a deadline?? I’m not so sure about that one 🙂

All in all, it seems the slow movement is continuing its irrepressible crawl into the world of work. This can only bode well for translation, don’t you think?

Last updated: 10 April, 2007 by Sarah Dillon. Filed Under: Translation profession and industry, Working habits

Building your client list: words of advice

by Sarah Dillon

There’s an interesting article in today’s FT about Transperfect, the biggest privately owned translation company in the US and the third biggest in the sector. I have a friend who worked for them inhouse, and know several others who’ve worked for them freelance.

I think Transperfect is unusual in that it’s such a big player in a sector which tends to be dominated by smaller entities. I love hearing how translation companies were started, and especially about the backgrounds of the founders. This article does not disappoint and is well worth a read.

Now, if I were a newcomer to the profession, I’d see this article as a great excuse to contact the company and perhaps see whether they were interested in adding me to their list of suppliers. However, as a slighty more established translator with a hefty 4 years (or so!) of experience under my belt, I’m a bit more cautious and always follow these words of advice before signing up with a new work provider:

ALWAYS check a potential client out with fellow translators BEFORE taking on a job with them (this includes test translations).

You can do this via personal contacts or even better, through the well established payment practice groups that are out there. These usually require you to sign up for membership, but are well worth the hassle. Chances are someone will have worked for them before. If they haven’t, take the view that “no news is good news”and proceed with caution – assuming you’re not ignoring any glaringly obvious warning signs, of course.

So why is this necessary? Ask yourself if you can afford NOT to be paid for this job and it becomes clear. I’ve spoken before about how it can be tempting to take every job that comes your way, and this is yet another reason to be choosy. Industry payment terms already leave little room for maneouvre and are stacked against the freelancer. Payment in 30 days net is pretty standard, and means you may not get paid for up to 2 months following the date you invoice for your work. Even the slightest delay or hiccup can severely affect your cash flow, especially in the early days… Trust me, there are plenty of more enjoyable ways to get translation experience.

Last updated: 9 April, 2007 by Sarah Dillon. Filed Under: Starting up in translation, Translation profession and industry, Working habits

Best blogs round-up for translators

by Sarah Dillon

Here are a couple of blogs I’m keeping an eye on at the moment, of specific interest to translators:

Blogamundo: snippets of info on all aspects of language on the web, as well as translation, localisation, machine translation, accessibility, etc. Something here for everyone.

Get Direct Clients: no guarantees it will do exactly what it says on the tin, but this site still coontains a host of useful posts aimed at translators starting out in the freelance field.

Language Log: intelligent, well thought out discussions on a range of topical language matters. Frequent posts by a team of academics specialising in linguistics. A good starting point for anybody with a love of languages, translation, etc.

International Telecommuting Translator
: posts on various aspects of setting up and running a translation business. A bit of a mixed bag in that it contains advice aimed at project managers and potential buyers of translation, as well as anyone considering a career in translation, either freelance or inhouse.

ICE: an international calendar of events for the translation industry. OK, not a blog exactly but you can subscribe to the RSS feed to keep up to date with what’s happening.

It’s amazing how much is out there – I use Technorati to keep an eye out for new ones.

Last updated: 8 April, 2007 by Sarah Dillon. Filed Under: Starting up in translation, Translation profession and industry

What are you worth? Don't be a monkey.

by Sarah Dillon

First published in March 2007

I’ve spoken before about how important it is to specialise if you really want to make your living as a freelance translator. But I want to do more than just make a living, I also want longevity in my career, so I’ve also tried to heed Chris Durban’s advice when she said “Shifting your focus to a sector that is bound to discover Internet outsourcing any day now is a short-term, short-sighted fix”. Very good point – I don’t want to be one of those translators who is always looking over their shoulder, afraid of being replaced by a machine or another professional working in a country where the cost of living is lower than the UK (that would be most countries, then).

You’ll notice I place a lot of store in Chris’s advice – I think she should be compulsory reading for all newbies. I first heard her speak, again in my formative years, about how to set yourself up as a freelance translator and she really impressed me. She was probably the only translator that I heard say during that time that there was no shortage of translation work, but you had to position yourself for it. She has repeatedly advocated pitching yourself at the higher end of the market.

This approach has definitely paid off for me. Not only have I also discovered to my delight that there is no shortage of work around, I’ve also been well rewarded for the work that I’ve done and have continued to learn and develop (because as you know, for a translator, the learning never stops). But I’m surprised at how many translators don’t seem to appreciate that they don’t do themselves any favours by taking on poorly paid work… I’d get more upset about it only it leaves so much more work for me 🙂

So I’ve learnt that specialising doesn’t only refer to the sector you chose to work in, but also the kind of clients you decide to work with. It’s pretty standard advice to turn down work if it’s not in your area of expertise, but just because you can do a job does not automatically mean you should take it on. Here are a couple of hard-learnt lessons I’ve faced so far:

1. Don’t say yes to everything that comes your way. It may well seem counter-intuitive (especially when you’re starting up and desperate for work) but if the price is not right or you feel the work is bringing you into an area you don’t want to be in, then sometimes the best thing you can do is to turn it down. What happens if you accept the job, then the job of your dreams comes in tomorrow? Will you be able to give it the attention it deserves? Sometimes, no work really is better than crappy work.

2. Don’t worry about over-pricing your services. Clients won’t think less of you if you lower your rates, but it’s much, much harder to increase your rates after you realise they’re too low, especially when you’re only starting out. Premium rates will attract premium buyers (that the standard of your work is also premium goes without saying, of course). Peanuts, on the other hand, will only attract monkeys 🙂

3. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that after a few low paid jobs your client will suddenly see the light and start offering you better paid ones. In fact, the opposite usually occurs – your clients will see you either as someone naïve who doesn’t know the value of their work, or quite simply cheap. Not the personal brand any of us really want, now is it?

4. Work for free rather than for cheap. If you really are struggling to find work and your quiet days are starting to echo unbareably, don’t give in to the lowly paid translation jobs. Take on some pro bono work instead. Even if it means taking a part-time job in another field to tide you over financially, it will pay dividends professionally and help further build your profile in the industry.

Not only is the work very satisfying, I’ve found geniune pro bono clients are often more flexible with their deadlines so I can really take the time to hone my translation skills (and by genuine I mean not-for-profit organisations, not just unscrupulous agencies or cheap-scate companies looking for a free translation). These kind of work providers can also be generous to a fault in offering feedback and you can usually swing a name check on their website or in the document you’ve done for them too. Try here for an organisation I’ve worked with before and can highly recommend. If you’re interested in specialising in localisation, you could always check out SourceForge.net, an open-source software development which hosts more than 100,000 programs, many of which need localising (this work is free rather than pro bono, of course). Either way, you’ll gain a lot more than if you’d taken on work from some shark offering below-industry rates.

I think it helped that I’d had a very well paid corporate job before I decided to go freelance as a translator. Even though this job was not in translation, I saw just how much companies were prepared to pay for excellent service. It forced me to put a price on my time as I didn’t see the point in chucking in a well paid job to go work for peanuts, regardless of how much more satisfying it might be. So I decided early on that this was the approach that I was going to take. I knew that it would be hard, and that it would take balls of steel, but I was determined not to take on jobs that would have me earning below a certain hourly rate. So put a price on your time, and stick to it – it will pay off.

Last updated: 29 March, 2007 by Sarah Dillon. Filed Under: Starting up in translation, Translation profession and industry Tagged With: Marketing for language professionals, payment practices, pricing, specialising

Payscale

by Sarah Dillon

I signed up for Payscale.com to get a free profile of the salaries and conditions of a translator employed inhouse in the UK. Thought it might be interesting to see if I’d made the right choice in going freelance 🙂

Payscale.com works by asking a couple of basic questions, then drawing conclusions based on what it claims is the largest database of online employee salary data in the world. Despite being an American site, I was initially impressed that included UK data too.

I was pretty disappointed with the results at first glance however, especially when I discovered that they were based on a tiny sample of only 3 people. After thinking about it a bit though, I realised that the site still had plenty going for it.

The three translators sampled earn £18,609, £22,375 and £27,560 respectively. All work in London. Based on this, a translator with an MA and 4 years of experience was quoted an average salary of £23,600. (So I won’t be quitting the freelance work anytime soon then…)

This is obviously a massive generalisation given there was no mention of working languages, etc. etc. but it would be hasty to dismiss it entirely. A quick job search shows that this is about average, if not a little optimistic, at least for inhouse translators based in the UK and working into English (out of English are more in demand and have higher earning potential as a result; the same way a native English speaker would earn more working inhouse in their soure language country).

Best of all, you can see the sanitised profiles of the three professionals, which gives an interesting if rather brief glimpse into the kinds of companies these professionals work for. The translator on the highest salary actually works for a media monitoring company and gets paid an hourly rate for overtime on top of their basic pay, so this may explain the higher salary.

I’ll definitely check back in a few months to see if this sample has increased.

Last updated: 14 March, 2007 by Sarah Dillon. Filed Under: Translation profession and industry

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