If you decided to look for a job in the areas of written or oral translations and you already have experience in those, you should really keep in mind the following steps in order to find actual work.
CV
First of all, you need to create a CV. It is one of the most important documents that you will need to present to your potential employers when looking for a job. While creating your CV, you need to concentrate only on the experience that is directly related to your work as a translator, as well as other relevant experience that can help you find work. The latter might be related to your experience in the industries you have chosen as a translator. It could be your work in a bank if you are planning on offering your translating expertise in the banking or financial sectors, or your work in the field of marketing if you would like to focus on translating advertising copies.
Your CV should be composed in the reverse chronological order, with your most recent work experience or education listed first. All the preceding positions are listed next. The main sections of your CV are – education, work experience, additional skills, as well as any language and software skills. When putting together the part of your CV related to your work experience, it is essential to name the field, in which you actually worked as a translator. For example, it could be law, business, culture, technical translations, business documentation, press releases, etc. It is also important to indicate the language pairs – the languages from which or into which the translations had been done. In addition to that, you may list the companies that requested your services as a translator at one time or another. Finally, you need to mention the timeline for each specific project you had worked on.
Confidentiality
Upon signing a translating contract, many employers will ask you to maintain confidentiality concerning the projects performed by you. What does it mean? First of all, it has to do with protecting the confidentiality of the information any document or business meeting entail. Thus, when looking for a new job, it is advised not to go into specific details of the contents of your previous projects. However, you can briefly mention the subject matter, the language pair, as well as the volume and the timeline of the accomplished work. Any more detailed information is considered confidential. If you follow these guidelines, your future employer will not only learn about your previous experiences, but will also be reassured as far as your professional reliability.
Pricing
The pricing policy is largely individual; however, it is mostly determined by the market – the existing demand, seasonal fluctuations, established market prices, and the existing offers for such services. The challenge here is to be able to correctly position yourself based on the skill set you possess. This includes the demand for the language pair you are working with (both globally and on the local scale), and the amount of your experience as the more actual experience you have had, the more you will be perceived as a professional. Consequently, you will be able to claim a bigger compensation for your translations. You should also take into account the required deadlines and the volume of any translation. When it comes to written translations, there exist unwritten rules that urgent projects should be reimbursed at a higher rate. The same applies to oral translations when a translator is called upon without any or much time for preparing for the job. Also, if your participation requires a higher degree of mobility, the reimbursement for your services must be higher. As opposed to written translations, interpreting jobs are paid for on an hourly basis. To determine the rate for your services, you should first evaluate the situation on the market. The payment for written translations can be calculated on the basis of a number of words or of a number of symbols. The going rate for translating jobs is always based on those parameters, with the exception of rare cases, when written translations are paid for on an hourly basis as well.
Finding an employer
Translators need to be very organized not only from the point of view of completing each assignment when nobody except your client is keeping an eye on you. You do not have a supervisor or a senior manager, and everything depends only on you and your client. So the job search is something you should devote quite a bit of time to if you want to ensure a constant flow of assignments while not working for one and the same employer. After you put together your CV, you can start looking for work. First of all, you may visit various local and international employments websites, many of which will list “Translator” vacancies. In addition, they might contain a sector for job seekers. There you can publish the information about yourself and about the specific services you provide. Moreover, there exist different professional sites (for those looking for a job). Unlike the classified advertisements websites, they may list not only temporary vacancies, but permanent jobs as well. Those might include a staff member position at some company that requires translating services on a regular basis. You should also not forget about translating agencies. By sending them your CV and a brief introductory letter, you give yourself a chance that when a demand for your language pair arises, the agency’s manager will contact you to get more detailed information about your qualifications.