Ultimate guide for freelance translator (day3)
Your first translation job
After reading our ultimate guide for freelance translator for 3 days. It is the time start finding the freelance translator.
As mentioned in previous article, the market is competitive, the credibility and experience of a translator is the key to success.
The best way to gain work experience is to start being an employee in either a translation agency or as an in-house translator for a company in your preferred sector. These jobs can be found via an internship and/or through volunteering.
Working as an in-house translator will allow you to learn your trade in a real-world environment and provide you with plenty of hands-on experience. you’ll learn a great deal and gain confidence in your abilities within the first year or two.
Please don’t wait to finish your degree before applying for your first translation job. You can start learning about the your preferred industry, networking with people and building your portfolio while you’re still studying. You can also develop your own online portfolio by creating your own wordpress website.
Link: www.wordpress.com
Where to find volunteering translation opportunities
We recommend you to visit the following websites because they are constantly looking for translators. Most of them are organisations, so you can feel that you’re making a difference and improving the lives of others, while gaining vital skills and experience:
Ashoka
Translations for Progress
Global voices
UN Volunteers
TED Open Translation Project
Translators Without Borders
How to find an in-house translator job
If you have followed the previous tips and have done some volunteering and/or an internship, or you feel that you’re ready to take on a challenge and wish to skip those steps, it’s time to look for in-house jobs.
Using Google
You can start your Google search for jobs with a simple search query, for example:
translation + “work for us”
“translation” “work for us”
“translation agency” “careers”
REMINDER: make sure you change the bold parts to reflect your city, language, and job-searching websites in your country.
For UK translator, here are some websites you can use in the string:
www.iti.org.uk and www.iol.org.uk
www.totaljobs.com
www.toplanguagejobs.co.uk
www.eurolondon.com/foreign-language-jobs.htm
www.multilingualvacancies.com
www.fish4jobs.co.uk
Using Social Media
94% of recruiters who use social media use LinkedIn as their platform to find candidates. This means that you simply must be on LinkedIn if you are looking for a job.
- Use advanced search to line up contacts in industries
- Optimize your profile
- Complete it (LinkedIn will inform you of the completion percentage of your profile)
- Write something catchy — while remaining professional
- Ask for recommendations and make sure they are authentic
- Use a professional photograph
- Insert keywords — what would your ideal recruiter search for?
- Translate your profile into your other languages. Again, ensure these are done to a high standard.
Remember to use #hashtags to find the role you are looking for and use it to connect with the influencers and facilitators in your industry.
Applying
Once you have created a list of agencies you would like to approach, be well prepared before spaming them. Take the time and go through their websites. Sometime, they don’t want you to send them an email and prefer you to fill out an online form instead. If you don’t follow instructions on applying for roles, you’ll simply be wasting your time as no one will look at your application.
If you are applying with a cover letter, keep it short and functional. Make sure every word on your cover letter and CV has a reason to be there.
Your cover letter
Keep it short and divide it into four parts:
- Greeting
- Who you are
- The relevant skills that you have
- Why you want to work for them
Remember: The most important purpose of the cover letter is to get people to open your CV. Very Simple!
