Over the past years, the language services have doubled, making the industry a potentially fulfilling career. You might be looking for the best steps to ensure success in your career. As you know, translators convert written and spoken messages from one language. You will have an excellent career when you start providing translation services, such as English to Greek translation services, to businesses and tourists. To ensure that you have the best career in professional translation, you must first understand what the career is all about.
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Responsibilities of a Translator
Like other jobs, translators also have responsibilities that help them in their day-to-day experiences. Education, business, government, and medicine are some industries in which translators work. here are some responsibilities that you need to understand when starting your career:
- Fluently writing, speaking, and reading in more than one language
- Translating written content
- To understand the context, use the accurate slang expressions or jargon and cultural references, you need to research
- Maintain the tone and style of the original content
- Building terminology or glossaries banks for future use
- Ensuring you meet the deadlines hence you need to manage your time
What Tools Do You Need to Start Your Career?
As the recent survey indicates, the importance of continuous professional development is acknowledged by most audio transcription service providers. To become a professional transcription service provider, you first require fluent or near-native in a foreign language. You will require other skills to boost and refine your career over time.
All you need to start your career:
- Excellent writing skills
- Communication skills
- Organizational skills
- Solid understanding of the target audience language, and culture of your source
How To Become a Translator?
The most important thing you need to consider when starting this type of professionalism is becoming fluent in more than one language. Below are some steps you need to achieve your goals as a translation service provider:
- Become fluent in another language
You need to master and be fluent or near in a second language to ensure that you prosper in this career. You can choose to take lessons to help you learn the other languages, or if you have been raised in a bilingual household, you may get an advantage. The learning process will allow you to understand the languages you will be working on. Specialized terminologies, grammar structure, and cultural awareness are some things you will gain during the learning process.
- Get specialized training
Once you are fluent in the languages you will be working with, you need to advance your skills. The specialized training helps you produce accurate and clear translations. Many institutions can help you develop your skills with the specialized programs they offer.
- Become certified
You do not require to be certified to provide transcription services, although it is important to prove that you have the job skills. Certification helps employers notice you; hence, being hired is always high compared to a service provider with no certification.
- Find a niche
It is highly recommended that you find your own niche. Choosing a niche may depend on your interests or the academic degree you have been awarded. Here are some niches you may choose to work on:
- Law
- Video games
- Engineering
- Business
- Web comics and novels
- Medical
You need to use the correct terminologies in every niche you choose to work with because clients mostly complain about them. If there is an issue after providing the transcription services, you will also have the confidence to communicate with the client.
It is always advised to specialize in one or two domains when starting this career. You need to choose a niche to specialize on, always check the demand. The cultures that shape the languages are constantly changing.
- Learn to communicate
In the transcription service provision career, communication makes clients trust you. To be in the right position, you need to do things like sending queries, answering emails, asking for feedback, owning up to your mistakes, or warning your client in case of delays.
- Create your own brand
You need to create your personal brand and let people know you hence amplifying and exposing what you do. You may use some of these guides to create your brand:
- Start blogging
- Do guest post
- Use Twitter
- Use LinkedIn
This helps you sell your name and your services and control how people see you.
- Build experience
Because this career is a competitive market, you do not need to compete for prices. To have the experience, you will require to choose and learn translation software. There are many software you can choose as a freelancer but if you are a team you need to consul teach others. The best time to choose whether to work as a team or a freelancer is now because you will have the experience needed in the field.