Getting Started: The Basics

By Marybeth Timmermann

What does it take to be a professional translator or interpreter?

To succeed in this highly competitive and tech-driven industry, you must be a highly adaptable human being who offers specialized skills and solutions that are of high value to your clients. Crafting language for a very specific purpose, professional collaboration, cultural sensitivity, and fact-checking are all key skills for language professionals, in addition to excellent spoken or written language skills. Many interpreters focus on just one language pair and often in only one domain (medical or legal, for example). This allows them to continually develop the specialized vocabulary within their area of expertise. Many translators—whose work is written, not spoken—limit their professional translation services to translating from only one source language (usually their second language) into only one target language (usually their first or native language) and almost always focus on only a few areas of specialization. Drilling down and becoming an expert in a smaller field sets you up to become an expert in that field.

Where can I find a job?

Most language professionals work as independent contractors, which is also known as freelancing, and also means that you are running your own small business. There are many things to consider when starting and running your own business, such as determining the legal status of your business, marketing your services, keeping track of accounting, invoicing, and taxes. Many translators and interpreters do other work while they are building up their business, until they can afford to go full-time freelance.

However, there are places that hire in-house translators and interpreters, and the benefit of this is health care benefits and a steady workflow and paycheck. Hospitals and school districts need interpreters, translators, and cultural liaisons. Corporations hire translators and interpreters, but remember: to get hired by a large corporation, you need expertise in not only your specific language pair, but also specific business skills such as marketing, corporate contracts, conference interpreting, etc. The government and various courts also hire in-house translators and interpreters.

Do I need to get certified?

In general, certification is not required to practice as a professional translator or interpreter. However, getting certified helps set you apart from the competition and shows your dedication to the profession. Even though many (written) translation clients don’t require certification, they do demand an extremely high quality of work and expect a partner to provide the language solutions they are seeking. On the other hand, clients looking for a certified document translation absolutely require a certified translator to provide the necessary certification for their official documents.

As for interpreting, many agencies do not require a certification, but certified interpreters may be able to charge a higher rate. Some hospitals may require certification for a full-time, in-house interpreter, and courts may require state- or federal-level certification for legal interpreting.

How do I get certified?

The most widely recognized (written) translation certification is from the American Translators Association or ATA. It is language-specific and only in one direction (Spanish into English, for example, or English into Arabic). Many people consider this a mid-career credential, and some translators have multiple ATA certifications.

For (spoken) interpreting, certification is by FIELD and language: medical, educational, or legal, for example. The Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI) and The National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters (NBCMI) offer training and certification for medical interpreting, while National Association of Educational Translators and Interpreters of Spoken Languages (NAETISL) offers training and certification for educational interpreting.

For legal interpreting, certification is at the state and federal court level. National Association of Judiciary Interpreters & Translators (NAJIT) is the national professional association for legal interpreters, and although they don’t provide a certification credential, they have a lot of helpful information on their website about getting certified at the state and federal level.

Do I need to join a professional association, such as ATA or MICATA

Membership in the ATA is not required to practice as a professional translator or interpreter, although it offers many benefits to its members. The regional chapters of the ATA, such as MICATA, are generally more affordable and perhaps a good place to start if you are curious about the profession or just starting out. MICATA serves the mid-America region, and its annual conference is in Kansas City, but there are regional chapters of the ATA everywhere, so find one close to you and check it out! There are also specialization-specific associations, such as NAJIT, as well as language-specific divisions of the ATA.

One great thing about the ATA is that they offer a plethora of free resources that you can take advantage of without even being a member. Start with their “Guide to Starting Out as an Interpreter” and “Guide to Starting Out as a Translator” at https://www.atanet.org/career-education/starting-your-career/ (which you can access as a non-member—you just have to set up a non-member account). Then read the Savvy Linguist articles you are interested in and that provide the information you are looking for. You can click on “Resources” on the Savvy Linguist page and find even more info. All this is free and available to ATA members and non-ATA members alike.