The need for professional translations is continuously increasing in the global marketplace. The language industry is worth 56.18 million, according to 2021 statistics. Businesses translate their content into local languages to communicate better with their target customers and raise brand awareness. Translation is becoming an important aspect of business globalization strategies for its significance to deeply influence the target audience and make them resonate better with your brand.
Now is a good time to be a translator.
From healthcare and multimedia to e-learning and the corporate business sector, translation has become necessary for every industry to reach higher audiences. If you are thinking about making a successful career in the translation industry, read this article till the end.
What’s The Scope of The Translation Industry?
Let’s begin with a commonly asked question these days. Does translation really have a good scope, and is it a reliable career choice from the future perspective? Well, according to current statistics and future projections about the translation industry growth, the demand for translation services will only get higher and higher in the future. However, there are some controversies about the replacement of human translators by AI systems; but it is not going to happen anyway soon. Even if AI algorithms dominate the industry, we’ll still need expert translators on the backend of these systems for quality assurance, proofreading, and editing.
Guidelines to Become a Professional Translator
Get a Qualification/Certification
Before getting into the waters of the translation industry, it is good to have an extensive understanding of the source and target languages. It would be even better if you worked around your native language. Still, you need to get professional certification to get a good linguistic grip on the language to translate content professionally. If you decide to become a translator quite early, get your graduate degree in linguistics or anything related to translation. If you have already done your graduation, it is not too late; you can still get a professional certification in a specific language pair to start working as a professional translator.
Choose A Niche
The sooner you choose a niche in your career, the better you can direct yourself on the right path from the beginning. Which industry do you want to work in? There are many options, such as medical translations, business translations, legal translations, and so much more. For instance, if you have done your graduation in finance, financial translation would be a great niche for you. Similarly, business translation will be a good choice for MBA degree holders. You might not be able to decide on your niche right away starting your career, but there is nothing to worry about; give it some time to explore which domain interests you the most.
Gain Industrial Experience
Having extensive industry experience is your key to growth as a professional translator. Work with a professional translation and localization management company, where you will get the chance to work in a professional environment. Working with a reputable company would give you a chance to understand the industrial regulations and how things work. You will also get to work with international clients, which is again a great opportunity for learning. One more thing, don’t stick to one company only; keep switching jobs when you think you’re learning curve is not as steep as it should be.
TMS & CAT Tools Understanding
Technological development and innovations in the translation industry have totally changed how we do translations. Unlike traditional ways of translations, translators now have to work with advanced CAT tools and translation management systems. These tools not just speed up the translation work but also support translators’ collaboration with each other and smoothly manage their translation operations. A cloud-based translation management system comes with powerful features that help translators organize their work and prioritize their tasks more effectively. If you are working with a professional localization management company, you may get the chance to work with advanced tools and equipment more often.
Good Communication & Dealing with Clients
In the end, it is important for you to know how to communicate with the clients and make them believe that you can handle their project. If you are working with a translation agency, you may not have to work on frontlines dealing with clients, and companies usually have separate teams for that purpose only. However, if you want to switch to freelance, a client deal is the key to your success as a freelance translator. So, you must polish your communication and work on your client’s skills. This way, you will be able to get more orders from reputable clients and build your freelance profile rapidly.
Conclusion
Following the guidelines provided in this article would help you become a successful translator. The industry is loaded with unprofessional translators and bilinguals who provide mediocre-quality translations. There is a huge gap to fill in the industry; businesses and organizations need qualified and reliable translators whom they can trust with their global identities.
