7 Common Mistakes New Translators Make When Looking for Their First Job — And How to Avoid Them

Author: İsa Korkmaz

New translators or recently graduated students can make certain mistakes while looking for their first job. If they had no previous experience in translation or didn’t attend any kind of internship during their education, it might be difficult for them to make a goal, a plan and so on. In the translation industry, having experience, knowing more languages, acquire the knowledge of the industry are all necessary if you want to gain more. In this writing, we will clarify the mistakes and how to solve these problems.

1.   Relying Only on Job Boards

New translators or graduated students should look for job opportunities and they should build their career even before they graduate. They can build a presence on LinkedIn, can do freelance translations in freelance platforms, and can reach to the LSPs or agencies directly. They should not wait for a “perfect” job to be posted and instead they should look for any opportunities, any gain experience in the industry, but still, this does not mean accepting all the offers that are present.

2.    Neglecting to Specialize

New translators or graduated students might think that it is normal to be “specialized” on every kind of text, but this is kind of wrong. In the translation industry, a translator must have a specialization and must be a Professional in the field of theirs. For example, medical, legal, literary and so on. Professionalism one of these fields is necessary for more job opportunities and gaining more in the job.

3.   Undervaluing Their Work

As translators, the job you are doing is precious like every other job around there. So, do not undervalue your job just to get “experience”. In the industry, there is a minimum amount for each word or for each 1000 characters. So, negotiate with the agencies, LSPs or the companies that you will work with. Still, you will decide when to do volunteer jobs or getting experience for yourself.

4.   Submitting Generic Applications

During a job application, submitting the same CV and cover letter for all the applications might cause problems. That is because in translation industry, there are numerous ways to work, like in a game company, localization company, in an LSP, in official offices and so on. So, every application must be unique, and you should specify your intent and desire in the cover letter too. Moreover, you should specify your capabilities, languages you know, proficiency in translation technology and so on.

5.   Overlooking the Importance of a Portfolio

For new translators and recently graduated students not having a portfolio (collection of your work to market your language services) (3) or work samples decreases the chance of getting job opportunities. You should do sample translations, get in work in projects, and put them in your portfolio. So, you can show that you already have experience in the field and in the translation. You can look for ways to get translations from your academicians, LSPs, or at least you can voluntarily do translations in fan pages and put them in your portfolio. Still, do not undervalue your work.

6.   Ignoring Professional Networking

In the translation industry, as all other communities, attending industry events or joining the communities is quite beneficial. Moreover, you can get insights from these attendings and it’s quite important for progress. You can list online communities, forums and networking opportunities. You can look for the communities in the social media, websites, LinkedIn and more.

7.   Failing to Present Themselves Professionally Online

Having no website, having poor LinkedIn profile or using your gamer nickname e-mail address can cause problems in presenting yourself online. You can check from professionals online and use your name surname in the e-mail address. Moreover, having a Professional LinkedIn profile increases your presence in online platforms. Having right profile picture, check for your pronunciation, listing your skills and so on is important for the profile. (4)

In Conclusion

Recent graduates and new translators can look at their job as a project of marketing “themselves”. There are various ways to do this and step by step you can get your professional profile and presence. In addition, learning from your mistakes makes you better and it is important for professional growth. By the time, you will all become professional translators and have a status in the industry.

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Reference List

• What Makes Specialized Translation Stand Out?

• Translation Rates: How Much Should I Charge As A Translator?

• Branding Yourself – Create a Professional Portfolio

• 12 steps to a better LinkedIn profile in