Beyond Translation: Expanding Career Paths for Professional Translators
- İsa Korkmaz
- Jul 15
- 4 min read
Author: İsa Korkmaz
Translators, especially interpreters have been here even before the foundation of writing. They have been in every sector, because language is in everywhere. Translators have been helpful for every kind of communication roles and today this role is really analyzed whether it is still wise to choose it. Students who want to become a translator have question in their minds. “What will I do if I become a translator or what can I do?”.
Here, there are numerous career paths for translators. They can choose the type of the translation that they will do, and where they will do. What will they do if they choose medical translation for example. Despite today’s technology, translators still are needed, and they face various problems like burnout if they are forcing themselves, and they all want to grow into a certain field in translation, and this growth is needed for them to become a professional.
Diversifying Skills: Why It Matters
Translation and translators are always improving and progressing. Translators have to be knowledgeable in language, culture, history, literary, terminology according to their fields. For example, a medical translator has to know the medical terminology as good as a doctor. So that, he can translate accurately, or maybe interpret. Moreover, the translator has to be updated of the current technological and medical improvements and always has to read in the field.
Therefore, the skills that benefit to translation can be said like this: A quiet high level of language proficiency, high level of cultural knowledge, desire to research topics in the field, analytic, careful, creative and so on. Also, these skill are what the translator differs from today’s technology; for example, AI. AI lacks creativity, desire, cultural knowledge and it is not as good as humans in these fields.
On the other hand, AI can be careful, analytic, and it might have a certain level of language proficiency. Moreover, AI is also used in CAT Tools (Computer Assisted Translation Tools) to some extent, but still the job is in the hands of translators. According to Seldan Smith (1) an ideal cooperation of AI, CAT Tools and humans are like this: “The ideal translation process often involves a collaboration between human translators and AI systems, combining linguistic knowledge with the speed and efficiency of AI.”
Alternative Career Paths for Translators
There are various paths a translator can choose. For example, a localization specialist. They adapt a context according to a target culture, audience, and by doing so they try to get the same effect and feeling for the target audience; similar to the source audiences’ feelings. Also, interpreter; they focus on spoken language and communication. They have been with us even before the invention of writing. They are also connectors of communication, and cultures.
A project manager in language services is a manager that organizes everything in a translation process. He gives duty, coordinates the team, and check if a process will be ended in the estimated time; or if they face with a problem, like, if the client says, “I forget there were more pages to be translated” and then you have more duty to do and more words to translate. So, your job needs either more translators or the translators have to work more and this can cause quality deficiency in the translation.
According to United Language Group (2), a project manager works more long hours because of time zone differences in the World. Moreover, they say that find your own style that works for you as a project manager. Also, a terminologist is a must for accuracy or translator have to be knowledgeable in terminology too as it is said before.
Building a Bridge to New Roles
When it comes to the qualifications or more exactly certification that a translator needs to get, we can say various certifications are needed. Some LSPs (Language Service Providers) have training courses for translator; especially for translation students. These training might be about machine translation, localization, CAT Tools, Translation Project Management, legal, medical or literary translations and so on. For example, in Türkiye, “Dijital Tercüme” LSP, gives various traninings for translation students in Istanbul. (3)
Translators can work as freelance translators or in-house translators. Several companies work as a freelancer company; like Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr and so on. Moreover, some LSPs make contracts for freelance translator too. You can choose either freelance or in-house translator style according to your lifestyle. In addition, you can get translation experience by using such opportunities.
Conclusion
In conclusion, translators and interpreters have been with us since the beginning. They are everywhere in our life; in house, school, companies, hospitals, offices, courts, and so on. Moreover, translators and interpreters need to be professional in at least one field, so, they can master in the field. In addition, they use various technologies today, like AI, CAT Tools, machine translation. Thus, they work more efficiently than the past. Moreover, according to Gwenydd Jones (4) the future of a translator is being highly skilled, flexible and adaptable.
Students can choose various paths in translation. They can choose many fields, can improve themselves in the field and adapt themselves to the today’s needs. Choosing a path is a career growth also, and it means adapting oneself to today’s conditions.Students can look for opportunities by applying LSPs for internship or look those opportunities in freelance companies.
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