How to Work as a Freelance Translator

In previous blog posts, How to Write a Good Cover Letter and How to Build or Improve your CV as a Freelance Translator, we help you start your career as a freelance translator. Today, we want to give you more tips to work as a full-time translator and make a living out of it.

While you need to devote a lot of time and effort to make it, you can translate for a living. Of course, there are ups and downs in living & working as a freelance translator, but the good news is that it is possible!

It is also true that as a freelancer you can choose to work with translation companies, direct clients, or both, and even though they are different, there are some skills and abilities that you need in order to have a steady workflow and succeed as a freelance translator.

• A Degree in Translation: It is essential. By pursuing this degree, you get excellent linguistic and cultural knowledge of the languages studied.
  
  
• Specialization: Since there are a lot of subject areas, it is important that you specialize in one or a few of them. This would make you an expert in a particular field, so you can offer better translations and work more efficiently. Working in an area you do not know much about will make you spend most of your time researching and looking for the terminology. Thus, your productivity will be affected.
  
  
• Knowledge of CAT Tools: Currently, it is essential to have CAT Tools and to know how to use them in order to make the most out of them. Due to technological advances, more and more companies require linguists to use CAT tools to perform their jobs. Similarly, if you work with direct clients, CAT Tools offer several advantages that will help you increase your productivity and the quality of your translations. Although the more CAT Tools you own and use, the better, you can have one or two of the most used by companies in order to remain competitive in the translation industry.
  
  
• Self-motivation & Management Skills: This is a must-have skill if you work as a freelancer. You will need to organize your own schedule, as well as manage your workload, working hours, and finances. Besides, you will be in charge of planning and implementing marketing & promotion strategies to promote your language services in order to get clients.
  
  
• Availability & Promptness: You need to organize your schedule to be available for current and future jobs. Also, you need to have access to your e-mail or instant messaging apps to reply to existing and potential clients, especially when you are on the go or during the working hours of your clients (particularly if they live in a different time zone). In general, the faster you reply, the more chances you will have to get a translation task, as job offers are usually sent to several translators at once. If you are planning to go on vacation or take some time off, let your clients know in advance or set up an automatic reply in your e-mail account.

Although there are more tips to succeed as a freelance translator, we want to summarize what we think are the most important.

Do you have another piece of advice for your colleagues?

Let us know in the comments!