Experience, experience, experience

As fresh faced early 20 something’s, we come out of university thinking we have the world in the palm of our hand only to be greeted by slamming doors and the same answer experience. The age old dilemma of, you need experience and to get experience you need a job that they just won’t give you to get experience.

Everyone ends up getting their foot in the door somehow, even if it is just pumping gas. With a few precisely chosen words, pumping gas becomes customer service extraordinaire. But how do you get your foot in the door of the translation business when no matter what words you choose pumping gas can never we morphed into interpretation and translation extraordinaire.

The answer is not a simple one, and for the purposes of this article, I will assume that the applicant is a good translator with all their qualifications in order, so where next? Networking is the best way to get your name and credentials in front of the people that matter. If there is a particular language you speak, also network with these people, you never know when they may call on your services.

The more you use your skills in all situations the more likely you are to reach someone that matters, you never know who’s brother, cousin or uncle may hear about you.

But perhaps the best, but most difficult thing to do for a budding translator is create a real-life success story. I don’t mean fabricate one, but instead put yourself in a situation where you can help with dispute resolution or some other interpretation task and try your best to make sure everyone knows about it, a bit of shameless self promotion never hurt anyone.

In the real world, you are your biggest champion, and if you don’t back yourself, then no one else will.