The last few months have truly put into perspective not only the way our professional lives have been organised, but also how easy it really is to change them, without losing much of the productivity associated with working in an office. Due to the recent outbreak of a world-wide pandemic, more and more people have started working from home and discovered just how rewarding and budget/time friendly this can really be. There are, however, several professional occupations, which allow you to work from home, or any remote location for that matter, as a default, so even when things go back to normal. One of those occupations is working as a professional and certified translator, and so today we’ll take a closer look at what this job entails and what are the benefits of working as a certified linguist.
The benefits of working as a certified translator
- Being able to work from anywhere in the world
- Good pay
- Flexibility
- Interesting projects from variety of sectors
- Professional development
- Working with expert translation agencies
- Full control over your income
- Managing your workflow
Working from anywhere
As mentioned above, being a certified language translator allows you to work from practically any location in the world, as long as you can access the internet. Being fully employed is relatively rare in this profession, and so majority of linguists work on the freelance basis. This gives them the opportunity to not only live abroad, but also travel constantly and see the world whilst being able to keep a consistent stream of income. The freelancers who do not travel and decide to work from home have the additional benefit of saving money, which they would otherwise have to spend on petrol or public transport getting to the office every day!
Good pay
As the world today is a global marketplace, certified translators are in extremely high demand within the corporate industry. Small, local companies, as well as large, multinational organisations approach the international audience/customers regularly, and so professional linguists are really sought after. Business today fully understand just how important translation services really are in their day to day activities and why linguists should be an integral part of their internationalisation plan. You can read more about how businesses perceive translations here. This demand and recent shift in understanding the importance of translation services within business creates a great opportunity for the linguists to earn very competitively, even as freelancers.
Flexibility
Certified linguists have a lot of flexibility when it comes to practically every aspect of their work and professional life. From choosing their own clients and the working hours to taking days off according to their diary, in short, they truly are their own bosses. Managing your workflow is perhaps one of the most important aspects of flexibility when working as a linguist in the translation sector, and so we’ll talk about it in more details later in the article.
Interesting projects
Whilst working as a certified translator, you’ll naturally come across a number of different projects from a number of different corporate fields, especially if you partner with several translation agencies. From technical, legal, or medical documents to marketing campaigns and websites, you’ll be able to work on a variety of different materials, which can often be extremely interesting, and so your work will never be monotone.
Professional development
Professional certified translators can often reflect their personal likes in their career development. If a linguist is particularly interested in, for example, the marketing field, they can also specialise in translating marketing materials and advertising content, allowing them to further explore and learn about their particular interests whilst working.
Working with expert translation agencies
Certified translation is an extremely popular service in the United Kingdom. The translation industry as a whole grows significantly each year, and it is estimated to be worth an astonishing $56 Billion worldwide in 2021, with almost 50% of that number focused within Europe and European organisations. As a result, there are several suppliers which specialise in providing the service to their customers, whether businesses or private individuals, and that number grows regularly. Working as an accredited linguist will allow you to work directly with some of the leading and fastest developing translation agencies, which specialise in providing certified translation services to a variety of clients – from world’s largest corporations to private individuals, allowing you to undertake exciting and diverse projects. Partnering with such agencies will also allow you to create a steady flow of work and a constant source of income.
Full control over your income
Being an accredited translator allows you to take full control over your salary and monthly income. There is a very strong correlation between effort and reward in this field, and so, to put it simply, the more you work – the more you earn. Some people might find this correlation extremely motivating as it would allow them to fully control their monthly income, based solely on the work they have done.
Managing the workflow
Flexibility in all areas of the job, as previously mentioned, is one of the most appealing aspects of working as a certified linguist and being able to manage your own workflow is definitely one of the most significant parts of the ‘flexibility’ factor. Whether you feel that you are slightly overwhelmed and need to take on less work for a while or you actually wish to work more, the choice is truly yours.
As you can see, working as a certified translations provider can be a truly rewarding career. The incredible flexibility, which includes taking a full control over how, when, where and who with you actually wish to work as well as the opportunity to work directly with some of the most successful translation companies and world’s largest brands is a truly appealing prospect, and so a number of people decide to explore this field. If you wish to discover the translation industry in a little more detail and perhaps find out, what is necessary for you to become an officially certified translator, you can explore websites such as the CIOL (Chartered Institute Of Linguists), ITI (Institute of Translation and Interpreting) or proz.com, where you can find more information about the benefits of working a translator and the best path to becoming one, as well as resources that will help you to kick start your professional career. In addition to visiting the above resources, you can also approach translation agencies directly in order to ask which particular skills they are looking for when it comes to working with new providers, as well as whether the languages and sectors you cover are currently in demand.