The final step in this series is on the most crucial step for any aspiring translator- finding translation jobs. You basically have two options here, you work freelance or are on staff at a translation agency. In this post, we will go over some of the pros and cons of these two paths.

Translation Agency

The translation agency serves as the liaison between you and the client. You can choose to work either as a contact for them, meaning they will offer you projects, or you can work in house, which provides you with many more opportunities, but greater responsibility and a set work schedule. Most translation companies will give you a test before you begin and then put you into a database of translators for your language pair or pairs. If you do well on your projects, you should receive more in the future. If you do poorly, then you may be erased from the database forever. You can find translation agencies by searching online and then sending them a professional cover letter and resume.

Freelance Translator

This is what I assume most translators aspire to. The freedom to set your own hours, work from wherever you like, set your own rates, etc. But this goal is no walk in the park and is usually preceded by years of searching for clients, marketing yourself relentlessly and learning the business side of translating. You must first find your  clients, then work steadily to establish and nurture these relationships. It can be a very satisfying and very taxing career choice.

Cheap and fast are the first two words that go through most people’s minds when they start looking for a translation agency. But when they read over the first translation that they had done based solely on those two criteria, they’ll probably rethink the whole idea and realize that “quality” was actually what they were looking for. This is a little guide on how to avoid these situations when selecting who is going to do your English or Spanish translation.

Quality translations can be cheap and they can have good turnaround times, no doubt about it. The trick is finding these translation companies. There are essentially two key factors that will give you a top-notch translation: the skills of the translators and the translation process used at the company.

Try and find out how the company chooses its translation team and see if they have native English and Spanish speakers on staff. See if they have specialists in the medical, legal, engineering or whatever field you need. A lot of translation projects are doomed before they get started because an uncle’s friend is “fluent” and is asked to take the job instead of a professional translation agency.

A good translation is not a one-step process. Ideally, you will have native speakers translating, editing and proofreading your document or project. Read over the company’s process and see how they do things. If the company hasn’t listed this information on it’s company website, move on to the next.

There’s no getting around the price. It is extremely important. And the best translation companies do offer low price translations because they know what they’re doing and have the best translators following a quality translation process. So do a little homework on the English and Spanish translation company and you will see the results pay off ten-fold.