Career options with a degree in Translation and Interpretation

← Posts Posted on 3 November, 2014 By Translation Boutique With 0 Comments

If you are studying for a degree in translation or interpretation, or you intend to do so. Regardless of what you opt for, whether it be English, French, German, Portuguese, the moment will come when you ask yourself if you would prefer to be a translator or interpreter. However, the translation market isn’t limited to just these two professions

Normally a great amount of information isn’t provided about degrees in translation and interpretation, hence in the majority of cases there is an unawareness surrounding the other sectors which are available to break into. There are a lot of students that choose other degrees because they don’t know for sure what job opportunities are available with a translation/interpretation degree. Here is a small list of career paths which an education in either course can offer:

1. One of the main options, of course. If you study translation, it’s assumed you would like to be a translator, whether it be for an international body, self-employed or through a translation agency, etc. There are distinct categories which specialise in different areas: Audio–visual, literary, scientificand juridical, etc. Depending on what attracts you the most, you can choose whichever one you want and focus your energy on it.
2. Interpreter: Nowadays the workload of an interpreter depends on the university education attained and this could lead you to opt for a different career path. In short, if you haven’t practised enough it’s difficult to become a great interpreter. However, nothing is impossible and if you like the idea, there are lots of types of interpretation: simultaneous, consecutive, bilateral and whispered interpreting. In addition, there are various fields of work in interpretation which can help you in achieving your goal: conference interpreters, public services interpreters, social interpreters, etc.
3. Proofreader. It’s common to not associate this profession too much with translation and interpretation, but in reality the two have much more in common than it seems. A professional proofreader is the person who analyses a text and corrects the format, style, grammar, among others if necessary. Normally, proofreaders are translators that have years of experience and already know and have mastered their mother tongue to perfection. They can pick out faults that easily occur in translations.
4. Language teacher. It’s almost certain that having studied languages academically or independently in your own time, you will be able to teach them (should you have a sufficient level of them). In this sense we can say that, philology like translation have a common ground, the teaching of languages.
5. Terminology or documentation. If you are more interested in the task of managing a translation, looking for tools to simplify translating or even creating those tools yourself, or should you feel a passion for dictionaries or similar things, this is the ideal profession for you! Perhaps this might seem less entertaining, but through my own experience I can assure you that it’s not. It’s not as if I were a terminologist and nothing more, during work at university I found this kind of work very interesting.

Also we have the tourism sector, which is a good path to consider taking, this way you could become a community manager and take up the administrative role of a brand or companies internet image. Last, but not least, the profession of project management is another option if leading a translation project for a company or agency interests you.

If you were undecided on your path within this broad range of choices, I hope to have solved your doubts with this post!

Have a nice week! 🙂

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