| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Seeking advice Thread poster: Jérôme Juven
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Hello everyone!
This is my first post here, and I admit I’m usually not used to participating in forums anymore, but as I have a somewhat unusual profile, it was suggested to me to post it here and see if someone might have an idea or some advice.
I’ve recently changed careers after working as a developer for an IT consultant firm for seven years. While it wasn’t my calling, it gave me a good understanding of its inner workings, and it left me with the ability to ... See more Hello everyone!
This is my first post here, and I admit I’m usually not used to participating in forums anymore, but as I have a somewhat unusual profile, it was suggested to me to post it here and see if someone might have an idea or some advice.
I’ve recently changed careers after working as a developer for an IT consultant firm for seven years. While it wasn’t my calling, it gave me a good understanding of its inner workings, and it left me with the ability to work autonomously and in a well-organized manner. Having to deal with different companies, supervisors, values and goals taught me quite a bit when it comes to maintaining good relations with a client. At least, I hope it did.
I’ve been studying and learning translation work for about two years, and I’m following a continuing education to get a certificate, but I’m still a few months away from completing it. In the meantime, I hoped I could find at least a few opportunities to build up some experience and self-confidence, but I’ve had no luck so far. I’ve been participating in some volunteer work and crowdsourcing, but I would appreciate any real opportunity.
If anyone has an idea or suggestion, I would be very grateful for your help! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lingua 5B 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 21:57
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
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Jérôme Juven wrote:
Hello everyone!
This is my first post here, and I admit I’m usually not used to participating in forums anymore, but as I have a somewhat unusual profile, it was suggested to me to post it here and see if someone might have an idea or some advice.
I’ve recently changed careers after working as a developer for an IT consultant firm for seven years. While it wasn’t my calling, it gave me a good understanding of its inner workings, and it left me with the ability to work autonomously and in a well-organized manner. Having to deal with different companies, supervisors, values and goals taught me quite a bit when it comes to maintaining good relations with a client. At least, I hope it did.
I’ve been studying and learning translation work for about two years, and I’m following a continuing education to get a certificate, but I’m still a few months away from completing it. In the meantime, I hoped I could find at least a few opportunities to build up some experience and self-confidence, but I’ve had no luck so far. I’ve been participating in some volunteer work and crowdsourcing, but I would appreciate any real opportunity.
If anyone has an idea or suggestion, I would be very grateful for your help!
Your IT background should be very useful. What have you been doing to market yourself so far?
| | | | ATIL KAYHAN
Türkiye
Local time: 22:57
Member (2007)
Turkish to English
+ ...
| ProZ Profile | Nov 30, 2023 |
I took the liberty to look at your profile here. I think it needs a little more work. You can give more detail with regards to your IT background in your profile. Your CV/resume does have some details. However, when people search translators using keywords, for example, the keywords in your CV/resume does not count as far as I know (you might know better about this). So, you need to repeat those keywords in your profile as well. In fact, I think your ProZ profile should contain more keywor... See more I took the liberty to look at your profile here. I think it needs a little more work. You can give more detail with regards to your IT background in your profile. Your CV/resume does have some details. However, when people search translators using keywords, for example, the keywords in your CV/resume does not count as far as I know (you might know better about this). So, you need to repeat those keywords in your profile as well. In fact, I think your ProZ profile should contain more keywords than your CV/resume because it is a lot easier. ▲ Collapse
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Jérôme Juven
France
Local time: 21:57
English to French
TOPIC STARTER | Thank you for your answers | Dec 1, 2023 |
Thank you! I'll check it out!
Rachel Waddington wrote:
Your IT background should be very useful. What have you been doing to market yourself so far?
Whatever I thought could help, honestly. If it wasn't obvious, I'm more or less shooting in the dark and hoping that it'll work somehow.
When I was learning about translation and independent work, most of the professional translators I managed to discuss with told me that the main entry point was through agencies. Unfortunately, I feel that a certification (or a few years of experience, which I lack) is a prerequisite.
I've tried joining a few agencies, but I never got any answers after five weeks, updated my LinkedIn profile, registered on a few specialized platforms like ProZ, and candidated to a dozen offers or more. Since most of them ask for either a certification or two years of experience (or both), I usually feel that trying to answer those is meaningless since they'll probably ignore me directly.
On a more personal level, I'm trying to get some experience by participating in volunteer projects and crowdsourcing, but I doubt it'll be seen as a professional experience, so it's mostly to improve and practice.
ATIL KAYHAN wrote:
I took the liberty to look at your profile here. I think it needs a little more work. You can give more detail with regards to your IT background in your profile. Your CV/resume does have some details. However, when people search translators using keywords, for example, the keywords in your CV/resume does not count as far as I know (you might know better about this). So, you need to repeat those keywords in your profile as well. In fact, I think your ProZ profile should contain more keywords than your CV/resume because it is a lot easier.
Yes, I understand. I didn't think people would care that much about those details, or that if they were, they'd just check my resume, but I can see why adding more to my profile and keywords would be beneficial. Thank you very much!
| | | | | Some thoughts | Dec 1, 2023 |
Jérôme Juven wrote:
Whatever I thought could help, honestly. If it wasn't obvious, I'm more or less shooting in the dark and hoping that it'll work somehow.
When I was learning about translation and independent work, most of the professional translators I managed to discuss with told me that the main entry point was through agencies. Unfortunately, I feel that a certification (or a few years of experience, which I lack) is a prerequisite.
I've tried joining a few agencies, but I never got any answers after five weeks, updated my LinkedIn profile, registered on a few specialized platforms like ProZ, and candidated to a dozen offers or more. Since most of them ask for either a certification or two years of experience (or both), I usually feel that trying to answer those is meaningless since they'll probably ignore me directly.
I feel like you need to stop focussing so much on the things you don't have and think about what you *do* have to offer clients. For one thing, you have a genuine specialism (which is very much sought after) and will also bring many valuable transferrable skills from your previous career.
Try not to be too discouraged that you contacted "a few" agencies and heard nothing. They are inundated by CVs from translators so it's totally normal to hear nothing straight away (or at all). You need to keep trying. Look for specialist agencies in your field and send them carefully targetted, personal letters that show you have a good reason for thinking you have something relevant to offer them.
Joining a professional association and getting to some of their meetings can be very helpful. The ITI also runs a Starting Work as a Translator course and something like that might be what you need to get started. Other associations probably offer similar and webinars on marketing for translators abound.
I hope that helps a bit. It is competitive so you will need to work hard on your marketing but don't assume that it is hopeless!
| | | | Jérôme Juven
France
Local time: 21:57
English to French
TOPIC STARTER
I see your point, and I guess I might have been too focused on what I lack and thinking it blocks everything. I'll be trying to find and contact more agencies that deal with my specialty.
As for joining a professional association, I am planning to do so, yes. I am reassured to hear that it could help, and they do offer some mentoring, though I'll have to wait for a few months before I can try to apply for it.
While it does sound like it'll still be quite challenging, I... See more I see your point, and I guess I might have been too focused on what I lack and thinking it blocks everything. I'll be trying to find and contact more agencies that deal with my specialty.
As for joining a professional association, I am planning to do so, yes. I am reassured to hear that it could help, and they do offer some mentoring, though I'll have to wait for a few months before I can try to apply for it.
While it does sound like it'll still be quite challenging, I really appreciate your help and your advice! I'll be sure to keep trying and use what I have more effectively. Thank your very much! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 21:57
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Hello Jérôme,
Just get that degree. I think it's rather obvious that it's difficult to find translation work without a language degree and without any experience. Experience is nice, but it won't be a prerequisite to find work if you have a language (and preferably a translation) degree. But without both ...
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 21:57
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Totally disagree | Dec 3, 2023 |
Lieven Malaise wrote:
Hello Jérôme,
Just get that degree. I think it's rather obvious that it's difficult to find translation work without a language degree and without any experience. Experience is nice, but it won't be a prerequisite to find work if you have a language (and preferably a translation) degree. But without both ...
This may be true for in-house employee positions.
In freelance world, nobody cares about degrees. They will ask for some experience but won’t be too strict about it, in some cases (general texts).
I checked the OP’s experience, it says Android developer, is it for apps?
I am trying to relate this experience to translation opportunities and having some hard time doing so. There’s very little text in these app/development projects, that would result in minimal gains (at least that’s my experience). It’s mostly codes, and very little text, it may involve some prompts with a limited number of words. My point is, this is probably not the main selling point, like others have hinted.
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Lingua 5B wrote:
I checked the OP’s experience, it says Android developer, is it for apps?
I am trying to relate this experience to translation opportunities and having some hard time doing so. There’s very little text in these app/development projects, that would result in minimal gains (at least that’s my experience). It’s mostly codes, and very little text, it may involve some prompts with a limited number of words. My point is, this is probably not the main selling point, like others have hinted.
I've done a fair bit of IT translation in the past, including books about IT subjects. These texts took a lot of research to get to grips with and would have definitely benefited from Jerome's knowledge and experience. If you are translating texts with code samples in, it really helps if you can actually properly understand what the code does when you are translating the text around it. Of course, the translation industry doesn't generally care much about details like this, but it is true. I'm confident that there are a lot of IT texts being butchered by translators who don't have the first idea what the texts they are translating actually mean.
[Edited at 2023-12-03 10:35 GMT]
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 21:57
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Rachel Waddington wrote:
Of course, the translation industry doesn't generally care much about details like this
Exactly, it doesn’t.
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Lingua 5B wrote: Rachel Waddington wrote:
Of course, the translation industry doesn't generally care much about details like this Exactly, it doesn’t.
It's true that expertise is not valued as much as it should be. Still, a translator's selling point is the thing they have that other translators don't have. If you can translate IT texts better than most of the other translators out there, it makes sense to start from there.
None of us can really tell the OP what opportunities are out there - we all only know our own tiny corner of the market based on our own experience. That's why it's important to talk to lots of people (translators and people potential clients) and network widely to gain accurate information.
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 21:57
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| This is not my personal opinion | Dec 3, 2023 |
Perhaps you took it as my personal opinion, which it isn’t. I personally value expertise.
I am talking about what I saw in the market, and how to put his expertise in this market’s context, I see no much use of it.
In some broader IT context, maybe yes.
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 21:57
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Lingua 5B wrote:
In freelance world, nobody cares about degrees.
In direct clients' freelance world perhaps, but not in agencies' freelance world.
| | | | Jérôme Juven
France
Local time: 21:57
English to French
TOPIC STARTER | Interesting points of view | Dec 4, 2023 |
It is pretty interesting to see everyone's views on this matter.
While I understand why Rachel Waddington would consider a degree optional, I feel that, when you lack experience, it's a better start than nothing. Experience certainly trumps a degree in the long run, but most agencies I tried to contact require a certificate to complete your profile. So I would agree with Lieven Malaise that unfortunately, when it comes to agencies, a degree is important.
As for my area of ex... See more It is pretty interesting to see everyone's views on this matter.
While I understand why Rachel Waddington would consider a degree optional, I feel that, when you lack experience, it's a better start than nothing. Experience certainly trumps a degree in the long run, but most agencies I tried to contact require a certificate to complete your profile. So I would agree with Lieven Malaise that unfortunately, when it comes to agencies, a degree is important.
As for my area of expertise, it is true that Android is probably not the best market for translators, but I am not just limited to mobile applications. I understand the technical side, programming aspects, how it works internally, and the limitations a developer has to deal with, so I do think it can help with translation work. That kind of knowledge is certainly not essential, but I do hope it will allow me to find some opportunities. ▲ Collapse
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