Essential steps for a newbie?
Thread poster: David Jones
David Jones
David Jones  Identity Verified
Taiwan
Local time: 05:54
Chinese to English
+ ...
Nov 10, 2020

Hello folks,

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read / reply. I've been reading through the forum here and I am extremely grateful for all of the great advice that has been shared.

If I have understood correctly these seem to be the top priorities for a newbie like myself?

1) Create a solid Proz profile (working on it)
2) Get Kudos points
3) Hunt for new jobs when they come up and contact the agencies asap and build a relationship with
... See more
Hello folks,

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read / reply. I've been reading through the forum here and I am extremely grateful for all of the great advice that has been shared.

If I have understood correctly these seem to be the top priorities for a newbie like myself?

1) Create a solid Proz profile (working on it)
2) Get Kudos points
3) Hunt for new jobs when they come up and contact the agencies asap and build a relationship with them this way (some said that the best jobs are not actually posted on the job boards?).
4) Network with other translators...

Very briefly I have been very interested in translation (Chinese to English) for some time but have only recently been able to properly make the time to explore it as a career path. I am currently employed full time so have a good buffer to explore this from. Truthfully I have little translating experience but lots of experience of working with the Chinese language and am very confident in my ability to translate it into English. At this stage I wouldn't like to tackle anything too specialist but would like to work my way towards more complex business / legal / financial documents as I find these very interesting.
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Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 21:54
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Just a few comments Nov 10, 2020

Point 1.5) Invest in paid membership. It might seem a lot today but your first job will likely cover the year's outlay. And the jobs are then far more likely to come your way. Attend the Meeting Clients free webinar to find out why.

David Jones wrote:
3) Hunt for new jobs when they come up and contact the agencies asap and build a relationship with them this way (some said that the best jobs are not actually posted on the job boards?).

Yes, many of the better jobs aren't posted as public jobs because they're filled by clients contacting a few of the best-matching profiles in the directory. They find these profiles by setting up filtered searches. This is why the contents and completeness of the profile are so important.

4) Network with other translators...

Not just with other translators; network in general and let everyone know -- en passant -- that you're a translator. Business cards too should be distributed liberally. You never know where a client may come from. The parents at your kid's school (for example) mainly have jobs, or their family members have jobs, and any one of them could be a prospective client if only they knew about you. You don't need to do the hard sell, in fact that's often counter-productive.

Truthfully I have little translating experience but lots of experience of working with the Chinese language and am very confident in my ability to translate it into English. At this stage I wouldn't like to tackle anything too specialist but would like to work my way towards more complex business / legal / financial documents as I find these very interesting.

I wonder if you don't have more experience than appears on your CV. Perhaps you did translations while you were abroad that weren't exactly paid for, but were done to professional standards. Or at college, perhaps? If you really have little or no experience, then maybe some basic training in the techniques would be a worthwhile investment at this stage. At the same time, you can always accept jobs that you believe you can handle well. Just be on the lookout for scams -- visit the Scam Centre here on ProZ.com, read all about the current scams, and sign up for notifications of new scams.


Eric Azevedo
Jorge Ruiz de Mena
 
David Jones
David Jones  Identity Verified
Taiwan
Local time: 05:54
Chinese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks :) Nov 11, 2020

That's brilliant, thank you so much.

Yes! I do have more experience than I realise, thanks for pointing that out... I will be updating the CV in the coming days.

When you say "maybe some basic training in the techniques would be a worthwhile investment at this stage" would you recommend investing some time on Google searching for 'translation techniques for beginners'? and the likes.


 
Jorge Ruiz de Mena
Jorge Ruiz de Mena
Spain
Local time: 22:54
English to Spanish
Gracias por tus preguntas. Nov 11, 2020

Gracias por tus preguntas. Soy nuevo en el tema de la traducción (y de Proz) y también tenía una impresión similar sobre qué pasos había que seguir. Mucha suerte. ¡Vamos a por ello!

[Editado a las 2020-11-11 11:04 GMT]


David Jones
Astrid Arroyave-Ospina
 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 21:54
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Training in your pair Nov 11, 2020

David Jones wrote:
would you recommend investing some time on Google searching for 'translation techniques for beginners'? and the likes.

That might bring up something useful; I really don't know. I was thinking more along the lines of a basic translation course. The one I followed is, I think, only for European languages. I really don't know what's available in your pair.


David Jones
 
David Jones
David Jones  Identity Verified
Taiwan
Local time: 05:54
Chinese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks again! Nov 12, 2020

I found some interesting looking books on Amazon about translating Chinese to English, so I will make that my weekend activity.
Great suggestion.


 


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