How do you get started? Most companies require 5 years of experience or more?!?
Admittedly, it can be difficult and slow getting started in translation. I didn't have a mentor and it probably took me a good two years before I had a steady flow of work. Â Below are a few things you can do to speed up the time it takes you to get into translation.
- Memberships: All translators should join their local and/or national translators association(s). Â If you live in the United States, there is the American Translators Association (www.atanet.org). Apart from the obvious benefits, membership in such associations shows the companies you work for that you are interested in current events and the current state of the industry. All things being equal, I am more likely to hire a translator who can demonstrate active membership in their relevant translator associations.
- Find agencies: Another benefit of memberships is they often help find local, national and international agencies that you can the contact about translation and getting registered in their translators' databases. Â In addition, if you are not already a subscriber, downloading MultiLingual magazine's annual resource directories (http://www.multilingual.com/resourceDirectory/) is free. Â This is an easy way to find and contact agencies.
- Translation test: Once agencies begin to respond to your inquiries, offer to take translation tests for them. Â Many agencies are willing to work with new(er) translators if they have an opportunity to evaluate your translation skills and the quality of your work. In addition to editing your translations anyway (which every agency should do if they are reputable, i.e., there should be a 2-step process at a minimum), agencies may be willing to send you a translation test. The great thing about a translation test is that you can have as many other people review your translation (e.g., kind of like having several people review a term paper in college) before submitting it.
- Competitive pricing: When you first get started, give yourself an obvious advantage over others by offering competitive prices for your work. Â Of course, you don't want to be half the price of your "competitors" because agencies may not take you seriously. On the other hand, you do want to be equal to or less than your competitors. Margins in the translation industry can be very small and anytime an agency can save even 2% on the cost of working with you, for example, it will be just that much more in your favor. How do you know what your competitors' pricing is? In addition to asking colleagues, translators often list their prices on sites such as Proz.com.
These are just a few things you can do to get started. Â Please share with us your thoughts and what other things you have found helpful in getting started.
What “challenges” did you have to personally overcome in order to really succeed?
I know it sounds cliché, but I believe most entrepreneurs and more specifically, successful translators would say that "real success" is never achieved, rather a process over your entire career.  I get the opportunity to speak with humanities students at the local university a few times a year about what they can do with their degrees after graduation.  I often say that "becoming a good translator is like an apprenticeship — it takes a long time and you are never done".  Although not exhaustive, allow me to list just a few of the things that come to mind that distinguish good translators from great translators (good to great, as they say).
- Be willing to learn: My experience (both personally and from what I have observed) is that many translators going into the business think they know exactly what it takes to be great. Â Unfortunately, that is rarely the case. Â Great translators are constantly learning and improving, from learning difficult structures to learning from others.
- Learn from a mentor: Speaking of learning from others, learning from a mentor is invaluable.  Not only can you speed up the time it takes to start making a real income from translation, you cannot put a value on the insights you can gain from someone who's been through it already.
- Ask for feedback from everyone: It can be "scary" to ask for feedback because you may not always want to hear what they have to say. Â But most people are happy to offer feedback, and are honest and kind when doing so. Â They understand you are only trying to improve and only then can you really go from good to great.
- Face the music: Along the same lines as asking for feedback, sometimes we make mistakes (it happens to the best of us). Â When that happens, be willing to "face the music", i.e., accept that you blew it, make good ("wiedergutmachen" as they say in German) and learn from your mistakes.
- Be a great writer: What is a great translator other than being a great writer in their target language? Â This cannot be stressed enough. Â Know and use the correct structures, punctuation, terminology, etc.
I would enjoy hearing what you think it takes to succeed. Â Send me your comments.