One Hour Translation Blog

If you are new to the translation industry having just completed a language course – diploma or degree or whatever – you may not find it easy to land translation jobs with no prior experience. Most clients would want previous references, their contact address / email ID etc. Then how do you go about getting translation jobs? Here come the translation agencies. They can help you get headstart in your translation career.

Translation agencies provide the link between translators and potential clients who want translation jobs done. They can help you in marketing by matching your skills with those required by clients. In addition they may edit and proofread your translated text so that it is in a form acceptable to the client. Of course, the agencies may charge a commission by paying you lesser rate than they charge clients or a lump sum fee per job etc.

How do you contact translation agencies? Here the ubiquitous internet comes to the rescue. There are many websites that provide directory services of translation agencies. The agencies are classified by geography, by language combination etc for you to choose from. The websites sell database of translation agencies for a fee. You may also register for free in some of these websites detailing your skill, contact address etc so that potential clients may contact you directly.

As a newbie, it may be worthwhile to buy a database of the translation agencies specific to your interest and contact them in order to build a good reference. Some of the advantages of translation agencies are they can provide you a steady flow of work without you having to bother about marketing. They also take care of collection from the client.

The need for translation agencies arises because they provide certain unique service like multiple language services, convenient billing and reliability looking from the buyer’s point of view. Your job will somehow be got done through an agency as compared to direct contact with a translator who may be busy with other jobs. Similarly they take care of marketing and provide convenient billing from a translator’s perspective. Of course not all the agencies you find may be reliable, honest and do not try to exploit you. You can find rating / grading of agencies through certain websites that specialize in that subject. This issue has been discussed in another blog in greater detail.

The obvious disadvantage of agencies is that they take a ‘cut’ from the rate offered by the client. The commission may be as high as 50% if the agency also does editing, proofreading etc. They may also maintain fixed prices, offering no raises for translators. If you are not too comfortable with it, you may have to change the agency or do the marketing yourself. Once you establish yourself as a translator of some repute with solid references, you may be able to forego the help of agencies.