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Poll: How did you get your first translation job?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
Fiona Grace Peterson
Fiona Grace Peterson  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 03:00
Italian to English
Don't remember Aug 29, 2016

My first translation was a tourism-related pamphlet. I don't remember how I got it though!

 
Mario Chavez (X)
Mario Chavez (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 22:00
English to Spanish
+ ...
How brilliant Aug 29, 2016

Jack Doughty wrote:

In 1951 I was an engine fitter in the RAF, having completed a three-year engineering apprentice in 1950. I failed a medical for aircrew and was not very happy at the prospect of continuing as a fitter indefinitely, so when I saw a call for volunteers to learn Russian, I put my name forward.
This led to a Russian course in 1952, followed by work monitoring communications from June 1953. I later found the engineering background useful for translation work.


Wow, I wish there were calls to learn a language put out by government agencies here. They hire ex combatants to be translators instead.


 
Mario Chavez (X)
Mario Chavez (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 22:00
English to Spanish
+ ...
First job Aug 29, 2016

What a coincidence! I was remembering my first profitable job: a 9,000-word commercial paper on the chemical sodium erythorbate (used on bananas for export from Central America to prevent spoiling in transit). A printer's outfit in New York City referred me to one of their competitors in the same building.

Too bad it was my first and last job with that particular client. They accepted my modest fee (it was my first year as a diplomate translator) and paid on time.


 
Bruno Veilleux
Bruno Veilleux  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 22:00
English to French
Got lucky Aug 29, 2016

I was looking to drop out of school and trying to find a job as a proofreader. I visited a local Web agency and let them know that their websites were riddled with errors and that I was offering my services as a reviewer. They weren't interested but they followed up with "Can you translate to English?" Turns out they were in the middle of developing a new website they wanted in multiple languages, and looking to pay as little as possible. The following Monday I had a permanent position and stopp... See more
I was looking to drop out of school and trying to find a job as a proofreader. I visited a local Web agency and let them know that their websites were riddled with errors and that I was offering my services as a reviewer. They weren't interested but they followed up with "Can you translate to English?" Turns out they were in the middle of developing a new website they wanted in multiple languages, and looking to pay as little as possible. The following Monday I had a permanent position and stopped going to school. A year and a half later I started transitioning to freelancing (and translating to my mother tongue instead).Collapse


 
Jan Truper
Jan Truper  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 03:00
Member (2016)
English to German
Craigslist Aug 29, 2016

I responded to an ad on Craigslist.
I still work for this client.
I am probably the only person in existence who ever got a real job on Craigslist


 
Woodstock (X)
Woodstock (X)  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 03:00
German to English
+ ...
German-English office jobs in New York Aug 29, 2016

I needed money for graduate school at NYU, so I took temporary office jobs for German companies in New York who needed bi-lingual staff for various tasks, including translation and lots of typing in both languages. Then I took full-time administrative assistant jobs for international companies using my languages, etc. (went to grad school at night, which is common in NY because of the expense of living there) and translated more and more, so basically my profession went through a natural "evolut... See more
I needed money for graduate school at NYU, so I took temporary office jobs for German companies in New York who needed bi-lingual staff for various tasks, including translation and lots of typing in both languages. Then I took full-time administrative assistant jobs for international companies using my languages, etc. (went to grad school at night, which is common in NY because of the expense of living there) and translated more and more, so basically my profession went through a natural "evolution".Collapse


 
Gianluca Marras
Gianluca Marras  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 03:00
English to Italian
Other Aug 29, 2016

I voted other because my first translation job was given to me thanks to a friend who gave my name to a guy who need a translation from German into Italian. BUT at the time I was not working as a translator, I was just a student at the University.

As a professional translator, my first job was given to me when I asked my ex-girfriend if the office where she was working needed another translator (she was a translator there) since I need to quit my job as a journalist... and here we a
... See more
I voted other because my first translation job was given to me thanks to a friend who gave my name to a guy who need a translation from German into Italian. BUT at the time I was not working as a translator, I was just a student at the University.

As a professional translator, my first job was given to me when I asked my ex-girfriend if the office where she was working needed another translator (she was a translator there) since I need to quit my job as a journalist... and here we are now.
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Leticia Klemetz, CT
Leticia Klemetz, CT  Identity Verified
Sweden
Local time: 03:00
Swedish to Spanish
+ ...
CV Aug 29, 2016

That was after my initial round of sending CVs to agencies, back in 1999.

 
Barbara Cochran, MFA
Barbara Cochran, MFA  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 22:00
Spanish to English
+ ...
Because Of A Friend Aug 29, 2016

My friend and college roommate, invited me, shortly after my graduation from our college, to stay at her place in Columbus, Ohio, which was 150 miles from where I was living at the time, until I could find a job in that city.

She suggested that I drop off my resume at the company across the street from the publishing company where she worked.

The owner of that company noticed, on my resume, that I had a degree in French. He called me within the next 8 hours or so and as
... See more
My friend and college roommate, invited me, shortly after my graduation from our college, to stay at her place in Columbus, Ohio, which was 150 miles from where I was living at the time, until I could find a job in that city.

She suggested that I drop off my resume at the company across the street from the publishing company where she worked.

The owner of that company noticed, on my resume, that I had a degree in French. He called me within the next 8 hours or so and asked me to come back in the next day, at which time he hired me to translate, on a daily basis, the bi-weekly French-language newspaper of Sept-Iles, Canada, where he owned a lot of land.
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Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 23:00
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Online what?? Aug 30, 2016

When I satarted working as a translator, there was no such a thing as internet, e-mail, etc. Computers were quite expensive little 8-bit things that went straight into BASIC when you turned them on. Then you needed diskettes to run anything.

I got, not only my first job, but my first 100 jobs by direct reference, simply because it was on of the only two ways to get a job. The other one, which represented the othe 100 jobs I got first, was direct advertising and mails (courier, that
... See more
When I satarted working as a translator, there was no such a thing as internet, e-mail, etc. Computers were quite expensive little 8-bit things that went straight into BASIC when you turned them on. Then you needed diskettes to run anything.

I got, not only my first job, but my first 100 jobs by direct reference, simply because it was on of the only two ways to get a job. The other one, which represented the othe 100 jobs I got first, was direct advertising and mails (courier, that is).

Things are just soooo easy today.
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