Berufseinsteiger sucht Tipps

Egor Kaminskas wrote:

Hallo,

ich habe vor kurzem meinen Abschluss in Übersetzungswissenschaft gemacht und wie durch die Themenüberschrift erkenntlich ist, bräuchte ich ein paar Tipps. Ich hatte bisher leider keinen Erfolg bei der Such nach einer Festanstellung und wollte deshalb versuchen als Freiberufler zu arbeiten, jedoch tue ich mich schwer Aufträge zu bekommen. Ich habe schon versucht mich bei mehreren Agenturen anzumelden, jedoch habe ich bisher leider nur die Zusage von einer bekommen und warte immer noch auf die Antworten der anderen. Das gleiche gilt auch für die Jobangebote hier auf proz.com, bei denen ich auch auf eine Antwort warte. Durch die besagte Agentur die mir zugesagt hat, habe ich bis jetzt auch noch keine Aufträge bekommen.
Deswegen dachte ich mir das ich hier im Forum versuche mir Tipps von erfahrenen Übersetzern zu holen. Was wäre denn eine ratsame Vorgehensweise für die Zukunft? Gibt es irgendwo eine Liste von Agenturen? Mir wurde nämlich geraten mich bei so vielen wie möglich anzumelden. Ich wäre euch allen für die Hilfe sehr verbunden.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Egor Kaminskas

Gerard Barry wrote:

Hi Egor,

I don't want to seem discouraging, but you may find you need need some additional work experience or qualifications behind you to be successful if your CV really is as bare as it looks.

I tried to set up as a translator straight out of university with no success. Getting a secretarial job in a German-owned engineering company for a while, plus a stint in a translation agency made all the difference.

Rachel

The guy has just completed his degree. Of course his CV is going to appear "bare". People have to start somewhere and having a bachelor's degree in translation is more than many translators have.

I know that, and I can well remember being in that position myself. My personal experience was that finding work as a freelancer got a whole lot easier after I'd worked in a couple of other roles for a while.

Do you have any advice for Egor? What worked for you?

Gerard Barry wrote:



My only advice would be to apply for as many jobs as possible. Although any work experience is positive, I personally don't see how working as a secretary or the like could be that beneficial to a translator looking to get established.

Rachel Waddington wrote:


Translators need to know about the subject matter they are translating. Secretarial work may seem quite humble, but you get a pretty good overview of your company's business - everything from day to day admin to the nuts and bolts of whatever it is the company actually does. In my job I had the opportunity to visit the stores and look at butterfly valves and burners, and there were always engineers on hand to explain how everything worked. I read up on the company's products in quiet moments. I did first aid training and became a first aider, which is handy because occupational health and safety comes up a lot in my work as a technical translator. I didn't come out of that job with a ready-made specialism but it did give me something to build on and something to talk about in letters to translation agencies. Plus, it never hurts to have experienced the end customer's side of things first hand.

Also, if you are planning to spend your career largely on your own at your computer it's a good thing to get out in to the world for a while first and get some experience of real-world business interactions. Once the jobs do start to come in and you want to move on to direct client work this can be very useful.

I didn't mean to have a go at the OP, and maybe he has already done something similar and just needs to think about how to sell his past experience better. Still, I do think this is worth saying to newcomers struggling to get their first job - taking some time out to do something else needn't be 'giving up', it can be a really valuable step in the process of becoming a translator. And you'll get some money coming in.

I do realise that COVID makes things more difficult at the moment, of course.

ahartje wrote:

Zusätzlich würde ich an deiner Stelle noch erheblich an der Zeichensetzung und Rechtschreibung feilen.