Student wanting short term work in translation Bristol area
Discussion
A friend is over in Bristol for the summer and looking for some work that is a bit more challenging than working behind bars in clubs or pubs.
She's super fluent in French and Spanish (with long term stays in countries speaking these languages) and currently studying 3rd year for a law degree.
Does anyone know of any agencies that might give her some short term contracts providing translation services?
She wants to earn a bit of cash to help out with final year fees, so I though I'd ask in here if anyone could provide some pointers.
Thanks.
She's super fluent in French and Spanish (with long term stays in countries speaking these languages) and currently studying 3rd year for a law degree.
Does anyone know of any agencies that might give her some short term contracts providing translation services?
She wants to earn a bit of cash to help out with final year fees, so I though I'd ask in here if anyone could provide some pointers.
Thanks.
Do they hold a translation qualification?
What is her native language?
Sample provides are the likes of Lionbridge/ The Big Word.
Most translation agencies require a translation degree or a specialism. Its a bit of a saturated market and the rates aren't good, and turnaround times are very tight.
She may make better money targetting local schools and universities with conversation practice @ x per hour.
What is her native language?
Sample provides are the likes of Lionbridge/ The Big Word.
Most translation agencies require a translation degree or a specialism. Its a bit of a saturated market and the rates aren't good, and turnaround times are very tight.
She may make better money targetting local schools and universities with conversation practice @ x per hour.
They're based down in Southmead.What Zaphod42 said.
She's highly unlikely to get freelance work with a translation agency unless she has either a postgrad qualification in translation or solid experience of translation spanning several years. And that's only for the less common languages - with French and Spanish, the chances of competing with highly qualified professionals are as good as non-existent. Translation is a completely different ballgame to being able to speak a language. Many people assume that because they can speak a language, they can translate as well. They can't. They may be capable of translating on an informal basis, for friends or family, but they won't be able to translate to professional standards under professional time pressures.
People used to get jobs as in-house translators in order to gain the experience they needed to strike out on their own, but those jobs are very few and far between these days. There's a lot of competition for them, and nobody would be taken on as a short-term measure in any case.
If she's genuinely interested in translation as a career (and not just as a way of earning a few quid over the summer, because it's simply not that kind of industry), she could always speak to some of the agencies in the Bristol area to see if they need summer cover for their in-house staff. But she wouldn't be translating in that case, she'd most likely be working as a project assistant - someone who manages translations, essentially, making sure the right translators are selected for texts, getting things done on time, etc. But even that's a bit of a long shot, because it usually takes a few months to train up people to make them into halfway decent project assistants/managers. But she can always ask.
Forget Lionbridge and BigWord, they won't be interested. They have quite strict requirements on qualifications which your friend doesn't meet.
I think the suggestion above of looking to run conversation classes is a good one. Or maybe lessons to kids who are likely to fail their exams in French or Spanish and who'd like to spend the summer relearning stuff so that they can sit the exams again?
She's highly unlikely to get freelance work with a translation agency unless she has either a postgrad qualification in translation or solid experience of translation spanning several years. And that's only for the less common languages - with French and Spanish, the chances of competing with highly qualified professionals are as good as non-existent. Translation is a completely different ballgame to being able to speak a language. Many people assume that because they can speak a language, they can translate as well. They can't. They may be capable of translating on an informal basis, for friends or family, but they won't be able to translate to professional standards under professional time pressures.
People used to get jobs as in-house translators in order to gain the experience they needed to strike out on their own, but those jobs are very few and far between these days. There's a lot of competition for them, and nobody would be taken on as a short-term measure in any case.
If she's genuinely interested in translation as a career (and not just as a way of earning a few quid over the summer, because it's simply not that kind of industry), she could always speak to some of the agencies in the Bristol area to see if they need summer cover for their in-house staff. But she wouldn't be translating in that case, she'd most likely be working as a project assistant - someone who manages translations, essentially, making sure the right translators are selected for texts, getting things done on time, etc. But even that's a bit of a long shot, because it usually takes a few months to train up people to make them into halfway decent project assistants/managers. But she can always ask.
Forget Lionbridge and BigWord, they won't be interested. They have quite strict requirements on qualifications which your friend doesn't meet.
I think the suggestion above of looking to run conversation classes is a good one. Or maybe lessons to kids who are likely to fail their exams in French or Spanish and who'd like to spend the summer relearning stuff so that they can sit the exams again?
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