Paving your way in the translation

industry
University of Surrey 3 November 2010
 STP LTD
Nordic translation specialists
• Languages: Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish and
English
• Qualifications: BS EN 15038 certified, corporate member
of the ATC, ALC, SFÖ, ATA TDC and Proz.com Pro
Network
• Clients: 250+ translation companies across the world
• Teams: 8 project managers, 4-5 in-house translators in
each language team, 70-100 preferred freelance
translators
• Tools: SDL Trados 2007 & SDL Trados Studio 2009, Idiom
WorldServer Desktop Workbench, Yamagata QA Distiller,
client developed translation tools, STP utilities
© Sandberg Translation Partners Ltd 2010 2
 Languages, fields and volumes

Target Subject area Source words translated

language Source words
Technical 4,438,293
Swedish 5,245,230 IT 1,854,955
Medical 1,475,352
Danish 3,711,946
Commercial 1,220,830

Norwegian 3,052,115 Financial 956,733

Legal 492,502
English 2,504,677 Marketing 408,508
Strings 183,335
Finnish 2,411,434 Automotive 165,329
© Sandberg Translation Partners Ltd 2010 3
 RM background
• Master of Arts, English and French translation,
University of Turku, Finland (2003)
• Freelance translations with own company
(2001-2003)
• STP since 2003: project coordinator, project
manager, production & quality manager
• Current tasks: in-house translator and project
manager training, project management supervision,
tools research and training, quality assurance, client
contact

© Sandberg Translation Partners Ltd 2010 4

 It’s not just translation
• Reviser
• Project manager
• Localization engineer
• DTP operator
• CAT tools expert
• Vendor manager
• Technical writer
• Terminologist
• MT output post editor
© Sandberg Translation Partners Ltd 2010 5
 What’s it like in real life
for a translator?
• Deadline intensive work
• 2000+ words per day, 1300-1500 words
revision per hour
• Projects between 50 and 50 000 words
• Translation, revision, editing, terminology work
– and most of all research
• 1-10 translation tools (desktop or online),
Office suite, DTP tools, dictionaries and online
resources

© Sandberg Translation Partners Ltd 2010 6

 In-house vs. freelance

Freelance
• Independence, freedom & mobility, better
income (?)
In-house
• Fast paced, varied environment
• Work hard, learn a lot
• Technology
• Small, medium, large companies
• In-house staff – often no translators…
© Sandberg Translation Partners Ltd 2010 7
 Freelance considerations

• Sole trader, partnership, limited company

• Accounts & invoicing, VAT, national insurance, tax, pension,
professional indemnity and other insurances, hardware &
software
• Rates
per word, line, page – target or source – CAT tools discounts
• Agency or end-client?
• Tools and other software
• Training & support
• Holidays, illness and down times
• Useful links: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/startingup/
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/
© Sandberg Translation Partners Ltd 2010 8
 Remember the tools

• Translation environment tools

http://www.translatorstraining.com/sito/
• Office Suite
(Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)
• QA tools
(Xbench, QA Distiller, ErrorSpy)
• TMS (Translation Management System)
(Plunet Business Manager, XTRF)
• …plus learn to type and use your
computer

© Sandberg Translation Partners Ltd 2010 9

 How do I get there?
Start early and try hard!

• Routes Into Languages translation network

http://www.routesintolanguages.ac.uk/translation

• Professional organisations
Institute of Translation & Interpreting (ITI) www.iti.org.uk
Mentoring programme, conferences & workshops, professional
examination, CPD (Continuing Professional Development)

Institute of Linguists (IoL) www.iol.org.uk

Chartered Linguist status
Association of Translation Companies (ATC) www.atc.org.uk
Translators’ organisations in other European countries
© Sandberg Translation Partners Ltd 2010 10
 How do I get there?
• Translation & recruitment portals and agencies

www.toplanguagejobs.co.uk
www.gltjobs.com
www.monster.co.uk
www.proz.com
www.translatorscafe.com
www.gotranslators.com

www.eu-careers.eu
http://careers.un.org/lbw/Home.aspx
http://www.gchq.gov.uk/careers/

• Open applications
• Cooperation with fellow students/graduates – complete package
© Sandberg Translation Partners Ltd 2010 11
Sandberg Translation Partners Ltd

Raisa McNab
rm@stpnordic.com