To celebrate interpreters’ success stories, Monterey Language Services has put together a video showcasing the friendliness, professional, expertise, and different roles of our interpreters in shaping the harmonious community of our nation.  You can view the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYxpYyoC7z0

Interpreters can spend years honing their skills to become subject matter experts in their fields, such as healthcare, education, or the legal sphere. Some have even worked in these fields as doctors, nurses, teachers, paralegals, and more before becoming language experts.

Interpreters believe in the fidelity and fairness of their work. Interpreters ensure that information is relayed accurately between the parties involved, making sure that nothing is omitted or erroneously said and everyone is on the same page. This is incredibly important in medical and legal settings.

Interpreters describe their work as rewarding and fulfilling. Many times, the act of interpreting contains an emphasis on helping those limited or non-English speakers or hearing disabled persons who are in need, such as to help with healthcare or education. This gives many interpreters great satisfaction in giving back to the community and keeps them looking forward to their work.

Monterey Language Services has the pleasure working with so many talented, devoted, professional interpreters, providing excellent service for your needs, whether your event is large, small, private, or a personal matter.

Thank you so much to our interpreters for working with us for all these years, and for the years to come.

To keep an online presence. This might seem a little strange, but think about it this way: if you are looking to accept a car ride from someone, would you go with the person who has a five star rating, many customer reviews, a profile picture, and a little blurb about who they are? Or would you go with the person who has no profile picture, no rating, no reviews, and no profile picture? Obviously, you would go with the former. You would have many reservations about going with someone you have no information about. It’s the same thing with work. Having an online presence will help people who don’t even know you quickly get a feel for who you are and how you operate. Just make sure that you keep your presence online professional and active.

With a good online presence, you can also network. Networking is incredibly important for many reasons, but the most important one goes back to the previous example of a driver who you can easily read up about versus a complete stranger. When you submit your resume and cover letter to a company, especially a big company, they have to make a decision based off of the information you give them. If you don’t give them enough information, they will give the position to the person who they have a better picture of. Networking helps to get your foot in the door since you will have an opportunity to display who you are in a different, more informal setting. Networking will also help get your name into conversations making it easier for prospective clients or companies to identify you in the midst of other applicants.

You should be sure to start off small and get as much experience as you can under your belt. You would be surprised what an opportunity here or there will be able to get you in the future. Just be sure that when you do the work, you always treat it with as much care as possible. This means taking the time to ensure you have no errors, have translated everything perfectly and do not have any formatting issues. Just in case, you should have someone proofread your translation. Even if you are confident with the translation you have put out, it would be a good idea to have a pair of fresh eyes go over the work that you have done. They might have a new perspective or be able to point out some simple errors that you might have glossed over.

The last tip for this post is to set aside a specific time to do your translation. This might seem simple, but you do not want to be spending too much time or too little time on the translation. It is better to have a set time to work on the assignment than to just do it whenever you feel like it. With a schedule, you will be more committed to finishing the job, and will have clear boundaries where you can ensure you are not interrupted or distracted.

Starting out as a translator or interpreter is simultaneously exciting and frightening, but no matter where you start, you are sure to end in a good position if you persist. These tips are to provide a good starting point as well as a good base to build off of. We hope this helps anyone looking to break into the industry.