Titles in the translation industry
The
most typical occupational titles in the translation industry are translator,
interpreter, technical writer, terminologist, project manager, coordinator and
translation coordinator. In addition, many
people work in the fields of documentation and localisation and have varying
titles.
A graduate in the translation field can also
work in planning, training and
consulting tasks or in the research and teaching of translation and
interpretation.
The studies of translation and interpretation
coaching e.g. to translate documents, TV and video programs, movies and
literature, to carry out language assessment and proofreading, different kinds
of planning, training and consulting tasks, international and inter-cultural
communication expert tasks e.g. in the corporate world, working for the
technical field and in the industry.
The interpreters graduate to handle tasks in
conference interpreting; planning, training and consulting tasks as well as in
expertise tasks in international and inter-cultural communication.
Becoming an expert in the translation industry
All speakers of a foreign language
are not translation industry professionals and not all translators are good
interpreters. The different professions in
the translation industry require different skills, so it is common to
specialise in something.
Translators often choose an area of translation
that they work in. These can be translating
documents, audiovisual translation (in addition to movies and TV programs e.g.
computer games and opera text device translations) and translating literature. The documents to be translated can vary from the
user guide of a threshing machine to EU directives, and this is why document
translators or interpreters specialise in translating certain fields, such as
economics and commerce, technical texts or legal texts.
The interpreters work as conference
interpreters, legal interpreters and in other different kinds of interpreting
tasks. Interpreters interpret both
simultaneously and consecutively. The
interpreters interpret all kinds of spoken presentations, such as speeches,
presentations, conferences, court sessions, police interrogations and
discussions between doctors and patients.
Technical communicators design, produce and
mediate information meant for users, such as user guides, device descriptions,
product specifications or helps in computer programs, web pages or phones. Technical communicators can also produce e.g.
content for a company website or draft marketing material.
Different titles are used for technical
communication in different contexts; for example technical writing, information
design or documentation design.