Is there a ninja hiding within you?
Back in the day, you might have heard someone say something like this about translators: “Translators are like ninjas. If you notice them, they’re no good.” In other words, the best translators generally went unnoticed and worked in the background.
There may still be some truth in that quote when we’re talking about the language and style used in a translated text. Generally speaking, people shouldn’t be able to tell that they’re reading a translation.
But thinking more broadly about the visibility or invisibility of a translator, do we need a full mindset shift? Is it our time to step into the spotlight and shout a little louder as language professionals?
What does the world know about you?
Slator, the international news portal for the language industry, published an interesting article by the American translator and business coach Dorothee Racette about this very topic in November 2024. Racette tells us that we need to take more risks if we want to move forward in our career. You can read the full article here: To Improve Your Freelance Business, Stop Playing It Safe
The gist of it is that language professionals (especially the ones who work with the written word) tend to keep a low profile rather than sharing their success stories with the world.
We’ve all handled challenging projects, explored new subject areas or got to grips with new tools. But you can dig even deeper. Perhaps you play an extreme sport or produce beautiful works of art. Or maybe being organised is your superpower and you juggle family life with three kids alongside your work. At the end of the day, we all have a unique combination of strengths and skills.
What’s wrong with staying in your comfort zone?
The problem is that we shy away from telling the world about our skill set. Instead, we should be playing to our strengths with the aim of advancing our career and increasing our income. Our inner voice tells us that we don’t have enough experience or skills to move into a new area and succeed. So we resort to accepting poorly paid projects because we’re familiar with the terminology and the workflow. We can translate insurance policies and investment reports for our long-standing clients in our sleep, so we play it safe and keep doing what we’ve always done.
There are plenty of reasons to stay in that comfort zone. It’s safe and predictable. Ideally, it provides us with a regular income. That is, until the client decides to hand over the bulk of that translation work to a machine without any warning. It is acknowledged as a fact in our industry that “simple” translation projects are being processed by machines in automated workflows with minimal human input.
And action! Our top tips for you
So what action can we take in this moment? We can’t change the way the world’s going. But we can be brave enough to break free from our comfort zone and explore new opportunities. Here are our top tips for you...
• Keep learning
Take a course or start learning about something new with a view to offering a new service. When you’ve achieved a new qualification or certification, tell your clients about it (and that includes Apostroph Group), so the new projects can start rolling in.
• Find a mentor
Look for someone who will help you acknowledge your strengths and encourage you to start your learning journey, explore future prospects or make new connections.
• Expand your network
There’s so much value in talking to other professionals – within the language industry and beyond. Is there a LocLunch near you? Or maybe you can find an interesting online forum to join? Don’t just stick to people who do the same job as you. You can learn so much by tapping into different perspectives.
• Attend industry events or trade shows
Look for events that your clients or potential clients will be attending. Have conversations with them and ask them about their wants, needs and pain points. Explore the problems they face in their working lives. This is all information you can use to make your next move.
• Work on your online presence
If you don’t have your own SEO-optimised website available as a powerful platform, you should at least have a LinkedIn profile with a photo of you, a profile in the database of your professional body or some other online presence. Social media channels are an effective (and free) way to boost your visibility and tell potential clients how you can help them.
• Be creative and do your research
Maybe you can think of other ways to contact new clients in your specialist field.
• Ask for constructive feedback
Ask your colleagues what they think your strengths are or see if they’ll take a look at your online profiles. Use their feedback to make changes to the services you offer or the way you present yourself online.
While you’re thinking about making changes online... When did you last update your profile in our database? Have you told us everything we need to know? Head over to myFREELANCE and make sure all your details are up to date.
Draw on your strengths right now
Stop and think about the projects you’ve worked on over the past three months. What are the positives that spring to mind?
• Maybe you provided the client with some additional advice and suggested the perfect solution?
• Or perhaps you pointed out a serious mistake in a client’s source text and saved their reputation?
• Maybe you managed to deliver a project ahead of the deadline because you worked with speech recognition software?
• Or perhaps you worked so hard on your terminology research that you managed to explain a complex concept in a clear and concise way?
Whatever you’ve been working on, we’re sure you’ve received some positive feedback from your clients along the way. Taking the time to reflect on your wins will shift your mindset and you can take it from there. The clearer you are about your superpowers, the easier it will be to sell your services to the clients who need them most. There's no time like the present to take action!
Did you find this article helpful? Do you have something to share with us? We’d love to hear from you! Email us at freelance@apostrophgroup.ch
