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Poll: At what stage of your career did you realise you wanted to be a translator?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
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Jun 4, 2021

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "At what stage of your career did you realise you wanted to be a translator?".

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neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 02:48
Spanish to English
+ ...
After at least 10 years Jun 4, 2021

And before I was working "professionally", I also worked "unprofessionally" in other areas.

Liviu-Lee Roth
Christine Andersen
Aline Amorim
Corinne Le Gallic
Philip Lees
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 01:48
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
After 20 years of work Jun 4, 2021

I didn't start out my career as a translator. I started working as soon as I finished high school and went to university. There were more than a couple of other completely different professions before this one. I do not regret at all this intricate weaving as it gave me a valuable insight of different areas of business. Then one day, after a good 20 years of work, translation found me: part-time for a few years followed by 20 years as staff translator in an EU Institution until I retired and now... See more
I didn't start out my career as a translator. I started working as soon as I finished high school and went to university. There were more than a couple of other completely different professions before this one. I do not regret at all this intricate weaving as it gave me a valuable insight of different areas of business. Then one day, after a good 20 years of work, translation found me: part-time for a few years followed by 20 years as staff translator in an EU Institution until I retired and now I have been freelancing for 15 years.Collapse


Yetta Jensen Bogarde
Liviu-Lee Roth
Nikolay Novitskiy
 
Jocelin Meunier
Jocelin Meunier  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 02:48
English to French
+ ...
First choice Jun 4, 2021

English classes was where I had the most fun in high school, and it was just as fun to try every language that catched my fancy. In the end I settled for English and Japanese and went to learn just that in college. After all these years, it still makes my gears grind in a satisfying way. The only downside is the industry

Christopher Schröder
 
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Germany
Local time: 02:48
English to German
In memoriam
After nearly 30 years Jun 4, 2021

I believe I started my first job in the consulting/IT area around 1988 (apart from student jobs) and I made the switch to translation in 2017.

Nikolay Novitskiy
Jorge Payan
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 02:48
French to English
. Jun 4, 2021

After ten years of working as a teacher, experiencing burn-out because I was too damn patient for my own good and was given all the hopeless cases.
I'm not sure how professional it was though, because the language school was reputed to be a "cowboy outfit".


 
Edward Potter
Edward Potter  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 02:48
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Over 10 years Jun 4, 2021

I started out as an IT consultant and satellite data analyst in the Washington D.C. area, but I really wanted to live in Europe so I quit my job and never looked back. After several years as an English teacher translation found me and I absolutely love it!

 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Missing option: Not yet Jun 4, 2021

I’d still rather be a rock star.

Bruna Carvalho
P.L.F. Persio
Juliana Pavão
Rachel Waddington
Nikolay Novitskiy
Kevin Fulton
Jean Dimitriadis
 
Bruna Carvalho
Bruna Carvalho  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 02:48
English to Portuguese
+ ...
None of the above Jun 4, 2021

As I finished college, I realized the course I had picked was not what I wanted to do with my life. But people still expected me to work, so I decided to use the only other marketable skill I had: being bilingual. It turned out to be the best career I could ever dream of

[Edited at 2021-06-04 12:12 GMT]


Elena Simonelli
Elías Sauza
Christopher Schröder
 
Nikolay Novitskiy
Nikolay Novitskiy  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 05:48
Member (2018)
English to Russian
I never planned to be a translator... Jun 4, 2021

...but the Universe has it's own sense of humor

Christine Andersen
Helena Koželj
Kevin Fulton
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Christopher Schröder
LIZ LI
Agneta Pallinder
 
Yaotl Altan
Yaotl Altan  Identity Verified
Mexico
Local time: 18:48
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
+ ...
40 days of programming Jun 4, 2021

After 40 days of programming, I moved to full-time translation in 1999.

I have more than 2 decades in the translation field, which makes me happy because perhaps I bleong to the last generation that enjoyed this machine-free translation environments.


Christopher Schröder
Daryo
 
Barbara Cochran, MFA
Barbara Cochran, MFA  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 20:48
Spanish to English
+ ...
Pre-Career, At Age 16... Jun 4, 2021

...when my fellow Spanish students in the language lab listened to my EN>SP translation, "Mi Hogar", which consisted of about 4 medium-size paragraphs, and our highly-talented teacher said "excelente" when I finished reading, without making a single correction. That, coupled with the fact that I had enjoyed the exercise so much, convinced me that a career in translation should be my professional goal.

Christopher Schröder
 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 17:48
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
From the get-go Jun 5, 2021

My school started teaching Spanish in 8th grade. After just a few classes I knew that I wanted to be a translator.

 
Ludovicap
Ludovicap
Germany
Local time: 02:48
German to Italian
+ ...
almost since forever :) Jun 5, 2021

I started studying English at school when I was 6 years old - back then I didn't know what a translator was, but I was always so happy to study this completely new language, it was really so much fun! I also led my mom listen to all the texts we read at school, even though she didn't know a single word I was saying.

Year after year, when I got older,
... See more
I started studying English at school when I was 6 years old - back then I didn't know what a translator was, but I was always so happy to study this completely new language, it was really so much fun! I also led my mom listen to all the texts we read at school, even though she didn't know a single word I was saying.

Year after year, when I got older, I got to know this profession and knew almost instantly that this had to be the career of my dreams.
Collapse


 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 21:48
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
How unfortunate to use the term "professionally"! Jun 7, 2021

So working as a translator is not "professionally"???

 
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Poll: At what stage of your career did you realise you wanted to be a translator?






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