Who can be called a “professional” translator?

Very often linguists right after graduation declare “vast experience” in translation in their CV.

However, this profession is all about constant development, and university education is just the first step on the journey to perfection.

Only those who have at least four years of experience and treat translation as their main occupation can be considered professional, experienced translators.

When can a translator be considered “experienced”?

People working in the translation and interpreting business usually have degrees in foreign languages or linguistics.

Their foreign language skills are, or should be, close to that of a native speaker. Such professionals work only in the fields they have sufficient knowledge of, so that they can guarantee high quality of translation.

They make use of popular text editors, graphic editors, programs for Optical Character Recognition and CAT tools.

They are well acquainted with terms such as TMX, fuzzy match or term base. They work even at night, on weekends and holidays.