The world is globalizing and people speaking more than a single language is not too rare to stumble on today!
I, too, do speak two multiple languages, my mother tongue Korean and the second language English. And I feel being a bilingual is certainly beneficial in so many situations; making friends in many different regions globally, knowing more about other cultures outside of the homeland, travelling worldwide with convenience of communication, achieving a better opportunity to land a decent job, more international experiences and wider vision & insight on the world and the universe, looking more intelligent and superb (Guess I’m going too far!! lol!) and blah…blah… on and on…!!
Sounds too good, right? Alright, then forget about all the things I said just a moment ago!! Because they don’t help you for anything right away, that just sounds too epic, poetic, just a big talk! They’re in the far distance to the real life anyway!
Yet, rather let’s try to talk about something more productive that can “Actually” and “practically” help you as a bilingual right now, especially for a financial benefit that we love!
“What’s that?” Look up the title? Yes right, translation jobs or other similar types of bilingual jobs!
Oh you’ve got no time and snowed under with a lot of housework?! Or busy at school in day and can’t afford for a full time job or commuting to work?!
I’m going to say “No worries!”. More than half of translation jobs on the planet are freelance jobs that allow you to work from home and in flexible working hours, it’s totally up to you whether you go advance it as for your full time career, or a just part time job that lets you work in your spare times, earning money on the side!
As for me, it’s been a good source for an extra income so far. Several years ago, I first stepped into this field, working for a Korean local travel agency where I got a work-from-home translation position after some time of job seeking on local job posting sites. Actually, at first, I was obligated to work on-site, as in kind of a probation period. But soon after a couple of months of in-house (office) working, I was approved to work as a home based worker with hourly pay $12 an hour working 4 -5 hours at home! (Although in translation industry, hourly pay is a very very rare case!)
I only worked at night after my main job in day, it was truly a great aid for my finance that I could do to make more money without disturbing my day job. And also was kinda fun, working in travel industry, knowing lots of the new worlds, exciting travel attractions while I was mainly translating travel brochures and guide books! (Regretful I couldn’t get a chance to go on FAM trips while I was working there! haha!!)
New areas to explore in my humble translation career path
Been working there (the travel company) for the next few more years before I had to quit it for my personal reason, and time passed by to the moment, I recently started working on Fiverr and TranslatorsCafe too as a Eng-Kor, Kor-Eng freelance translator just on demand. Just talking into account my work hours sacrificed for translation jobs recently are not much, but the range of income I earn nowadays from Fiverr and the another translators’ community, called “TranslatorsCafe” is not too bad, just as enough as getting some extra money to pay monthly bills of mine including mobile phone, some pieces of utility bills and some beer money!! Yay! 🙂
Simply, I can’t afford to fully dedicate myself to translator jobs since I’ve got some multiple hardworking jobs for a living including this blog, but sparing some pieces of my time for it.
I guess I’m quite happy with it and I’ll probably find some people of you guys who want to go the same way as I do for an extra little income, helping for your better financial situation.
That motivated me to write this today, I’m about to start to talk about where to find language translation jobs/bilingual jobs and how to make money from home while you keep your other jobs on the run, whatever it may be if you can spare at least few hours a day for this little extra side job!
So guys! Ready to get started?! Let’s move on then!
What To Prepare Before Getting Down Into This
- Resume & Cover Letter that indicate your targeted languages, education level and working experience in translation or relevant
- Your quiet workplace at home or anywhere you prefer to work in
- Computer or any device that’s able to perform the job without trouble
- Paypal account or a local bank account to get paid
- Skype account for convenience of communication with the management (If required)
Best 10 Legit Places For Translation Jobs & Bilingual Jobs
1. Translators Cafe
Home to freelance translators worldwide.
It’s a captivating translation-dedicated forum and giant community of work at home translators of more than 200 languages.
The job board is where people are offering and seeking translating jobs which is so lively with fresh posts (job offers) updated in every often time as short as 10 – 30 minutes.
As a language specialist (Translator & Job Seeker), you are given 2 options for either, free account or paid one, I personally recommend to just go with free one since there’s no much limit in using the necessary features with a free account.
Apply Here : Bilingual & Translation Jobs
2. Proz
This is a social site for freelance translators where they can promote themselves and get hired by clients there who are also seeking language specialists working in bilingual jobs.
As far as I know, this site is the one of most visited website in the translation industry, ranked 9700th at Alexa worldwide online traffic ranking, simply meaning that Proz might have a stunning number of visitors and users who regularly come visit to use the platform for linguistic jobs.
It’s true that this community has a fairly big (or one of the biggest) online presence in the industry, and also a lively job market with a surprising amount of fresh job offers posted every few to several minutes. Yet, I really couldn’t move on to the next without telling this that Proz requires paid subscription to access the full features while a free account is frustratingly limited and with handicaps like limited bidding opportunities and search result disadvantages.
Apply Here : Bilingual & Translation Jobs
3. Top Language Jobs
It’s a UK based multilingual job portal site that lists jobs not only about translation, but also any kind of linguistic jobs where your multi language skills are able to be usefully performed. For example, bilingual customer service agents to multilingual account executive positions. It seems like it’s fairly huge in the range of job categories for openings so if you wish to use your language skills on somewhere else than translation, this site could do great for you.
By the way, just one thing I specially noticed on their homepage: They Seem to be in highest demand of “German Speakers”. If you speak German, this would be a chance for you to be put on priority!
Apply Here : Bilingual & Translation Jobs
4. AberLingo
AberLingo is an online based business that offers comprehensive multi language services. They are always open for work at home freelancers with multi language skills and related experiences in subtitling, voice dubbing as well as translating services. It seems great for the people who are looking for wider options of bilingual jobs.
As well, I noticed AberLingo has been quite reputed with high ratings and good reviews (from TrustPilot.com, Glassdoor etc) from the both sides, its clients and AberLingo-experienced home based workers, it kind of gives people a feeling of reliability on them even before the start.
Apply Here : Bilingual & Translation Jobs
5. TransPerfect
Not only translation jobs, but really variety kinds of multi language solutions offered by the company.
What they offer are, translation, interpretation, website/software localization, multicultural marketing, globalization management and even multi language speaking home based call center jobs which all are a great fit to language specialists wanting a bilingual job.
This company was put in the list because the clients and also workers’ reviews on this company was great and the both groups of people seem so happy working with this so praised multi-language solution company.
Apply Here : Bilingual & Translation Jobs
6. DayTranslations
NYC based translation business that offers translation, interpretation, web localization, affidavits translations and transcription services in more than 100+ languages.
They seem actively hiring talents with multi language skills from the globe as long as being able to perform quality linguistic services in these specific areas: Automotive, Banking & Finance, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail, Travel, Technology, Legal and Gaming industry etc.
I personally used this site several times. What’s been the most impressing point about the company to me is their super friendly staffs for translation workers as well as their clients through the 24/7 real-time chatting support!
I think being well supported by the management is always a big plus for freelancers to stay motivated and productive at work and the majority of people who ever used this site as a worker or a client appreciate the value of their stable and reliable services; generally, the both sides seem happy with this company according to TrustPilot reviews.
DayTranslations would be what you could count on to start working with if you’re qualified!
Apply Here : Bilingual & Translation Jobs
7. Absolute Translations
Absolute Translations, headquartered in Brisbane, Australia with global branches in Singapore and Belgium, specializes in multi language translation services since the launch of 2004.
They have various multi language services offered to clients besides text translation service, such as audio & video translation, copywriting, transcreation, web localization & app translation, multilingual publication, typesetting, subtitling and several more.
The most of jobs are done by their work at home freelancers, this would be an opportunity for you to be part of it too if you have 5 years + of experience in one of those areas and an academic major in the relevance to be qualified.
Apply Here : Bilingual & Translation Jobs
8. Bubble Translation
Bubble Translation has built a solid reputation since 2003 of their start into the business.
As their long history of the operation, plus firmly built reliability over time, they’ve gained huge relationships with more than 3,800 work at home translators across the world and in more than 280 different languages translated by their services.
Their translation market sectors in which they specialize in to offer their corporate clients including Amazon.com, Microsoft, Disney, Levi’s etc, are:
manufacturing, marketing, professional services, market research, technology, engineering, automotive, consultancy and charity and probably more.
If you have a translating experience specified in one or few of those sectors, it might be worth putting yourself out there for a home based translator position they’re hiring for!
Apply Here : Bilingual & Translation Jobs
9. JR Language
This is a US based company headquartered in New York with several regional offices across the states. Their main service sectors are comprehensively text translations, website translations, video translations, interpretation and proofreading services that linguists who are longing for a work from home bilingual job can try to apply for.
It’s not very specified on their job qualification section on the recruiting page. But working experience in translating industry or an academic degree seem necessary to possess and be filled in in the application (Or any other equivalent qualification.)
Apply Here : Bilingual & Translation Jobs
10. TheTranslationCompany.com
Finally the last, not maybe the least!
TTC (TheTranslationCompany) is a professional linguistic service with openings available for freelance linguists in the whole world.
They offer language translation services in 200 different languages including the world major languages, mainly in technical, legal, medical, business, certificate or formal documents and other professional’s areas translations. It’s a company, founded by two of female professional translators in 2005 and since then, they seem driving the company on right track for success with established client relationships with 2,500+ corporate businesses across the world.
No wonder they need a pool of talented bilinguals to keep up with the work flow of their large client base. And this might be a good opportunity for you if you’re experienced and skilled to provide quality translation services for their clients.
No harm just in trying, prepare your CV and give it a shot applying today!
Apply Here : Bilingual & Translation Jobs
Just Some Little Heads Up
Best 10 Places For Bilingual Jobs & Translation Jobs
No worries! This isn’t gonna be something too unnecessarily serious!
But in a better wording, I just wanted to give you guys some notes that you should know priorly.
Like some of you guys noticed, the most of job offers they’re offering aren’t actually for everyone’s job. Indeed, it needs some appropriate qualification to smoothly land a job in the industry.
For instance, an academic degree preferably in linguistics or translation (Bachelor’s degree or at least 2 year college degree for some places) or else, an other particular academic discipline ought to or are recommended to be possessed. Also a few years of working experience in translation which are usually encouraged to have it at least for 5 years to step into their industry.
That being said, just in case anyone has got just little short for the requirements superficially, I’d want to say I still believe there’d be possibly some way out there to find to get in if you’ve got some alternative experiences like some years of foreign residency or you literally got so proficient in the targeted (applied) language but just without a degree, or the case that your language skills was naturally fostered after some period of time of working in international environment and so on! That might be equivalently recognized or even so appealing to their recruiters if you’re actively putting yourself out there!!
That’s me actually!
Yeah that’s my case how I got started with my first ever translation job years ago, at that time I was mere a fresh entry without any single time of a work experience in translation field. Well at least I got the job after some painful time of rejections, but ended up reaching there at last!
If anyone here feels that’d be your story, then try it! And give it a shot! (only if you’re willing to) Who knows you might be wanted so deadly!? 🙂
Nah,,, Not done yet! lol.. Wait a moment! Just few more words!
If you’re still suffering with getting in to the field only because you’re a fresh level, then try on Fiverr.com or Freelancer.com or the similar! Because they could be a great short cut to roll in to the industry and start just casually. Such places are like more qualification-free places that let you work as a freelance translator once you get practical skills!
Time to go! 🙂 Best luck to you guys! Cheers!!