Translators need to continually invest in themselves. We all know this.
Continuous professional development, both on a professional and personal level,
enables us to take on new challenges, but also to gain more confidence in our
work. It’s no wonder that the ITI encourages us all to keep up with our self-training.
Mastering without a Master’s
In the past year, I have taken a keen interest in the subject of breaking
into the industry and how translators establish themselves in the career,
evidenced by a talk I’ll be giving at Newcastle University next week, an
upcoming series of interviews with translators (watch this space), and my posts
last year on whether a postgraduate qualification is necessary to be a translator.
Unfortunately, there is no yes or no answer.
Although it is true many agencies stipulate that their translators must have a Master’s or equivalent in
translation, would they turn down someone without this qualification, but who
is highly experienced in a specialised area in demand? There is no doubt,
however, that a postgraduate qualification would put you in a strong starting position
and allow you to cement yourself in the career.
I left university with my BA in Modern Languages desperate to break
into the translation industry, but to train on the job rather than study the
theory behind it. That was a personal choice, one which I stand by; studying
for a Master’s in translation may well be a better choice for others, and I
have an enormous amount of respect for translators who have successfully built
their careers on their MAs, not to mention those well-established translators who
take up a postgraduate qualification later on in their career to give
themselves a formal acknowledgement of their authority in an unregulated
industry.
Preparing to succeed
Having worked as a translator for two years, I feel I am entering a
good position to accredit my skills with an equivalent qualification. For this
reason, I have decided to pursue the Diploma in Translation. As this is an exam
only, and as such there is no teaching involved, I will be undertaking a
fifteen-week preparatory course for the DipTrans. I will need to learn which
techniques are the best to use and build up my specialist terminology base,
ready to sit the exam in January 2014.
Of course, this will make me £1,500 lighter overall – a minuscule
figure compared to the cost of a Master’s and not one which qualifies for a student
loan. Nevertheless, it is still worth contemplating whether the investment is
worth it. As the ‘gold standard’ in the translation industry, it is notoriously
difficult to pass (reportedly a 30% pass rate), and failing it will result in
forking out the money again and waiting another year to re-sit whichever of the
three module are not passed).
I will keep you updated as I progress, rather than retrospectively,
from starting the course to receiving the results in fourteen months’ time, in
an effort to exhibit a first-hand experience of the exam and its preparation, and
help others decide if this qualification is suited to them. If you would like
to find out more about the DipTrans, visit http://www.iol.org.uk/qualifications/exams_diptrans.asp.
