“Freelance translator? In Romania? Like… what is that? You browse Facebook?”
Working as a freelance translator is more than what people on Facebook say it is. It is actually a complex profession, requiring education, patience, time management skills and a lot of knowledge of financial and taxes topics. It is also important to be a cold decision-making person. Especially when you go through one of the many “production downtimes” freelancers have to face.
At the agency, we work with over 2000 translators, most of them natives, from around the globe. In 2022, we “fired” over 1000 people, simply because the standards of our clients went up. In the meantime, the work of some of the translators went down. Luckily the current hiring process allows us to hire amazing people, real freelancers with verified experience in the field.
Speaking of education…
You cannot become a freelance translator overnight. Even though people may think you are a translator just because you can watch Netflix without subtitles, it’s much more than that. Going to university for language studies is a must to fully grasp a certain language. You can’t just say “Oh, I’ve got the Cambridge test done, advanced degree”, as you might think at the moment.
Once you’re out of a language faculty, you can then pick your specialization and start working. There’s a difference between being a freelance translator and an authorized translator. We will talk some more about authorizations and legal matters a little later. An online course on the language at hand, or using a language app to self-educate may be helpful in your pursuit.
Where do you even begin?!
First and foremost, you need a legal entity in order to work as a solopreneur in Romania, and there is no way around that. For example, most translators start with a PFA, which is easy to put together and also close, if you later decide to go for an SRL, the second most common legal form of working on your own. This applies to freelance translators as well as many other jobs.
It is very important to establish a home office, a place where you work as a freelancer. This will help you deal with your workload much better, as well as stay detached from house-related activities and focus on your translations. A comfortable desk, maybe in a separate room, or a secluded area of the house are two options for better productivity, even when self-employed.
Another thing to keep in mind has to do with money. If you’re a freelance translator, you can take care of your own finances or hire someone for this part of the job. If you’re working with a translation agency, this will be much easier as you get paid for the whole thing at the end of the month and only get to pay the taxes by the end of the quarter, or year, based on your legal form.
Time is one of the most important parts when you start out as a freelancer. Time will make the difference between success and failure for your self-employed business. If you time your projects right and take it slow and easy, you will win the game. If you instead rush through projects and deliver mediocre work, you’ll lose in the long run although you’ll make money.
Getting authorized as a freelance translator
Even though the simple act of graduating from a linguistic college can offer great earnings as a translator in Romania, it may suit you better to get a specialization for the job. You can do this for one or more languages legally. Simply by signing up for an exam organized by the Ministry of Culture – Judicial Sciences. The translator has to get at least a grade of 7 out of 10 to pass.
Once you’re in possession of the translator certificate for the Judicial Sciences department of the ministry, on the language combo you were trained for, you’re now ready to ask the Ministry of Law for a translator authorization. When this comes through, you can get your stamp and start working as an authorized translator. The stamp has to be vetted by the local Tribunal. After which you can use it for translations and authorizing the files you’ve solved. You simply stamp the translated version of the document.
“Production downtime” for a freelance translator
In Romania, they use the idiom “gol de productie” which refers to having no work for an extended period of time. It would translate to “production downtime” and although it’s used for factory work it simply works for freelancers as well. It feels the same when those orders just won’t come in. Now that you graduated and have a legal form to work, and maybe even got your authorization, you are left with two options for finally starting to operate as a freelance translator.
One of the options is to start looking for jobs right away. Use some of the many job portals in Romania, or abroad, and look for translation works. It will help your trials if you’d sign up for ProZ, a popular translator’s website where they post their availability. Clients and other language service providers can find them there, should they require their services. Facebook groups or even other social media channels are also viable options for finding work on your own.
A more “down-to-earth” and “adventures-free” way to go about it is to find and join a translation agency like the one we’re running here. Many translators fear the idea of sharing their profits with another entity. Yet there are many of them who look for an opportunity to do so. Especially after a “production downtime” during which they get close to no orders in weeks.
Joining a translation agency is not a sign of freelancing failure at all. On the contrary, it means you are now ready to share your skills with a base of clients who often are medium or large companies worth millions of dollars, and in constant need of translations. Working with an agency means a powerful workflow, as well as more freedom.
Joining a translation agency
If you decided to work on your own completely, good luck and be patient! If on the other hand, you want to join a translation agency, lucky you as we know a good one. How do you start working with us? Start by sending in your resume, either to freelancer@swiss-solutions.ro or vm@swiss-solutions.ro, or just hit this link for an easy form you can just fill in and send our way.
Should any of the ongoing projects in our Inbox be a fit for your abilities, we will message you right away for a meeting. We won’t go to work right away though. Based on some of our past experiences, we decided to test every single new collaborator before joining our agency. When you pass our tests we will move on to discuss prices, industries, language combos, payments, contracts and so much more. We will then sign a contract and that’s that, you’re now part of our freelance translators’ team! As we work with some of the most famous CAT Tools in the world, it’s good for you to know Trados, memoQ and others, for which we have licenses so that you don’t have to worry about paying for those.
The translation process
Now that you’re part of the team, we will brief you on how we work. First of all, the client is the one who puts the translation process into motion by sending a request. We analyze the text and the demands and then estimate a price and a delivery date. We later identify the required resources for the translation and we allocate them. This is where you come in to help us.
After we receive the final content to be translated, we will study it and see what we need for it. We then solve the translation with one or more linguists, as well as by using CAT Tools or not. Next comes the proofreading and formatting of the document, if implied, with a designer. The translation gets delivered along with the bill, after which we wait for the client’s feedback.
You can receive detailed information about how to join our agency as a freelance translator easily. Simply send us an email at one of the addresses in this article, or call one of the phone numbers on our website.
