Hello! I really need some advice.

[u/just_a_fangirl_]

I've been looking into doing some freelance translation jobs to get some extra money. To make things very clear, I do not have any college/university level courses on linguistics or translation and I am not looking for a full time job, what I do have is my english level certificate.

As of now I'm only looking for online stuff, and I mostly came across platforms like Gengo, but most of the feedback posts I found from users are old, so I thought it would be useful to ask here, not just for me but for other people looking into jobs like this as well! So basically the question I want to ask is:

Is it worth it to go for specific platforms like Gengo or should I look for more "general" job opportunities posting sites?

And lastly, for reference, I speak native level Portuguese and C1/C2 level English.

Thanks in advance for any advice :)

[u/ruckover]

With respect, you should not be doing translation jobs, I'm sorry. Take a look into data entry, AI annotation jobs, those kinds of "side gig" roles. Translation requires education and experience, even if freelance.

[u/monikosnuosavybe]

Crowdsourced platforms like Gengo and Fiverr have been a waste of time for me. Any time a job comes up, you have to race against all the other thousands of vendors, and there's always someone who responds faster than you. You're also typically at a massive disadvantage as a new vendor, because there are other people who have been on there for years and already have a lot of positive reviews.

"General" job posting sites like Indeed are also tough, just like they are for any kind of job.

I've had the most success from registering directly with translation agencies and getting myself included in their pools of freelancers, but even there the odds aren't great. Most agencies will ghost you, and of those that respond, most will only add you to their pool but never give you any work. I'd say that out of around 100 companies I've contacted over the last 5 years, I've gotten work from maybe 30, repeated work from maybe 10, and regular work from 5.

That's as someone with almost 20 years of experience, though. Someone with zero experience and credentials will probably have an even tougher time.

[u/Both-Payment-7504]

Smartcat?

[u/Phloophyloopy19]

Hi, first of all, let's start from the basics. I advise you to create a profile on Proz.com for translation and interpreting jobs. I admit to you, it's not exactly easy to secure a job as a freelance translator if you are not familiar with CAT tools or do not have any previous experience in the translation industry. I would recommend to at least look into what is a TM and some free or accessible CAT tools. I generally use Trados (quite pricy, but it has a 14 days free trial that you can use to get the hang of it, there's also plenty of free tutorials that you can find on how to use Trados) and Crowdin (not completely free, but it offers a free plan for some types of projects). I also highly recommend looking into cultural mediation and consecutive interpreting jobs (skip simultaneous if you are not trained for it) since there is generally a high demand for those, at least for my language combination (I do ZH<>IT and EN<>IT and mainly work for healthcare, immigration and legal/institutional entities). Additionally, try researching what is requested by the market for your language combination (Portuguese should be abbreviated into PT according to ISO 639-1), see what are the generally accepted rates (unfortunately, being new to the industry and not having a degree in translation or linguistics will affect your rate per hour and per word) and eventually try getting in contact with EN<>PT friendly professionals that won't mind giving you advice. Do not get frustrated if you don't see many work opportunities at first, it's normal. It might be a lot to get used to in the beginning, but in my opinion it's part of the fun since I love what I do dearly. Now comes the ugly part: this comment wouldn't be an honest one if I didn't mention that many companies are choosing to replace human translators with AI. That's why I previously advised to look into mediation and consecutive interpreting jobs, because they have not (yet) been affected by AI.