Translation and interpretation jobs come in a few varieties. They can be over the phone positions, where you are helping people communicate with a business. They can involve written translation. You may be helping individuals communicate with a business or provide business to business services.

Qualifications/Training Needed?

To be a translator or interpreter, you need to have great language skills in the two languages you will be working with. In the United States, that will mostly be English and one other language. You will need good computer skills and the ability to use whatever software your employer uses.

If you’re working over the phone, you will also need great customer service skills.

Job Duties

For over the phone interpretation, you may be speaking for the client to a business. You need to express as closely as possible what the client is saying.

Similarly, you need to keep the meaning as close as possible when doing written translation work.

Translation and interpretation are not as simple as merely translating the words. You need to get the concepts across as well. You may choose to specialize in a particular subject area so that you can do the best possible work.

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Conference interpreters work at conferences that have non-English-speaking attendees. This work includes international business and diplomacy, although conference interpreters interpret for any organization that works with foreign language speakers. Employers prefer high-level interpreters who have the ability to translate from at least two passive languages into one active (native) language—for example, the ability to interpret from Spanish and French into English. For some positions, such as those with the United Nations, this qualification is mandatory.

Much of the interpreting performed at conferences is simultaneous; however, at some meetings with a small number of attendees, consecutive interpreting also may be used. Usually, interpreters sit in soundproof booths, listening to the speakers through headphones and interpreting into a microphone what is said. The interpreted speech is then relayed to the listener through headsets. When interpreting is needed for only one or two people, the interpreter generally sits behind or next to the attendee and whispers a translation of the proceedings.

Guide or escort interpreters accompany either U.S. visitors abroad or foreign visitors in the United States to ensure that they are able to communicate during their stay. These specialists interpret on a variety of subjects, both on an informal basis and on a professional level. Most of their interpretation is consecutive, and work is generally shared by two interpreters when the assignment requires more than an 8-hour day. Frequent travel, often for days or weeks at a time, is common, an aspect of the job that some find particularly appealing.

Judiciary interpreters and translators help people appearing in court who are unable or unwilling to communicate in English. These workers must remain detached from the content of their work and not alter or modify the meaning or tone of what is said. Legal translators must be thoroughly familiar with the language and functions of the U.S. judicial system, as well as other countries’ legal systems. Court interpreters work in a variety of legal settings, such as attorney-client meetings, preliminary hearings, depositions, trials, and arraignments. Success as a court interpreter requires an understanding of both legal terminology and colloquial language. In addition to interpreting what is said, court interpreters also may be required to translate written documents and read them aloud, also known as sight translation.

Literary translators adapt written literature from one language into another. They may translate any number of documents, including journal articles, books, poetry, and short stories. Literary translation is related to creative writing; literary translators must create a new text in the target language that reproduces the content and style of the original. Whenever possible, literary translators work closely with authors to best capture their intended meanings and literary characteristics.

This type of work often is done as a sideline by university professors; however, opportunities exist for well-established literary translators. As with writers, finding a publisher and maintaining a network of contacts in the publishing industry is a critical part of the job. Most aspiring literary translators begin by submitting a short sample of their work, in the hope that it will be printed and give them recognition. For example, after receiving permission from the author, they might submit to a publishing house a previously unpublished short work, such as a poem or essay.

Localization translators constitute a relatively recent and rapidly expanding specialty. Localization involves the complete adaptation of a product for use in a different language and culture. At its earlier stages, this work dealt primarily with software localization, but the specialty has expanded to include the adaptation of Internet sites and products in manufacturing and other business sectors. The goal of these specialists is to make the product to appear as if it were originally manufactured in the country where it will be sold and supported.

Medical interpreters and translators provide language services to health care patients with limited English proficiency. Medical interpreters help patients to communicate with doctors, nurses, and other medical staff. Translators working in this specialty primarily convert patient materials and informational brochures issued by hospitals and medical facilities into the desired language. Medical interpreters need a strong grasp of medical and colloquial terminology in both languages, along with cultural sensitivity regarding how the patient receives the information. They must remain detached but aware of the patient’s feelings and pain.

Equipment Needed

A computer is a must for both positions. You may also need an additional phone line and a headset. A quiet place to work if you’re doing interpretation is also vital.

Where to Search for Jobs

Translation job listings at Home with the Kids
Craigslist (beware of many, many scams!)
Hire My Mom
Home Job Stop

Related Scams

Any legitimate translation or interpretation work at home job is going to be very interested in your qualifications. If they aren’t, run away. Quality should always be a major factor in any sort of translation position.

Scammers may also want you to buy their software. They will not want you to buy it from elsewhere, even if that is possible. Always be careful if a potential “employer” wants you to buy something from them before they give you any work or if you have to pay to apply for the job in any way.

Other signs of a scam include poor grammar, a free email address, no identifying information and little information about the actual work you would supposedly be doing. A free email address isn’t a perfect indicator of a scam, as many individuals will use them, but it should make you be more aware.

Happy first day of spring. What better way to celebrate by enjoying the next rainy day you have?

Most kids love to play in the rain. I know mine do. And make sure to splash in the puddles. It’s a simple pleasure that many adults forget. Just dress appropriately or have towels ready so everyone can dry off quickly after playing.

It’s not the rain that causes colds, after all.

After playing in the rain is a nice time to curl up together under blankets with some hot chocolate. Watch a movie or just talk about the next fun things you want to do together.

Working as a virtual assistant can be done as either a work at home job for a virtual assistant service, or as an independent home business. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. Which works for you is a very personal decision.

Today I will be focusing on being a virtual assistant as a home business. I have a number of articles on being a virtual assistant you may enjoy reading to go into more depth than what I have here.

Skills Required

The skills you need will very much depend on which virtual assistant services you choose to offer. The title virtual assistant can cover a lot of ground:

• answering customer service phone calls and emails
• sending mail and faxes
• taking inbound phone calls
• following up with previous clients
• letter writing
• data entry
• website design and maintenance

You can specialize in any of these or a combination and market yourself as a virtual assistant. The key is to be great at whatever you offer. And there are many more skills you can offer.

Common Expenses

Once again, this depends on what you specialize in. You probably already own a computer, although having a work specific one can have its advantages if such is in the budget.

You will need a domain name and hosting if you’re going it on your own. You need a good place to showcase your skills and portfolio. If you have the skills, build on your own, but otherwise services such as SBI can be a great way to build a site to attract clients. The expense for either solution, when calculated by the year, really isn’t too bad, especially in comparison with renting an office space outside the home as with traditional businesses.

You may need to buy software both to help you complete your work and to keep track of billing, income and taxes.

There may be expenses associated with finding clients. You will want to print business cards. You might look for work on boards that will have either an upfront cost or take a percentage of your earnings from projects found there. You might try pay per click advertising.

Possible Income Streams

Your clients should be your main income stream. If you provide good service, those who have more work for you may choose to continue using your services.

To maintain a professional look, I would not suggest placing ads on your business website. You don’t want to distract potential clients from the reason they came to your site.

While you hope to attract clients through your site, you may need to consider other sources to bring in business. You can sign up with sites such as Shelancers, Elance or Guru to find work.

Related Scams

When you’re running your own business dealing with clients, your main concern may well be getting paid by your clients. Sometimes this will be really difficult. But there are fewer flat out scams out there when you have your own business. They do exist, however.

Fake job boards, for example. Any time you pay for membership you should first research to be sure that you will be getting something for your money, or at least have the chance to. Sometimes a legitimate source just won’t have a match for you. Other times there may be deliberate deception about the possibilities present on a site.

Customer service is another very popular work at home option. The skills and equipment needed aren’t too hard to come by. Perhaps the most challenging issue for many people in this industry is coming up with a quiet enough work space to even consider getting started.

Qualifications/Training Needed?

As with any other computer based job, you need to type fairly quickly and accurately. You’ll need to get comfortable with whatever programs the company you’re working for uses for sales and customer service issues.

Job Duties

Your time will be spent taking calls for whichever company you work for. Sometimes you will work for a particular company all of the time, but other times your employer may contract with multiple companies, and you will qualify to work particular phone lines.

You may be handling sales calls for a shopping channel, customer complaints and generally helping callers out. Upselling is often a required part of the job, even if you’re dealing with customer complaints.

Equipment Needed

The most challenging thing for many people to find is a quiet enough room to work. No background noise is allowed, and calls are often monitored. You risk job loss if you do not have a sufficiently quiet place to work.

In addition, you will probably need to provide your own headset. A noise canceling headset is best for this kind of work, to keep the background noise out. You will typically also need a high speed internet connection and a phone line clear of all extras. No call waiting and so forth allowed on your work line.

Where to Search for Jobs

Customer Service job listings at Home with the Kids
Craigslist (beware of many, many scams!)
Hire My Mom
Home Job Stop

Related Scams

The main scam you’re likely to encounter when searching for a work at home customer service position is the classic “pay to show that you are interested” kind of scam. Never pay to apply for a job. You may once in a long while have to pay for a background check, but that is quite unusual.

Another scam is the fake job board. A few work at home job boards are legitimate, but most have poor quality leads at best. Be very careful and get opinions before paying to join a job board. Those few out there that are worth paying for will quickly pay for themselves.

Most families have a lot of movies, most of which only occasionally get watched. Rather than buy or rent others, arrange with another family to trade movies around regularly.

Keeping track of who owns what can take some work. You can stick a mailing label on the boxes to keep track of who owns what, and keep a list of who has borrowed what so that you know where particular movies have gone.

This of course takes a lot of trust, but it greatly cuts down on the need to buy or rent movies. Just beware of special favorites of the kids. Tempting as it may be to get rid of that movie that is requested 200 times a day, even for a short time, some movies should be loaned out only once the kids are sufficiently tired of them to share well.

Then again, the movie can always go over  to have the kids watch them together.