Over the years, I’ve alternated between periods as a freelance translator and as an in-house translation project manager. This wasn’t something I’d planned in advance. It happened quite spontaneously.
Now, looking back, it feels almost natural that it turned out this way. Let me tell you why:
From the start, I’ve found plenty of advantages in both paths:
What I like about freelance translators:
– the flexible schedule,
– the freedom to choose who you work with,
– the strategy and client search (yes, I love marketing),
– the adventure of nothing being guaranteed at month’s end,
– the chance to earn much more than in-house,
– the time saved not commuting to an office if you work from home.
What I like about in-house translators or project managers:
– a solid starting point to break into the industry,
– working in person with other professionals,
– being able to ask more experienced colleagues questions,
– access to plenty of resources, glossaries, CAT tools,
– ongoing feedback on your work,
– how the ISO quality standard and QA procedures actually work,
– direct support solving tech issues,
– paid vacation and sick leave.
Let’s look at these in more detail. As a freelance translator, you’re your own boss, but you also face client work alone (with all the headaches of tech issues, client hunting, pricing, negotiating terms, building your brand and website…). While in-house, you have, for example, the backing of more experienced colleagues, help when tech problems come up, and you don’t have to worry about marketing or business negotiations, though you don’t have the flexibility of choosing your hours or your clients.
In my opinion, just like specialization areas that sometimes “find you,” it can also happen that, at certain stages of your career, one option or the other presents itself as the best choice for you. In other words, you don’t always work in-house first, then freelance, and finally start your own company. We see plenty of cases where people start directly as freelancers, or even set up their own translation company right away. There’s no secret formula, and there are countless valid paths.
In my case, I started with a few sporadic translation jobs, then worked as a project manager at a technical translation company, did a business management internship at a translation agency, then worked as a full-time freelance translator for a bit over two years, spent two years as an executive assistant at a Swiss firm, then worked for four years as a translation project manager, and now I’m back to working full-time as a freelance translator and copyeditor (three days a month I work part-time at a client’s office).
So I’ve also worked in other professional roles, always related to languages. Training as a translator opens up countless doors and professional opportunities.
Advantages of a translator with project management experience:
Having worked as a project manager, I’ve experienced firsthand what day-to-day in-house work is like.
I’ve handled tasks like:
– drafting quotes,
– being the company’s point of contact with clients and with internal and external teams,
– planning project phases,
– choosing the right teams for a given project,
– updating translation memories and glossaries,
– handling linguistic queries,
– following up on projects,
– reviewing and evaluating translator quality,
– managing work across countless different translation project management platforms,
– training teams,
– following up on past projects,
– systematizing processes,
– negotiating deadlines, rates, instructions, tool usage, licenses,
– meeting clients, external teams, and colleagues from other offices by conference call,
– online training courses, and a long etcetera.
What advantages does a freelancer with this specific background offer project managers at translation agencies:
– Empathy and proactivity. Having been on the other side helps me understand what the project manager I’m working with needs, and sometimes how they feel. When you’ve been in similar situations, it’s easier to understand and empathize with project managers than if you’d never been in their shoes.
– More efficient project delivery. By this I mean making sure files are delivered in the formats requested. Understanding how a translation agency works and its internal processes makes you more aware, and you carefully check that the number, format, and type of files you send matches the instructions.
– Stronger commitment to quality. The same goes for quality. When you know inside out what a quality standard is and what it’s for, things that might seem irrelevant at first suddenly make sense.
– Rigorous respect for deadlines. When you’ve worked under the pressure of tight deadlines, on projects with teams across several languages… you understand how important it is to be strict about deadlines. A late delivery can throw off the entire workflow chain behind it, and can even mean someone down the line can’t do their job well, or simply isn’t available anymore to take it on.
– Knowing how to say no to projects you don’t have a handle on. We may say it over and over, but it’s genuinely important. None of us need to know everything, nor is that even desirable. It’s better to specialize in what you’re good at, understand well, and do quickly. Taking on messy projects you’re not qualified for hurts you before anyone else.
– Fast responses. Closely tied to deadlines. A project manager really appreciates knowing whether they can count on you for a given project. Generally, they can’t sit around for hours waiting to hear back about your availability. They also expect that, if they have a question about your delivery, you won’t disappear and will be available to help.
– Better communication of doubts and questions. Having project management experience makes you more prepared and, as we saw in the first point, more proactive. So when you find something that doesn’t add up — errors in the source, references that don’t match the project, or mistranslations in a previous version — you flag it to the project manager. You get ahead of it and propose solutions, and all of that makes you a better team player and a professional people enjoy working with.
What about you? What advantages do you notice in translators who’ve previously been project managers? What is it about them that makes your day when you work together?
