We Will Miss You, 2010! Will You?

As we put the finishing touches on our last projects of 2010, we realized that we haven't really had much time to  reflect on our year, and that's because we've been buried in work (which is a good thing). It certainly didn't feel like the recession (or end of the recession) to us, and we had the opportunity to sign a good number of repeat customers this year, for whom we do projects on a weekly -- and...

Last-Minute Holiday Gifts (No Shipping)

Time flies -- and now Christmas is right around the corner. Did you forget a special someone on your list who happens to be a linguist, and now it's too late to mail anything? Not to worry: here is a short list of great gifts that recipients can receive via e-mail. They might not have anything to unwrap, but these gifts sure will get some use! The Translator's Toolbox: A Computer Primer for Translators  is the...

Scam Alert: Omarion Desmond

It's quite a troubling trend that online scams are increasingly targeting our industry, as scammers (mostly incorrectly) assume that linguists work in a vacuum or are not very tech-savvy (another incorrect assumption). Luckily, we have forums like these, in addition to outstanding payment practices lists and black lists, to share information and to educate each other. This month's scam alert comes from our dear colleague and fellow author Cora Bastiaansen of the Netherlands, whom we had the pleasure of meeting at a conference...

Pro Bono Work: Kiva

We oftentimes get questions about how to overcome the typical chicken/egg dilemma: clients want translators to have experience, but they won't hire newcomers to the world of translation without experience. Many times, newcomers make the (poor) choice to take lower rates to get started. The effect is that it destroys the market for the rest of us (think macroeconomics!), and that it's very challenging to raise...

In-House Translator Position in the Chicago Area

As our dear readers know, we write mainly about linguists who are also entrepreneurs and run their own businesses. However, running a business is difficult (if it were easy, everyone would do it). Hence, working as an in-house translator is a nice alternative (Judy is a recovering in-house translation department manager). Unfortunately, these positions are relatively rare. We just received this posting from our colleague Melissa Ramer, who is the translation manager at the agency in question, Valtera, which is located in the...

Internships for Spanish & French Translators

Through one of our e-mail lists, we just received a note that the U.S. Department of Justice/INTERPOL has a few openings for Spanish and French translator-interns. Unfortunately, as is the case with most internships, there is no payment offered, which is a bit disheartening. Thus, the DOJ can certainly expect to exclusively attract recent graduates or newcomers to the profession, which might not be the best solution for translations of sensitive materials, but we digress. That said, we are sure the experience would be fantastic....