The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2022 - 19

REFLECTIONS
ON RUNNING
A MICROINTERNSHIP:
Making
a Difference
by Starting Small
Even after completing an approved training program,
new translators often still lack the necessary
experience and expertise to be able to compete in the
industry. This is where internships can help!
By Mary McKee
Note: I would like to thank my
colleague Jamie Hartz for her
contributions to this article.
E
very well-informed
translation buyer
wants to work with
an experienced linguist.
And who can blame them?
Even the least savvy client
wouldn't want a newcomer
after reading page 15 of
the translation buyer's
guide Translation: Getting it
Right, which stresses how
" risky " it is to hire a student
translator, asking the reader:
Q: Would you approve of
medical students performing
minor operations to pay
their way through medical
school? (Would you describe
your brochure/ letter/
annual report/speech as
" minor " ?) Would you have
your company's financial
statements prepared by
business students to
save money?1
www.ata-chronicle.online
Even after completing an
approved training program,
new translators often still
lack the necessary experience
and expertise to be able to
compete in the industry.
Given how few translation
training programs exist in
the U.S., and how intense
the competition can be in
the global marketplace,
it's not surprising that few
translation internships exist,
let alone paid internships.
This makes it extremely
difficult for new translators
to get the real-world
experience they need.
The Problem
In my experience as a
graduate of the Kent
State University master's
program in Spanish>English
translation, many of my
classmates and graduating
students from other
language programs trained
to become translators but
ended up going into project
management. Some of them,
I'm sure, intended to do
so from the beginning, or
determined during the course
of their degree program
that project management
was more suited to their
desires and talents. But
anecdotal evidence and my
own experience starting out
suggests that the difficulty
of breaking into the industry
and the inherent instability
of the freelance lifestyle
pushes many people to seek
more stable and salaried jobs
in the industry even if they
would have preferred to work
as a translator.
I wanted to do something
about this, but it seemed
more like a systemic and
industry-wide problem
that only large companies
could change, by finding
the goodness in their hearts
to help develop the human
resources that they will need
in the future.
Translation
experience won't
be as valuable to
the intern if they
don't also receive
some feedback.
American Translators Association 19
http://www.ata-chronicle.online
The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2022

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