Was wondering on translating requirments

I was wondering what I need to do in order to get a job in japan being a translator. Other than the obvious of knowing the language.

And, if there are any translators out there reading this, can you explain what your work is like?

Thank you very much :)

Experience, connections and qualifications are all important. It helps if you have a technical background- pharmaceutical, IT or engineering.

Unless you are hired as a full-time translator by a company (usually several years prior experience required), it can take a long time to build up enough work to make a living. I do some translation for the company I work at, but it's by no means a full time job and I have various other duties plus other part time jobs.

What other part time jobs do you have? And, how can i get a few years of translating before I can translate? Getting a headache...O.o

Matt,

I think most people start out by doing odd translation and proofreading jobs as a sideline to their main job until they have built up the experience and workload necessary to earn enough to pay the bills.
There is also the visa aspect to consider, as freelance work is not usually possible on a working visa.

You would need extensive knowledge of the languages (both your own and Japanese), some industry knowledge (you can't translate stuff you don't understand at least to some extent), patience, ability to work under pressure/to tight deadline, imaginative/interpretive capability (some documents are quite difficult to "decipher," particularly if you are going to translate from Japanese to
English), ability to simply keep on working diligently as an assistant/technician rather than considering yourself an artist (that is, unless you go into literary translation of course) - you really have to like what you do.

Having said that, I also agree with what Sira has stated - the best way to get started would be to find an employer to employ you full-time. (In the first place, freelance work does not qualify for work-permitting visa unless you have other visa status granted, so that would be a problem.) Some translation agencies do hire in-house "native checkers," in other words, who can check and revise English translation work done by Japanese - that may be a starting point too. In the US, I believe there is a university that provides good courses in interpreting/translation - Monterey? If you take course like theirs, get some good grades, you could possibly start off in the US as in-house translator for Japanese-US joint venture company...

Please read the (lengthly) Getting Started As A Translator site for details written by professionals.
http://www.gally.net/translation/gettingstarted.htm

There have also been similar questions on this Forum in the past. Do a search.

You don't really have to be so skilled at the beginning. But the trick is to keep on trying and so many people don't. Also, not many people know that a big part of the job is research. Looking up dictionaries and translating words and phrases consumes an extremely small part of your working hours. Mostly you search the internet and go to book shops trying to find out backgrounds of the context in order to read between the lines so that you choose the right words to use.

Thank you. This information is very helpful :) I love this site!