What To Do With Your CIOL DipTrans Results

So, after a much awaited arrival, you finally got your results. Now what? 

What To Do If You Did Not Pass

First of all, I am very sorry. I know you put in a lot of hours, stress, sweat and blood into this. So now what? 

If you managed to pass even one of them, good for you! For the translations you did not pass, here is what I recommend: have it regraded. For starters, you never know. But the main reason for this is that with the new grade, they actually give you feedback.

It is not too costly, but you first have to apply for a clerical check, which costs 20 pounds and takes two weeks. You get the results sent to your email. Once you have done so, and I don't imagine too many people have ever been affected by this, you apply for the remark. For the general translation it is 65 pounds, and for the two specialized it is 50 pounds. It still hurts, I know, especially after all you have spent. But the information given back to you can be invaluable.

During the exam, how did you feel? Confident? Or did you feel like you were just winging it? Myself, the articles I translated compared to the ones given in the prep course from 1998 seemed much simpler. I felt pretty good. So when the time came for the results to come in, boy was I crushed.

It is one thing to know you have no understanding of what is happening and are really just bullshitting your way through the translation, which don't get me wrong sometimes the articles given in the prep course were like that, and that was what I was expecting. But these seemed relatively straight-forward to me, so I really needed to know where I had gone wrong.

If you look into other translator blogs, many have also had their exams regraded, particularly when they have felt that they had done a good job on at least one of the three. From a general viewpoint, there is hope. If you do happen to be on the borderline, they can and do change grades. Now, be warned: if you got a pass but want a higher mark, they can also go the other way. If you pass a translation, I recommend you leave it there. Don't push a good thing.

Regardless of what comes in the remark, (whether or not you passed), you can take the information given to you as what you need to really hone in on. That way, by the time the next exam comes around, you can really blow them out of the park.

What To Do If You Passed

Congratulations! All of your hard work has paid off. Now what? 

If you are like me and have not truly begun working as a translator, what do you do now? This answer is very dependant on where you live. In general, here is what happens most often: you set yourself up as a Freelance. The steps to that vary by country, but later on I will have an article in how to do that for California.

You need to come up with a plan. A business plan to be exact. What is your specialization? Who is your target for clients? And all of those fun questions. You also, and this is very important, figure out a budget. Most likely yo have more than a few dictionaries that you already use, and there is always the internet. But what other expenses are there? CAT software, business cards, business registration, and all of that fun stuff. And a very important part: a Privacy Policy. With the kind of data and information you are likely to get, you need to have a plan and be very careful and specific to execute it. Again, rules may vary on location, but the best way to do it is to follow by the EU standards. The US for example does not have any laws at the moment, but if you have clients from anywhere else, you will most likely need it. Do it, have your butt covered, and everyone is happy.

Once you have your business set up, where do you start? That is the million dollar question. First, you need to get some experience. There are always agencies, which you can apply into if you like, but if you want to avoid that, there are quite a few website hosts that you can register with and you bid on projects. So someone, let's say me, has a translation job. I go to the website, gie a general description (i.e. is it a legal document, how many words, etc.), and translators look for these types of jobs. If it is a job you like, you put in a bid. Basically, you say, "Hello! This is me, here is my background, and here is my price." From these bids, I then decide on which translator I would like to do the job.

Starting out you will probably need to start at a low price, to gain experience and start getting jobs and building a portfolio. Once you have become more established and are confident, you can raise your prices.

Look for my upcoming articles on starting out as a freelancer.