Salary and Outlook
According to the US Department of Labor, there are 69,400 people employed as interpreters and translators in
the United States.
The median annual salary is $49,110.
Entry level employees earn approximately $29,360 per year and senior employees earn approximately $97,760
per year.
Estimates do not include other potential benefits such as health insurance, overtime, or retirement benefits that may be offered by employers.
Job Duties
- Check translations of technical terms and terminology to ensure that they are accurate and remain consistent throughout translation revisions.
- Identify and resolve conflicts related to the meanings of words, concepts, practices, or behaviors.
- Compile information on content and context of information to be translated and on intended audience.
- Adapt translations to students' cognitive and grade levels, collaborating with educational team members as necessary.
- Check original texts or confer with authors to ensure that translations retain the content, meaning, and feeling of the original material.
- Adapt software and accompanying technical documents to another language and culture.
- Educate students, parents, staff, and teachers about the roles and functions of educational interpreters.
- Proofread, edit, and revise translated materials.
- Train and supervise other translators or interpreters.
- Read written materials, such as legal documents, scientific works, or news reports, and rewrite material into specified languages.
- Travel with or guide tourists who speak another language.
- Discuss translation requirements with clients and determine any fees to be charged for services provided.
- Follow ethical codes that protect the confidentiality of information.
- Translate messages simultaneously or consecutively into specified languages, orally or by using hand signs, maintaining message content, context, and style as much as possible.
- Listen to speakers' statements to determine meanings and to prepare translations, using electronic listening systems as necessary.
- Compile terminology and information to be used in translations, including technical terms such as those for legal or medical material.
- Refer to reference materials, such as dictionaries, lexicons, encyclopedias, and computerized terminology banks, as needed to ensure translation accuracy.