How does that change in the translation industry affect professionals looking to enter it?

How does that change in the translation industry affect professionals looking to enter it?

First, a translation professional needs to have good computer skills and be able to keep apace with changes in software and the internet. It’s no longer necessary, either, to shell out megabucks for huge, back-breaking sets of bilingual dictionaries, at least for most language combinations. With the internet, there’s now cloud storage and even cloud software. This means that the computer, itself, is no longer as huge an investment, too. I can work from a $300 netbook that is more powerful than a computer from a decade ago, and even my smartphone has more processing power than many of my early computers. Second, the internet has completely changed many aspects of how a translation professional advertises for work and networks, making websites the way we all get our names out there. Finally, globalization has increased the possibilities for networking, and for finding clients across the globe, as well as for competing for work with other translation professionals across the world.

-By Adriana Tassini

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