Job Discussion Forums

[Lamarr]

I know several people that do translation. The ones who've had more success with it have a bachelor's or master's-level degree in Japanese. They've been able to get in-house jobs. The recommended route is to work in-house for 2-3 years to build yourself up at it, before going freelance.

I've got a friend who's been doing some freelance translation "on the side" for several years since his JLPT N1 (he doesn't have a degree in Japanese), but he's struggled more, partly because he's not particularly familiar with the field he's translating and has been learning "on the job" as it were. He doesn't work that hard at it either so his rate of progress is slow too, so he hasn't built up enough work to make a full living off it. If he quit his day job and focused totally on it, he'd likely get more work and get better at it, but he can't afford to do that.

I think joining JAT can help for networking, and doing a translation course could be useful, both for getting some certified proficiency at it, and more networking with translation instructors who will also be professional translators and have contacts and insider knowledge.