Do you know, there are around 640k professional translators globally, and almost a quarter of them are working as freelancers? Hiring a professional linguist to translate your business document can be time-consuming, especially when there are a lot of options available in the market. However, it’s important for businesses to carefully choose their translators; there are many scammers who may represent themselves as professionals. Or, maybe, some bilingual claims to provide professional-level translations for your critical business document.
Read this article to understand what you need to look for in a translator while getting them on board for your business content translation management.
Things to Consider While Hiring a Translator for Documents Translations
Look for Qualification and Certifications
Your business documents may contain legal and financial information, so you must hire a qualified translator to do the job. Make sure your linguists have certifications to practice as professional translators in the market. By looking at the qualification and certification documents of translators, you can have an idea about how credible they are, and whether or not they are the right choice to manage your business document translations.
It is not compulsory that your translator has an academic degree in linguistics. They may have professional certifications and sufficient experience to work as a credible translator.
Proficiency In Source and Target Languages
Professional linguists must have a good level of proficiency in both source and target languages. It is better to work with a native translator because of their deep understanding of the language nuances. The more language expertise your translator has, the better they will be able to comprehend the original context of the source message through translations. Make sure your translator has extensive years of translation experience in your target language pair.
Understanding of Different Style Formats
When it comes to dealing with business document translations, it’s not just about translating the text but translators also need to adjust the formatting styles according to the client’s preferences. Your translator should have experience working with different business document style formats. So, you don’t have to hire someone else for the formatting adjustments.
Hours of Availability
The timing of your freelance linguist’s availability is also an important thing to consider. Freelancers work in different time zones, and it should match your in-house team’s working hours. It allows them to easily collaborate with internal teams and reach out to project managers in real-time. Collaboration with translators will be much easier if they are working in the same time zones as you are.
If you are looking for native translators in your target languages who are from different time zones, you should be mindful of the gaps in communication.
Quality Assurance Processes
Every translator has its own method of ensuring the quality of translated documents, whether done by themselves or by a team of linguists working for them. While looking for a translator, it is important to ask potential candidates about the QA testing processes they use to ensure high-quality and accurate translations. For instance, ask them whether they use a manual proofreading method or use an automated error detection tool. Moreover, how many QA processes do they perform on each document before it gets finalized to be delivered to clients?
Knowledge of Translation Memory and Glossary Management
Contemporary translation management methods and requirements are different from traditional translation techniques. Your linguists must have a good understanding of translation memory use and how to create and manage a brand’s translation glossary. If your translator knows how to deal with translation memory and brand glossaries, it will allow them to keep the content translation management process agile and maintain the consistency of translations in all regions.
If your translator is subscribed to a localization platform, the translation memory and glossary management automatically get sorted. Marshub is the best localization management platform designed for professional translators to manage their translation projects.
Good Reputation in The Market
In the end, you should do proper research to know about the credibility of a linguist. You can visit their online profiles to view ratings and reviews of other clients. It will give you some idea about what you should expect from a translator. Professional linguists with solid profiles charge you more money compared to the ones who are just beginning. Make sure to hire your translator from a reliable language service provider or freelancing platform. You can also ask the existing clients of linguists about their overall experience, working with them.
You will likely have fewer conflicts and issues working with well-reputed and professional linguists because of their good work ethics.
Conclusion
Keeping the right things in mind while looking for a professional translator would help you hire a credible resource with good experience in the field. By asking the right questions and doing a bit of research about your translators, you can easily find a reliable and skilled professional who will help you effectively manage your business document translation project.
