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The Savvy Newcomer aims to serve newcomers to the translation and interpreting professions by publishing high-quality, peer-reviewed content on a weekly basis. We strive to provide you with the answers to the many questions you face as a new or aspiring translator or interpreter.

A Translator’s Value(s) in a Shifting Market

By The Savvy Newcomer | November 14, 2023
A Translator's Value(s) in a Shifting Market

It has to be admitted that the translation marketplace in 2023 is a strange thing to experience. I sometimes imagine that it’s getting stranger by the moment, but I realize that the overreactions to the latest technology and the threats posed by artificial intelligence have to be understood from the perspective of a short history of market upheavals over the past few decades, which have experienced their own share of technological advances, and the insecurity of translators who don’t want to see their jobs overtaken by computers. And while I’m not old enough to have witnessed this short history of…

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Book Review: So You Want to Start a Podcast

By The Savvy Newcomer | August 1, 2023
Book Review - So You Want to Start a Podcast

Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned translator or interpreter, you’ve probably spent a lot of time thinking about marketing yourself and making meaningful connections to build a fulfilling career. Social media, LinkedIn, and professional websites have their merits, but there is another avenue that linguists are exploring: podcasting. If you’ve been inspired by the growing number of top-notch podcasts…

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Is Rejection the Best Medicine?

By The Savvy Newcomer | July 25, 2023
Is Rejection the Best Medicine

This post was originally published on That Translation Blog. It is reposted with permission. I admit it. I’m slightly addicted to TikTok. As a marketing and luxury goods translator, it’s actually a really useful business tool (that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it). I was recently working on a tourism translation for a French hotel, and in that there was…

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Jump-Starting Your Career as a Linguist: The Two-Year Project Management Stint*

By The Savvy Newcomer | July 18, 2023
Jump-Starting Your Career as a Linguist - The Two-Year Project Management Stint

If you’re interested in a career as a translator or interpreter, it can be hard to figure out how to break into the industry. Where are the jobs? What should you specialize in? How do you set rates? One way to answer these and many other questions is to start out as an entry-level project manager (PM) with a language…

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Five Reasons Why You Should Consider Doing an MA in Translation

By The Savvy Newcomer | July 11, 2023

This post was originally published on ORH Translations. It is reposted with permission. Upon completion of my undergraduate degree, I was faced with the difficult decision of what to do next. I was frightened, anxious and overwhelmed with the thought of stepping into the big, scary working world. I would say that I was quite naive when I finished my…

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Linguist in the Spotlight – Evelyn Yang Garland

By The Savvy Newcomer | July 4, 2023
Linguist in the Spotlight

There is much to be learned from our colleagues, but it can be intimidating to strike up a conversation with the “pros.” For that reason, we at Savvy have done the work for you in our Linguist in the Spotlight interview series, where we pick the brains of experienced translators and interpreters and bring their stories right to your screen.…

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This Will Never Happen to Me! – Freelance Lessons From Last Year’s Serious Accident

By The Savvy Newcomer | June 27, 2023
This Will Never Happen to Me

This post was originally published on Polka Dot Translations. It is reposted with permission.  Last Friday marked one year since I was in a serious bicycle accident. That evening, I left home to go for a Zumba class only to return nine days later, with a massive, painful wound on my belly and a piece of small intestine missing. Dangerous…

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What to Do When You Don’t Get Paid

By The Savvy Newcomer | June 13, 2023
What to Do When You Don't Get Paid

This post was originally published on The Translation Guy. It is reposted with permission. Got a Client Who Didn’t Pay You and Now They Won’t Answer Your Emails? What Are Your Options? A few years ago, I was a freelance translator translating mainly from English and Spanish into Portuguese. I quite enjoyed the freedom of working from home (pyjamas) and…

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How to Make a Better Clientscape

By The Savvy Newcomer | May 2, 2023
How to Make a Better Clientscape

Title explanation: If a landscape is the land around you, your friendscape is what you see when you look out at your friends, and your clientscape is what you see, as a freelancer, when you look at the array of your clients. Remember, the way we see ourselves is in the mirror of the people around us… if you don’t…

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Your Guide to a 5-Star Email Signature

By The Savvy Newcomer | April 25, 2023
Your Guide to a 5-Star Email Signature

This post was originally published on LION Translation Academy. It is reposted with permission. If you want to break into the premium market, a quality email signature can go a long way (provided that you’re also a terrific translator, of course!). Yet so many translators opt for a generic Hotmail address and an email signature containing nothing more than their…

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Savvy Diversification Series – The Role of the Genealogical Translator

By The Savvy Newcomer | April 23, 2023
The Role of the Genealogical Translator

The Savvy Newcomer team has been taking stock of the past year and finding that one key priority for many freelance translators and interpreters has been diversification. Offering multiple services in different sectors or to different clients can help steady us when storms come. Diversification can help us hedge against hard times. With this in mind, we’ve invited a series…

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