There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a bilingual interpreter. For example, did you know that they make an average of $21.44 an hour? That's $44,587 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 19% and produce 14,600 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many bilingual interpreters have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed business skills, cultural sensitivity and dexterity.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a bilingual interpreter, we found that a lot of resumes listed 30.2% of bilingual interpreters included translation services, while 22.7% of resumes included interpretation services, and 12.4% of resumes included target language. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the bilingual interpreter job title. But what industry to start with? Most bilingual interpreters actually find jobs in the health care and non profits industries.
If you're interested in becoming a bilingual interpreter, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 31.3% of bilingual interpreters have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 18.7% of bilingual interpreters have master's degrees. Even though most bilingual interpreters have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a bilingual interpreter. When we researched the most common majors for a bilingual interpreter, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on bilingual interpreter resumes include high school diploma degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a bilingual interpreter. In fact, many bilingual interpreter jobs require experience in a role such as customer service representative. Meanwhile, many bilingual interpreters also have previous career experience in roles such as cashier or internship.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of interpreter and translator you might progress to a role such as consultant eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title account manager.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
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The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 30.2% of bilingual interpreters listed translation services on their resume, but soft skills such as business skills and cultural sensitivity are important as well.
1. District of Columbia
$76,197
Avg. Salary
2. New York
$59,374
Avg. Salary
3. California
$55,834
Avg. Salary