Bilingual Interpreter Overview

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.