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Interpreter skills for your resume and career
15 interpreter skills for your resume and career
1. Patients
- Worked with Polish patients at Georgetown University Hospital in translating diagnoses and acting as intermediary between patients and doctors.
- Worked closely with intellectually disabled population to enable communication between program coordinators and patients at KIRBY Forensic Psychiatric Center.
2. Customer Service
Customer service is the process of offering assistance to all the current and potential customers -- answering questions, fixing problems, and providing excellent service. The main goal of customer service is to build a strong relationship with the customers so that they keep coming back for more business.
- Assist with English-to-Spanish over-the-phone interpretation to customer service departments to private industries as well as government agencies.
- Ensured conversation between client and their customer was seamless by providing accurate interpretation and excellent customer service.
3. ASL
American Sign Language (ASL) is a language that communicates ideas by using hand signs, facial expressions, and body posture.
- Freelance ASL interpreter providing interpreting services for Deaf and hearing professionals in corporate and government environments.
- Provided ASL interpretation for education-based meetings and social work.
4. Medical Terminology
- Provided professional translation services for administrative hearings, insurance companies, financial, medical terminology, and 911 emergency services.
- Translated depositions in judicial courts for workers' compensation cases, using specialized legal and medical terminology.
5. LEP
LEP stands for Limited English Proficiency. It is a term that refers to a person who has difficulty reading and speaking the English language. A vast range of programs and benefits might elude individuals because they do not fully understand the language.
- Facilitate accurate Communication between clients and Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Clients and Customers.
- Interpret for health care providers and Spanish-speaking Limited English proficiency (LEP) patients.
6. Sign Language
Sign language is a system of communication using gestures and signs. The deaf community applies sign language when communicating with each other or other people.
- Facilitated communication between sign language users and English users while applying relevant interpreting and translation techniques.
- Transmitted spoken English into American Sign Language to facilitate telecommunication between Deaf and hearing individuals
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Interpretation services refers to the process of translating information from one language to another. These services can be for languages that are spoken or signed and require the translator to be fluent in both languages and even the tones necessary to convey the messages.
- Provided spoken and written interpretation services for non-English speaking Hispanics in legal, medical, educational, and employment environments.
- Provide interpretation services for Migrant Education Program students and families, Audiology Services Department and any other areas assigned.
8. Translation Services
Translation Services turn spoken words or texts into another dialect. During the interpretation cycle, somebody with expertise in two dialects takes the words and context and places it into another dialect for others to understand.
- Provided professional translation services for project proposals and official communication needs within international partnerships and international delegates.
- Assist in creating and/or coordinating written translation services and access to other multilingual resources as requested/necessary.
9. Medical Interpretation
- Provided medical interpretation for Spanish speaking clients to ensure their understanding of medical and legal procedures/treatment.
- Received training for medical interpretation, provided medical interpretation between clients and doctors
10. Target Language
The target language is the language in which a text, document, or speech is translated into the final language. It is a foreign language that a non-native speaker intends to study or learn, as well as the individual elements of the language they want to learn. The target language is the opposite of the source text, which is the initial text to be translated.
- Rendered correct meanings between source and target languages conveying clarity, tone, and style from one language to another.
- Render correct concept/meaning between source and target languages conveying clarity in the message during a medical visit.
11. Facilitate Communication
Facilitating communication helps a person with a communication disability interpret and communicate with their peers. A facilitator is assigned in a medical/schooling environment who bridges the gap between a doctor, teacher, or classmates and the person with communication disability. Facilitating communication can also help a professional interpret the disabled person or help the disabled person communicate through hand gestures, motion, or eye movement. These facilitators can be employed in many settings, including a church, school, weddings, funerals and more.
- Facilitate communication between a Japanese trainer and local workers at training sessions of the strictly confidential machinery within his assigned timetable.
- Facilitate communication between medical personnel and patient, family members, and friends insuring complete understanding of everything that is said.
12. Vice Versa
A vice versa is a Latin expression that means - the other way round. That is, what we just said also applies in reverse (opposite) order.
- Established communications between authoritative or secretarial school personal and the families by acting as the Spanish-English interpreter and vice versa.
- Obtained information from a simultaneous over-the-phone communication and consecutively conveying the message from English to Vietnamese, and vice versa.
13. Call Monitoring
- Participate in ongoing quality assurance and call monitoring programs.
14. Informed Consent
- Provided complete and accurate interpretation for clients, families and staff to facilitate cross-cultural communication and decision making through informed consent.
- Researched medical terminology in all languages for informed consent for treatments.
15. Medical Procedures
- Provide English -to- Greek technical translations of complicated medical procedures and terminology to patients.
- Provided interpretation of medical procedures, translation of documents and guideline materials.
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What skills help Interpreters find jobs?
Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.
What interpreter skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Laura Polhemus Ph.D.
Advanced Assistant Professor, Bethel University
Never stop learning. Listen to podcasts, watch ASL news, read, go to workshops, seek out mentors, and continue to learn and grow to become more knowledgeable of the world and the languages you’re using.
Give yourself grace and practice self-care. It will take many hours of practice to become an expert, so don’t expect that to happen immediately. The biggest difference between experts and novices in this field is that experts know how to see a mistake and turn it around into something that motivates them or sometime they can learn from instead of seeing it only as a negative.
Take advantage of massages, counseling, chiropractic services, and other types of self-care to keep yourself healthy physically and mentally.
What type of skills will young interpreters need?
Katty Kauffman
US-based Freelance Interpreter, member of AIIC, representative of the VEGA Outreach and Mentoring Network, International Association of Conference Interpreters
- Skills covered by your university program. These include technical skills in Simultaneous Interpreting, Consecutive Interpreting and Sight Translation, as well as professional ethics. Ethics are increasingly important at the moment when, because of Covid-related health restrictions, many of us are, unfortunately, having to work without a boothmate until normality returns, and still need to maintain a high level of trust with agencies and clients.
- Skills you may not have covered in school, which are vital as a freelancer. You need soft skills to help you network and engage with potential clients. Applying for pre-candidacy and subsequently joining AIIC as a full member can also raise your visibility within the industry.
An understanding of how to run your own business is also essential. Know what contract you are being offered, how to write an invoice, and which tax structure is best for you. If you are planning on working for yourself, be aware of what is happening with the PRO Act (H.R.2474) and the consequences it may have for freelance workers.
-Technical skills. On the business side, you are creating your own brand, so nowadays, you need a website and a social media presence. Understanding the workings of various RSI platforms and the equipment you need is also fundamental.
List of interpreter skills to add to your resume
The most important skills for an interpreter resume and required skills for an interpreter to have include:
- Patients
- Customer Service
- ASL
- Medical Terminology
- LEP
- Sign Language
- Interpretation Services
- Translation Services
- Medical Interpretation
- Target Language
- Facilitate Communication
- Vice Versa
- Call Monitoring
- Informed Consent
- Medical Procedures
- Language Services
- Social Services
- Social Security
- Hindi
- PowerPoint
- Language Barriers
- Cantonese
- Financial Institutions
- Medical Appointments
- Healthcare Professionals
- Law Enforcement
- IEP
- Thai
- Source Language
- Government Agencies
- Dari
- Creole
- Physical Therapy
- Medicaid
- Similar Language
- Somali
- US Army
- Message Content
- Early Intervention
- Farsi
- Amharic
- Public Schools
- Court Proceedings
- Technical Terms
- Pashto
- Haitian Creole
- Spanish Speaking Clients
- Consecutive Interpretation
- Phone Interpretation
Updated January 8, 2025
