There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a language translator. For example, did you know that they make an average of $21.89 an hour? That's $45,539 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 language translators 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 language translator, we found that a lot of resumes listed 21.8% of language translators included foreign language, while 18.0% of resumes included target language, and 15.5% of resumes included haitian creole. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
If you're interested in becoming a language translator, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 42.7% of language translators have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 23.2% of language translators have master's degrees. Even though most language translators 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 language translator. When we researched the most common majors for a language translator, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on language translator resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a language translator. In fact, many language translator jobs require experience in a role such as interpreter and translator. Meanwhile, many language translators also have previous career experience in roles such as teacher or translator.
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 teacher you might progress to a role such as consultant eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title managing partner.
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, 21.8% of language translators listed foreign language on their resume, but soft skills such as business skills and cultural sensitivity are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a language translator. The best states for people in this position are New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Rhode Island. Language translators make the most in New York with an average salary of $65,224. Whereas in New Jersey and Delaware, they would average $60,619 and $58,822, respectively. While language translators would only make an average of $56,013 in Rhode Island, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Delaware
$58,823
Avg. Salary
2. New Mexico
$54,063
Avg. Salary
3. Rhode Island
$56,014
Avg. Salary