Poll: If you had the skills, would you choose another profession? Konuyu gönderen: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "If you had the skills, would you choose another profession?".
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| | | | Lieven Malaise 
Belçika
Local time: 22:51
Üye (2020)
Fransızca > Hollandaca
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I suppose this question applies to people who enter the freelance translation market "because it's their best option", moreover probably without any significant language degree.
I can't believe this question is answered with "yes" by people with a proper language education that deliberately chose this profession, or people without it but with a natural-born passion for languages.
| | | | Zea_Mays
İtalya
Local time: 22:51
İngilizce > Almanca
+ ...
| If I had the skills... | Jun 20, 2025 |
to some extent it would depend on which is more rewarding.
When work in one field would become too volatile and decrease below a certain level, I'd switch to the other field. Ideally, it is one that offers the same level of autonomy and "portability".
PS: pet sitting is a crisis-proof sector with high demand. 
| | | | Liena V.
Letonya
Local time: 23:51
Üye (2014)
Fransızca > Letonca
+ ...
I'd love to be a nuclear scientist, secret agent, world class pianist or an Olympic athlete, but here I am, translating, because that's all I know...
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IrinaN (X)
Amerika Birleşik Devletleri
Local time: 15:51
İngilizce > Rusça
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If grandma had balls she would have been grandpa...
Zea_Mays wrote:
PS: pet sitting is a crisis-proof sector with high demand.
There we go! Competition grows and threatens, I may be too late already
In my back of the woods, unless it's an inexperienced teen, it's $25 for 30 min for up to 2 animals without special needs, medications etc. Overnight stay (7 pm - 7 am) in the owner's house - between $75 and $125. May include plant watering
| | | | Mario Chávez
Amerika Birleşik Devletleri
Local time: 16:51
İngilizce > İspanyolca
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| Not just a matter of skills | Jun 20, 2025 |
One has to have to knowledge, the basic understanding, the desire, inclination and predisposition for a different profession. Aptitude, abilities, sometimes age are important. Sadly, the term skills has become synonymous with marketable and transferable abilities, which is just another way of commoditizing human traits.
I may sound like a curmudgeon, but using commercial and technology language to describe human beings is just plain wrong.
| | | | WolfgangS
Fransa
Local time: 22:51
İngilizce > Almanca
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Liena Vijupe wrote:
I'd love to be a nuclear scientist, secret agent, world class pianist or an Olympic athlete, but here I am, translating, because that's all I know...
... either millionaire or nothing.
| | | | | Probably, but it´s too late now! | Jun 20, 2025 |
I never wanted to be a translator. My parents discussed languages one way or another all through my childhood.
Everyone kept telling me I was good at languages, but the only thing I knew that you could use them for was teaching or being some kind of secretary. Forget it!
I tried teaching for a year and it was a disaster, even with kind nuns who picked up the pieces and helped me along for several months. As a secretary, with a boss instead, I would be even more hopeless ... ... See more I never wanted to be a translator. My parents discussed languages one way or another all through my childhood.
Everyone kept telling me I was good at languages, but the only thing I knew that you could use them for was teaching or being some kind of secretary. Forget it!
I tried teaching for a year and it was a disaster, even with kind nuns who picked up the pieces and helped me along for several months. As a secretary, with a boss instead, I would be even more hopeless ... No way!
I wanted to read medicine. The headmistress did not think it was a good idea. Everyone else said she was a wise old bird, and besides, I did not like the Latin teacher, so I was probably not destined for medicine.
Nursing was not the same thing, and the one time I applied to train, I was firmly turned down - there were plenty of suitable candidates like my best friend from school. (A lovely person, but very different from me!)
Fast scroll through many jobs I did not like and/or was not good at ... until, quite by chance, an agency was looking for an English translator, and I was unemployed. To receive unemployment benefit, I had to apply for several jobs each month, and I made an effort to sound convincing. I needed some real pay as soon as possible, and I hated most jobs anyway, so what the heck!
Then my luck changed. I was invited for an interview, and actually liked the big boss and the head of department who interviewed me. They even thought they could make a translator out of me! It worked out well for a while, and freelancing was even better, until clients started thinking AI was good enough, faster and cheaper. Thankfully, I now have my pension to fall back on.
Occasionally, I still wonder what would have happened if I had got into medical school - several good friends have had fine careers in medicine, and it´s an exciting world. However, it's full of patients. I cared for them for a while in one of my jobs, and discovered they are unhygienic, they don´t always take their medications, and their relatives are difficult too.
On the other hand, translating medicine is great! I get to read up on the fascinating details, without the smells and the hassle with people. I have been complimented on my understanding of medical Latin. (I did my best to please the Latin teacher and stay out of trouble, and it paid off.)
I probably ended up on the right shelf in translating after all, but these days it is nothing like the job I signed up for back in the last century!
[Edited at 2025-06-20 13:13 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Translations, but I believe it's too late now to step in (again) into that business anymore because of the known reasons.
| | | | Novian Cahyadi (X)
Local time: 03:51
I always wanted to be a wizard.
| | | | Daryo
Local time: 21:51
Sırpça > İngilizce
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| Wrong question ... | Jun 23, 2025 |
Given the way things are evolving, the right question would be:
'If you don't have what it takes to choose another profession, it is high time to start doing something about it?'
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