I am sort of a jack of all trades. I do business writing, research and translating. I have had several jobs where a lot of translation was required. My current job is writing in English but the source materials are often in Spanish or Portuguese.

In my case, my background is as follows. My bachelor’s degree is in Spanish and I did a semester abroad in a Spanish-speaking country. After graduation, I moved abroad for about a year and a half to another Spanish-speaking country. By then I was pretty much fluent in Spanish. I came back to the US and after a graduate degree in a social science field. I started working for a company in the international trade information area, researching and translating materials into English from Spanish. That employer sent me to Portuguese classes so I could work with Brazil too.

After some time, I ended up back abroad in South America. I’ve done freelance translating in all three languages for people I know here and through referrals. I also had a permanent job that required a lot of translation from Portuguese and Spanish to English and did occasional interpreting sessions for a company.

As others have said, most work is freelance. It is often not steady, and you have to be able to promote yourself.

I am curious about your language skills right now. Do you speak/write another language well? Do you have experience writing in English? Do you have opportunities to practice a second language outside of the classroom? I think those are important factors to consider. Some people find learning a language easier than others. Another thought is, do you have work experience in a certain field(s)? Some translations require knowledge of special terminology like legal or technical vocabulary. So, if you have that sort of knowledge, it could be useful.