I received a call from a headhunter, who's recruiting interpreters for a tech company. I took the call because hey, never know when you might need options.
He asked me about my past experience as a professional interpreter. I told him honestly that most of my professional experience is as a translator and translation editor, and that I've only taken a few interpretation cases before, and most of them were quite a few years ago.
He said that, unfortunately, the tech company is looking for interpreters who have at least 6 years of professional experience out in the field, and that unfortunately I would likely not qualify. He thanked me for my time and bid me farewell. The call lasted about 4 minutes in total.
I'm slightly indignant now because... well... I know I'm an awesome interpreter. I've done interpretation cases with some of the top interpreters in Taiwan, and I kept up with them despite being a relative rookie. I was easily the best interpreter in my class both of the times I was at a T&I graduate institute. I've served as a grader for Taiwan's national interpretation exam, and even helped set the exam questions for two years. I even did some interpretation at a United Nations organization, and one of the senior interpreters there complimented my output (the UN's interpreters are generally considered the gold standard worldwide).
The only reason I haven't been taking interpretation cases is because I didn't want the unpredictability of working as a freelancer, I wanted a steady paycheck so I decided to work as a full-time employee instead. So yeah, I don't have the requisite number of years on my resume, but that doesn't mean I can't easily outperform any interpreters they do find.
I'm tempted to submit a job application directly to this company and try to blag my way to an interview or interpretation test, just to show them that I can do it and they're wrong to reject me right off the bat.
He asked me about my past experience as a professional interpreter. I told him honestly that most of my professional experience is as a translator and translation editor, and that I've only taken a few interpretation cases before, and most of them were quite a few years ago.
He said that, unfortunately, the tech company is looking for interpreters who have at least 6 years of professional experience out in the field, and that unfortunately I would likely not qualify. He thanked me for my time and bid me farewell. The call lasted about 4 minutes in total.
I'm slightly indignant now because... well... I know I'm an awesome interpreter. I've done interpretation cases with some of the top interpreters in Taiwan, and I kept up with them despite being a relative rookie. I was easily the best interpreter in my class both of the times I was at a T&I graduate institute. I've served as a grader for Taiwan's national interpretation exam, and even helped set the exam questions for two years. I even did some interpretation at a United Nations organization, and one of the senior interpreters there complimented my output (the UN's interpreters are generally considered the gold standard worldwide).
The only reason I haven't been taking interpretation cases is because I didn't want the unpredictability of working as a freelancer, I wanted a steady paycheck so I decided to work as a full-time employee instead. So yeah, I don't have the requisite number of years on my resume, but that doesn't mean I can't easily outperform any interpreters they do find.
I'm tempted to submit a job application directly to this company and try to blag my way to an interview or interpretation test, just to show them that I can do it and they're wrong to reject me right off the bat.
