When recently filling in an online registration form for a translation agency, I was asked to indicate whether I was collaborating with other colleagues and if so, how many. I personally have been for a while (especially with Pionus Solutions and Edinburgh Translators), but it made me wonder how many fellow translators are following the same approach of “success in numbers”. Essentially, we’re acting as a small translation agency, even if only two colleagues work together, when one handles the main communication with the client. No need to pay a commission as the translators are bound to take turns in approaching clients or can simply take on more translation work from existing clients by collaborating with colleagues. This also makes a translator more valuable to a client as an increased workload can be outsourced to just one translator as opposed to contacting two or more individual translators for the same work. The less administrative work, the happier the project manager I would imagine.

From the days at university, I remember teachers advising the students on collaborating on translation projects together, but, especially at the early stages, not everyone knew whether they would actually end up working as translators, some would drop out and there were some that you were unsure of whether it would actually work out. However, the academic environment is probably one of the best ways to network as you don’t only get to know your fellow students on a personal level, but you are very well informed about the quality of their translation efforts, their ability to meet deadlines, work under pressure and so on.

When working on a translation project, some of us may have reservations contacting their agency/client if any questions/difficulties arise, especially if the questions accumulate. Working together with a fellow colleague on the same task, however, may make it easier for you to ask questions and thus potentially improve the quality of your output in this scenario.

Everyone is entitled to some days off or we might need to take a few days off at short notice, but what if we’re in the midst of a translation project? Most clients would be understanding (or should be), but don’t you provide a better translation service when you can inform your client that you will be delegating the project, but that it will be delivered on time? I’m sure your client will appreciate how proactive you are!

In conference interpreting, networking is even more important, it is essential. A conference with 3 working languages requires at least 6 interpreters, two for each language pair. I’m sure a client who approaches you will be delighted if you can organise the interpreting service on their behalf. In translation, too, it is a definitive advantage to collaborate with colleagues working with different language combinations so you can handle multilingual projects.

To sum up, there are plenty of good reasons to collaborate with your fellow translators and interpreters: it allows you to take on more work, be more flexible, provide a better service, to be proactive, improve the quality of your translation output and have more social contact while you’re translating!

Do you collaborate with translation colleagues? How did you meet and what advantages do you see in the collaboration?