How to get work as a translator (English/German)?

[Ian PES]

My wife is German and she speaks virtually flawless English. She has teaching experience plus a small amount of freelance translating experience (picked up now and again in an opportunistic way) although no formal translating qualifications. (She has a first-class hons in science with the Open Uni).

Does anyone have any ideas as to she could get some freelance translating work without going through the process of retraining to get qualified?

(Has anyone done this perhaps in another language!)

[HSLS]

Translation is a difficult field to get into, and often doesn't pay very well. Her best bet would be to contact any agencies around your area, and see if they have vacancies. I usually ask for a test translation to be undertaken as well to test language skills.
Sadly, I'm not currently recruiting translators, although I get at least 4 translator (all languages, not just German) applications a day at the moment.

[coxadmin]

My sister does German to English translation and is a member of proz.com (http://www.proz.com/). From what she's said there are all sorts of resources and the experienced people on there may well be able to help more with your questions.

[Pab]

Probably the best source of work for a freelance translator is translation agencies, although many (mine included) seek formal linguistic/translation qualifications or credentials. That said, not all have these requirements and it's possible to start working with some based on the quality of a translation test (a prerequisite of any quality-conscious agency).

As Helen pointed out above, agencies receive a heap of CVs so sending out a load of speculative emails may not yield great results.

It would definitely be worth registering on proz.com and translatorscafe.com. Translation buyers sometimes cut out the middleman and source freelance translators directly on sites like these. This could be a source of work for your wife.

Best of luck.