To freelance or not to freelance, that is the question

I decided to write this article as it’s coming up to the time of the year when most interpreting students have their final exams and it reminds me of the moment when I was preparing to start my MA in 2015. Looking back now I can see that I was right about one thing I thought before doing the course: I was certain that after finishing things wouldn’t be easy. In fact they would be harder than when I finished my undergraduate degree. This definitely turned out to be true for me - but I don’t regret my choices for one second.

Prior to studying at Leeds in 2015-2016 I was working as a multilingual administrator in a company so that I could save up to pay for my tuition fees and living costs during the one year course. These two years allowed me to have a little taste of life working in a company and discover some perks of an office job: there was a great healthcare scheme that paid for new glasses, private medical appointments and best of all – would refund monthly “stress-relieving” massages! I could have opted in to the company pension scheme and I had structure. However, after being in education for so long, and having experienced the autonomy of university life, it can be hard to find yourself working 9-5, living for the weekend and not being your own boss.

As a young graduate interpreter, keen to taste what is out there, it would be an error to think that we all have the choice of whether or not to become a freelancer. I personally couldn’t wait to be running my own business (I grew up watching my mum run her own accounting business), decide what CPD courses to attend, what events to go to, what assignments to accept and decline. I am a very organised person so I love being in charge of my finances and agenda. However for me this is not my end-goal, there are very few staff interpreter jobs in the world and I’m aware the number is decreasing but I do hope one day to be one of those few.

(If you are a translator the possibility of an in-house position is still hard to come by, but there are more positions than for interpreters so your list of perks and quirks may also be very different for different reasons.)

This now brings me to the reasons for the in-house/freelancer choice. Whilst it is great to be able to work from wherever in the world the market takes you, to be your own boss and to have the freedom, it can also be tough to deal with. I think there may be a little bit of “the grass is always greener” in this argument because there are both positive and negative aspects to both options. At the end of the day it really does come down to a personal choice in a specific moment which of course can be different in 5, 10, 20 years time.

The main problem of freelancing can be where your rent is coming from as there aren’t conferences every day of the year for your language combination/specialism/location (and let’s face it, even if there were then you’d have to have superpowers to do them all!). If you find yourself in the lucky situation of having some flexibility thanks to a partner/parents/that money tree in your back garden then perhaps this is not a main issue for you. Not knowing when the next job will be can also be mentally challenging as you may have to prepare in a rush or cancel your plans to accept jobs. Your considerations may also come down to much longer term plans – as is my case. I hope to have a family one day and I would like the stability of a permanent position for this reason – so that I have a steady job and hopefully a pension for the future. There are many many other perks and quirks such as being able to have PJ days, working around a schedule that suits you – or your clients, or giving yourself a mid-week day off.

These are some of my main thoughts, and in the meantime I’m enjoying seeing where freelancing can take me, learning from every opportunity and honing my skills.