Translating myself into a new career…

I wanted to learn new skills to broaden my outlook and diversify my skills.

Following my MA in Interpreting and Translation I worked as an Inhouse Translator and Editor for a global company based out of their Nottingham branch. I was translating and editing German and French into English commercial documents. Financial, environmental, medical, websites, audio-visual, press releases, you name it. I had lots of exposure to lots of different sectors.

However, whilst in my translation career, teaching was always in the back of my mind. I had a year abroad near Nantes during my bachelor’s degree’s teaching English. I had the best year of my life. I loved the environment and had a wonderful experience.

I’ve not been happy with the state of my industry for a while. Since Covid and the cost-of-living crisis, many of our corporate clients are cutting spend on translation. Translation is a luxury service, and the work has been reduced.

The industry overall is declining. AI has come on leaps and bounds and during the cost-of-living crisis, AI seemed like it could improve productivity and many organisations are jumping on board. However, it isn’t perfect by any means which means that “human translators” are needed to fix the AI production, but it isn’t the same quality as a fully translated document.

I felt like I needed to make a change as there wasn’t a role available for human translators anymore. What I did was so niche, and I wanted to learn new skills to broaden my outlook and diversify my skills.

There aren’t any easy choices and sometimes you have to be brave and take a long-term view. My main driver to become a teacher is to get back my sense of purpose. Being a linguist has been a huge part of my identity and I want to use those skills and make them count. I want to give something back and put those skills to good use.

 I feel like my world has opened up again

Teaching is a much more stable career and education has so many opportunities.  I feel like my world has opened up again having moved from a declining industry. If I can be a great classroom teacher, then it feels like there are so many more avenues.

I spoke to my friend who was an MFL teacher. She’s always encouraged me to teach. I knew what teaching was like through her and she sat me down and talked me through it. I then came across Now Teach when I was researching the options. It was amazing speaking to the experts who could explain the process. My career change advisor Wendy was amazing. I went from a position of “I think I can do this”, and she made it so simple having a set of steps to follow, to a position of, “I can and must do this”.

An important step for me as someone new to the classroom was getting school experience. I arranged some school visits. Not every school got back to me, but some allowed me to visit for a half or full day. Being in the classroom helped me understand if I could see myself there or not.

When interviewing, the redundancy was looming. The working conditions were dreadful, and it was difficult to apply and interview whilst working. However, when it came to interviewing, it all happened so quickly. All my teacher training interviews were a week and a half apart. I had interviews with four training providers.

My commute was a big decider in which training provider I trained with as several were over an hour away. I have a 2-year-old, so the long commute wasn’t ideal, and I chose the one which would work well with my family.

The training provider I am training with teaches French, Spanish and German to A Level. It was great finding out my school early on that taught all three. I didn’t want to abandon my German. It is terribly sad we aren’t teaching German as much. German language in industry is hugely in demand.

What has been crucial to my career change is the financial support the government provides. The bursary has been so important to enable me to train. Without the bursary, I wouldn’t be able to change my career. The nursery bill is £1000 a month, the bursary goes a long way.

Now Teach’s insight and the network of teachers who have been in a similar position as you are so helpful. For me, the sessions on work-life balance and “Ask A Teacher” are exactly what I need. The support of people who have walked the walk is invaluable. Now Teach was instrumental in helping me make the change. I’m looking forward to the conference.

Now Teach has helped me start the transition before I have even started training. I’m already starting to think of myself as a teacher.

Most of all I’m looking forward to using my subject knowledge. I know many MFL teachers haven’t had professional linguistic experience prior to teaching and my experience using my foreign languages both socially and professionally will be what I can give to the school. I hope I can impress upon students how they can use languages after school.

As a translator, I have had lots of opportunities to be creative which I hope to bring to my classroom. And as anyone who has changed careers, I have plenty of professional experience when working with clients. I’m very resilient as a result of working in translation. It has not always been easy and I’m much more resilient than I was at the beginning of my working life. As a linguist I love communication and I’m most excited to bring that to the classroom.

If you look short term, there is a mountain to climb. If you think long term, take one day as you go and think about the end goal it becomes much easier.

My message to those considering teaching and Now Teach? Be brave. If you look short term, there is a mountain to climb. If you think long term, take one day as you go and think about the end goal it becomes much easier. I’m optimistic about my future which a year ago I certainly wasn’t. Many of my former colleagues in the translation sector are reluctant to step out of their comfort zone and made a change. We must accept that the industry is changing, and we must too. I want a positive future from my new career. My best advice is to speak to Wendy and formulate an action plan for your career change.