Interpreters from All the States, Let’s Unite!

In 2009, a year after I graduated from my university we had a reunion. Ex-students from the Interpreting &Translation Department visited our outstanding professor Ilko Korunets

(I wrote about him in my blog:

https://ukrainianinphilly.wordpress.com/2019/11/20/the-star-has-died/ )

When he asked how many of us pursued working as an interpreter, only a few people raised their hands. I was one of them. To be honest, it puzzled me. I couldn’t explain why many graduates didn’t stick with interpreting or translation after 5 years of studying it from A to Z.

But it’s 2021, and I can see clearly now why they preferred other jobs instead. Interpreters perform highly demanding work constantly using their brains’ “grey cells”, but they are still underrated, underpaid and, sometimes, under-appreciated too. I thought things were bad in Ukraine, but I was wrong. It’s about the same here, in the United States.

 

I am highly motivated to start the campaign for the justice regarding acknowledgment and treatment of interpreters everywhere in the world, and particularly here, in the United States, so I wrote this open letter to the interpreting community and those who are willing to support us. 

 

Dear fellow interpreters,

I am writing this letter as a means to share my experience with you. After all, who could understand an interpreter better than their colleague?
Aren’t we all in the same boat called « Striving for Better Working Conditions »?

My story might resonate with you, but if it doesn’t, I am glad that you have had a much more satisfying job hunting experience than me.

But first things first. Let me introduce myself.

My name is Olena Hart. I immigrated to the United States 6 years ago. Being a professional interpreter and translator fluent in 3 languages and advanced in 2 more back home, I have immediately thought of continuing to pursue an interpreting career in my new country of residence. I saw an advertisement for the Medical Interpreting Training in a local newspaper and applied. Afterwards, I got a contractor job with one of the biggest nonprofits and started working as a community interpreter.

Although the number of my clients was constantly growing ( as well as the variety of interpreting settings and modes), I knew I was ready for a more stable and self- sustainable job position, so I decided to “convert” from a freelancer to a full-time employee. After a few years I earned my interpreting certification from one of a few US companies providing accreditation for interpreters in the medical field.

The first problem I encountered was a scarce number of full-time interpreter positions available. Over the years I saw just a few of them ( it might have to do with my languages of expertise; for example, there is always a high need for interpreters proficient in Spanish and Mandarin; or with my state).

Anyway, you can imagine how thrilled I felt when I was contacted by the Talent Acquisition Specialist from one of the major language corporations offering video remote interpreting services! I thought: “Finally, I can get a good usage of my Master’s degree, my years of experience and my well-deserved certification!”.

Well, little did I know at that moment...

 

The full-time job offer as a VRI or video remote medical interpreter in one of my languages of expertise did seem promising at first as it included benefits, PTOs, and free of charge professional equipment.

I passed rounds of tests on computer literacy, internet access, “a robotic” job interview ( when they ask you to video record your answers on questions generated by the program), and was allowed to take an interpreting test for my native language . But, instead of the test on Language 1 and English, I received an invitation for two tests: Language 1- English and Language 2-English.

I felt puzzled, so I called one of the recruiters to inquire about the tests. The recruiter assured me that if I manage to pass both of them, my pay rate would be doubled. Oh, really? It did sound too good to be true, but I had no reasons to doubt my potential employer. So, naturally, I became much more invested in getting a job offer.

To make a long story short, I passed both tests with 95% and 93% passing rates, and was invited to an actual job interview with an HR ( it was the last round of endless interviews and tests).

Next day I received a job offer. But when I thoroughly read it, I became speechless. Not only was the pay rate for interpreting in both languages as little as $2 more than the rate for a single language, but the job agreement didn’t reflect all the benefits the company had previously offered. Some of its content could be interpreted ambiguously, for example: “ The employment can be terminated at any time” and “An interpreter is obliged to provide full-time interpreting services for at least 6 months”. I don’t know about you, but see a logical contradiction here. Unfortunately, it was not the only discrepancy I was able to spot.

I wasn’t giving up easily, so I tried asking questions regarding the unfair contract agreement and attempted to negotiate the pay rate with an HR. As a result, I was immediately cut off.

I was simply sent a rejection letter the day after I got a job offer ( bizarre...). When I tried taking the hiring team accountable for or intentionally misinforming me, I was gaslighted.

Overall, I spent a month of my time trying to get such a desirable full-time interpreting job which turned out to be not more than an illusion.
Later that day I started reading reviews of the company ( I should have done it before the hiring process started).

I found about poor treatment of interpreters ( no bathroom breaks allowed, 90 day probation period, no promised PTOs available, firing without notice or after reassurance that the jobs “were secure”, replacing American- based interpreters with those living overseas who got paid $8/hour, extremely poor pay rates for such qualified and stressful work, etc).

So I thought what can I do in this situation? I feel that big language corporations don’t value experienced interpreters, creating a crazy call- center work atmosphere, that’s why their is a constant flow of professionals. Some ex-employees wrote reviews comparing working there being worse than in “a sweatshop”.

I have decided to raise awareness on the cases of poor treatment of interpreters by creating a group of language professionals where everyone could speak up and be heard, where we could gather and discuss our professional issues, support each other and encourage us to strive for better working conditions. As I have mentioned, we are in the same boat...

If you have had a similar experience, and would like to join me in fighting for fair employment conditions, in gaining acknowledgement of the interpreter profession, please reach out to me via email: forinterpretersjustice@gmail.com

Together we can be the change we want to see!

Sincerely,

Olena

P.S. Please press the button below if you want to share your job seeking experience for interpreting or language-related jobs! Let’s create our advocacy group and lend a hand to each other!