Poll: How did you choose your field(s) of expertise? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How did you choose your field(s) of expertise?".
View the poll results »
| | | | Lieven Malaise 
Belgium
Local time: 09:56
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
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I accept what I'm offered, so my specializations basically chose me.
| | | | | Accidental + some of the above | Jun 7, 2025 |
I started translating many years ago when my boss at a management and organisation company where I worked as PR officer, knowing that I was a widow with three children, asked me if I would like to translate a report in my spare time.
| | | | Luca Adie
Germany
Local time: 09:56
German to English
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I studied legal and medical translation during my Erasmus year in Barcelona and after uni went to art school twice for crafts and fine arts. Ta-dah, I mainly translate medical, legal and artsy texts.
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Daryo
Local time: 08:56
Serbian to English
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When working full time I had to translate whatever needed to be translated - and that was extremely varied.
OTOH (most of the time) no one cared how long it would take - but (always) only about the quality of the final result.
Even as freelancer, I never 'chose' any particular field - you could say that it's more the case that they found me.
| | | | Oscar Núñez Alfaro
Costa Rica
Local time: 01:56
Member (Oct 2026)
English to Spanish
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| Personal interests! | Jun 7, 2025 |
When I started as a freelancer, I just knew that I love languages. Therefore, I was ready to work in anything related to languages. That was the moment that I decided to become a Spanish-English trainer and translators, among others. On the other hand, I surprisedly chose my fields of expertise. I love translating Christian texts because I am very religious, I also like translating literary texts because I love writing and reading books, and I love working on medical texts because it is more int... See more When I started as a freelancer, I just knew that I love languages. Therefore, I was ready to work in anything related to languages. That was the moment that I decided to become a Spanish-English trainer and translators, among others. On the other hand, I surprisedly chose my fields of expertise. I love translating Christian texts because I am very religious, I also like translating literary texts because I love writing and reading books, and I love working on medical texts because it is more interesting than legal and business. Finally, I love teaching and learning languages, so I work translating language learning product materials ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Background/previous working experience + personal interest | Jun 9, 2025 |
Since I was a kid, I practiced a few sports (swimming, tennis, soccer) and liked motorsports. My family used to go camping in our motorhome to attend races the whole weekend. So, I have always been keen on sports and motorsports.
Years later, I was able to work as a track scrutineer and flag marshal on the Argentinian major national racing championships. When I started studying translation, I was no longer able to keep working as a flag marshal because I couldn't travel since I had ... See more Since I was a kid, I practiced a few sports (swimming, tennis, soccer) and liked motorsports. My family used to go camping in our motorhome to attend races the whole weekend. So, I have always been keen on sports and motorsports.
Years later, I was able to work as a track scrutineer and flag marshal on the Argentinian major national racing championships. When I started studying translation, I was no longer able to keep working as a flag marshal because I couldn't travel since I had college classes, but as I had track experience and argot knowledge, I started to work as a translator for a couple of motorsport magazines and teams.
Then, my graduation thesis for the translation degree was related to Olympic sports translation in the media and gender. So, yeah, I love translating sports and motorsports. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I had a degree in law before I thought of translation | Jun 9, 2025 |
So I guess that in my case it was rather easy. The fact is that over the years I have greatly widened the scope of areas I work in, mostly in response to requests from my clients.
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| Extending my existing expertise | Jun 10, 2025 |
At first, my previous employment as a programmer gave clients the confidence that I could understand software and wouldn't just translate literally. They didn't need to know that my hobby coding was more relevant than my specialized data processing role in market research.
Then, taking small steps from project to project, I extended my specialization from software localization to computer hardware, to consumer electronics, to electrical engineering in general, etc. And from printing... See more At first, my previous employment as a programmer gave clients the confidence that I could understand software and wouldn't just translate literally. They didn't need to know that my hobby coding was more relevant than my specialized data processing role in market research.
Then, taking small steps from project to project, I extended my specialization from software localization to computer hardware, to consumer electronics, to electrical engineering in general, etc. And from printing to machining and molding technologies. HR software led to HR policy content and ERP software to various aspects of business operations, from supply chain management to financial planning.
Finance is the only subject I studied on purpose as a translator, buying any dictionary I could find and reading books about accounting standards. This was less successful than the more natural approach. Traditional financial institutions seem to require more formal qualifications than I have, while the crypto sector isn't professional enough to pay decent rates for translation. It didn't help that my investment newsletter jobs were ended by the 2008 crisis, while my largest projects were extremely confidential.
Meanwhile, I made sure to avoid fields that are generally considered fun, like literary translation, subtitling, video game localization or tourism promotion. Of course, the rates are low there due to the large supply of freelancers. And my idea of fun is even nerdier anyway. The translation project I enjoyed most involved editing a massive list of job titles using Python scripts. ▲ Collapse
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