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Hello everyone, I apologise for starting my very first question with somewhat of a 'selfish' query, but I really do need your help! I am not quite sure that this post fits the requirements of interpreting.info (have read the FAQs and the rules many times, but am still fairly confused) but should it not, then please do remove it. I am a student on the MA Conference Interpreting course at London Metropolitan University and am writing a dissertation on employment opportunities for newly graduate interpreters in the European private market and am collecting answers by means of a survey posted on social media, blogs and websites. It would be really helpful if you could fill out this survey (should you meet the requirements) and also pass it on to your contacts or share it via your Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn page and/or blogs. Your help would be pivotal to the completion not only of the survey and dissertation, but also a big help for students thinking about becoming interpreters in the near future. I hope the results will show what the most likely working opportunities will be once they graduate, giving us/them a clear picture about how difficult it is to start out, what the main hurdles are and so on and so forth. AIIC has done a similar survey in the past (every couple years or so) but it relates to its members only and not to anyone specifically starting out as an interpreter. Here is the description of the survey respondents will find once they click on the link: "The following survey is part of my dissertation for the MA Conference Interpreting at London Metropolitan University. During our MA, we have always heard that there is work for interpreters in the private market, that it only takes 3 to 5 years to get established, etc. However, there does not seem to be any real evidence supporting these claims and so this dissertation is an attempt to establish employment trends for recent graduates in the private market. Your contribution is absolutely vital to help interpreting students figure out what the situation might be once they graduate. The questionnaire is anonymous and takes up to a maximum of 10 minutes. Respondents should be interpreters who graduated from an interpreting course (MA/postgraduate diploma) between 2002-2012 and are working as freelancers in the European market; interpreters with no formal qualification who started working during these years can also take part. Should you have any questions or want to receive a copy of the thesis once it is finished, please write to: btb0008@my.londonmet.ac.uk" Once again, what should be stressed is that the results will be beneficial to all interpreting students in Europe (at least, I hope!) and your help is essential! Moreover, if you know of any previous studies or relevant literature (both hard copies and/or online reference material) then that would be great. |
The question has been closed for the following reason "Pitching your survey is frowned upon on interpreting.info. More info below" by Vincent Buck 04 Jun '13, 11:21
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Hi Benjamin, I have just posted the link on "Interpreters in Brussels" Facebook group, of which I am the admin.
I hope this helps!
Good luck with your dissertation.
Best, |
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The "0-50 days of work per year" won't give you a clear picture of the market. If you manage to get 49 days of work the first year, you rock. On the other hand, most of the graduates will have less than 10 paid days / year during the first year. Try going with : a) 0-3 b) 4-10 c) 11-20 d) 21-30 e) 31-50 f) 50-100 Maybe a field indicating how many days of work we got in year 1, year 2, year 3, etc. would make things even clearer. |
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One more thing: Since your survey is mostly about the private market, you should find a way to make the difference between "real" private market (AB combination) AND freelancing workdays at EU/UN/etc, where ACC combinations give you work too. I have an ABCC on the private market but only an ACC for the institutions yet, so basically, I'm getting work on two different market with two different combinations. Comparing apples and oranges, blah blah. |
As a rule, Interpreting.info moderators believe that this site is not the proper venue for publicising surveys of the sort.
You may wish to post your announcement on a regular forum, not a Q&A site like interpreting.info.
More generally, survey authors are advised to follow the minimum standards below when designing their questionnaire:
Experience in the past few years suggests that most surveys undertaken as part of a MA dissertation, or even PhD thesis, fall well short of those standards.