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Healthcare
Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, Cleveland Clinic
Interpreters and Translators
Interpreters and translators convert speech or writing from one language to another without losing meaning, tone, or specialized terminology. The work is distinct because a single mistake can change what a person hears or reads in a legal, medical, or business setting, so the job is a constant tradeoff between speed and precision.
Also known as TranslatorInterpreterLanguage InterpreterBilingual InterpreterTranslation Specialist
Median Salary
$59,440
Mean $64,950
U.S. Workforce
~53K
6.9K openings per year
10-Year Growth
+1.7%
75.3K to 76.6K
Entry Education
Bachelor's degree
+ None experience
What This Role Looks Like in Practice
Interpreters and Translators sits in the Business category. In practical terms, this role combines day-to-day execution, cross-team coordination, and consistent decision-making under real business constraints.
U.S. employment is currently about ~53K workers, with a median annual pay of $59,440 and roughly 6.9K openings each year. Based on BLS projections, total employment is expected to grow from 75.3 K in 2024 to 76.6K in 2034.
Most hiring paths start with Bachelor's degree, and employers typically expect none of related experience. Many careers in this track begin around Language Assistant and can progress toward Language Services Manager. High-value skills usually include Speaking, Active Listening, and Reading Comprehension, paired with soft skills such as Attention to Detail, Cultural Sensitivity, and Confidentiality.
Core Responsibilities
- Listen to someone speaking and give the message in another language right away, either live in person or through audio and video feeds.
- Translate written material while keeping the original meaning, tone, and style as close as possible to the source text.
- Research special terms and background information before working on legal, medical, technical, or other specialized content.
- Review your own translations for mistakes, inconsistent wording, and terminology that needs to stay the same throughout a document.
Keep exploring: more Business careers or browse all job titles.
A Day in the Life
01 Listen to someone speaking and give the message in another language right away, either live in person or through audio and video feeds.
02 Translate written material while keeping the original meaning, tone, and style as close as possible to the source text.
03 Research special terms and background information before working on legal, medical, technical, or other specialized content.
04 Review your own translations for mistakes, inconsistent wording, and terminology that needs to stay the same throughout a document.
05 Work out unclear phrases, idioms, and culture-specific references so the final message still makes sense to the audience.
06 Protect private information and follow confidentiality rules when handling conversations, records, and documents.
Industries That Hire
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Legal Services
Baker McKenzie, Latham & Watkins, Legal Aid Society
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Government and Public Services
U.S. Department of State, USCIS, FEMA
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Technology and Localization
Google, Microsoft, Apple
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Media, Publishing, and Entertainment
Netflix, Disney, Penguin Random House
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Education and Testing
Pearson, ETS, Kaplan
Pros and Cons
Advantages
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The job has no required work experience or on-the-job training in the BLS data, so a strong language background can get you started faster than many office careers.
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Pay is respectable for a language-focused role, with a mean annual wage of $64,950 and a median of $59,440.
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You can work across many settings, from courts and hospitals to publishing and software, which keeps the work varied.
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Annual openings are projected at 6.9K, so even with slow growth there should be steady hiring from turnover and replacement needs.
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Specialized language pairs and technical fields can raise your value because clients will pay more for accurate legal, medical, or technical work.
Challenges
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Growth is weak at just 1.7% through 2034, and the occupation is only expected to add about 1.3K jobs, so this is not a fast-expanding field.
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The pay ceiling is real: even the mean annual wage of $64,950 is only moderate for a career that demands advanced language ability and constant accuracy.
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A mistake can change the meaning of a medical consent form, court statement, or technical document, so the pressure to be exact is high.
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A lot of work is project-based or freelance, which can mean uneven income and inconsistent schedules instead of a steady nine-to-five routine.
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Routine translation is increasingly exposed to machine translation and AI tools, so workers often need to specialize in harder content to stay competitive.
Career Progression
Language Assistant
0-2 years
$32K-$42K
Supports translators or interpreters by gathering reference material, preparing files, and handling simple bilingual tasks.
Interpreter and Translator
2-6 years
$52K-$72K
Handles live interpretation and document translation independently, with pay that includes the role's median annual salary of $59,440.
Senior Interpreter and Translator THIS ROLE
6-10 years
$72K-$95K
Takes on more difficult assignments, such as legal, medical, or technical work, and is often trusted with the most sensitive material.
Language Services Manager
10+ years
$95K-$130K
Leads a team or freelance network, sets quality standards, and manages clients, schedules, and specialized projects.
Education Paths
Bachelor's degree
The most common entry point, held by 54.72% of workers in this role.
Master's degree
A common way to build specialized language expertise, held by 27.88% of workers in this role.
High school diploma with strong bilingual fluency and experience
A smaller share of workers enter with a high school diploma, which accounts for 8.02% of the occupation.
Professional certificate or interpreting credential
A certificate can help someone with strong language skills move into freelance, medical, or legal assignments even though it is not the dominant path in the distribution.
Key Skills
Technical
Speaking 82%
Active Listening 80%
Reading Comprehension 78%
Writing 75%
Critical Thinking 72%
Monitoring 72%
SDL Trados Studio, memoQ & Smartcat 70%
Zoom, Microsoft Teams & Remote Interpretation Equipment 68%
Dictionary, Lexicon & Terminology Database Research 66%
Soft Skills
Attention to DetailCultural SensitivityConfidentialityTime ManagementPoise Under PressureActive Learning Job Outlook and Trends
+1.7%
Projected growth (2024-2034)
6.9K
Annual job openings
Employment is projected to rise from 75.3K to 76.6 K over the next decade, representing 1.7% growth. Around 6.9 K openings per year include both newly created roles and replacement hiring from turnover.
Remote availability is currently Moderate. Demand remains strongest where employers need practical domain knowledge plus modern workflow and data skills.