ATA or ITI? Thread poster: MikeGallagher
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MikeGallagher 
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:48
Spanish to English
I am an American starting out as a freelance translator. I am located in the U.K. and am looking to capitalize on my experience in the U.S. legal field. Can anyone offer advice as to whether it would be more beneficial for me to join the ATA or the ITI? (assuming that I would like to join only one). Does my American professional/educational background tilt the scales toward the ATA? Or does my location in the U.K. make the ITI a better choice?
| | | | | I belonged to both until recently | Nov 2, 2015 |
I'm a Brit living in the US.
I let my ATA subscription lapse because I felt I wasn't getting anything back from it. I almost never got any work from my directory entry, and I feel the organization is not keeping up with the times.
Being a qualified member of the ITI is useful because it's a hallmark of quality for customers, and I get some of my new customers from their website.
I hate to say this, but if I had to choose between the ATA, the ITI or ProZ, I... See more I'm a Brit living in the US.
I let my ATA subscription lapse because I felt I wasn't getting anything back from it. I almost never got any work from my directory entry, and I feel the organization is not keeping up with the times.
Being a qualified member of the ITI is useful because it's a hallmark of quality for customers, and I get some of my new customers from their website.
I hate to say this, but if I had to choose between the ATA, the ITI or ProZ, I'd go for ProZ. I get a steady stream of new potential customers from this site, and while 85% are bottom feeders, the others aren't.
This is just my personal experience, and others may feel quite differently. ▲ Collapse
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I would say that if you are in the UK it makes sense to join the ITI as you will be able to join your local regional group, go to events and get involved. Also, as Phil says, qualified membership is well regarded as a badge of quality and professionalism.
I've never been a member of the ATA though, so I can't really comment on how useful that might be to you.
| | | | Paulinho Fonseca
Brazil
Local time: 16:48
Member (2011)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| 'I'd go for ProZ' | Nov 3, 2015 |
philgoddard wrote:
I'm a Brit living in the US.
I let my ATA subscription lapse because I felt I wasn't getting anything back from it. I almost never got any work from my directory entry, and I feel the organization is not keeping up with the times.
Being a qualified member of the ITI is useful because it's a hallmark of quality for customers, and I get some of my new customers from their website.
I hate to say this, but if I had to choose between the ATA, the ITI or ProZ, I'd go for ProZ. I get a steady stream of new potential customers from this site, and while 85% are bottom feeders, the others aren't.
This is just my personal experience, and others may feel quite differently.
This is exactly how I feel. I have gone through both process ATA/ITI subscription and in the end I did not complete processes as I talked to colleagues and the fb was that too much demanded/required for not much support or return.
Good luck.
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Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:48
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| It won't happen immediately | Nov 3, 2015 |
MikeGallagher wrote:
Or does my location in the U.K. make the ITI a better choice?
Mike, unless you can prove that you already have three years of "relevant professional experience" you may not be able to become a fully qualified member of the ITI.
Although it was not my primary role until recently, I have been doing professional translations since 1995. Because I was unable to document that experience - partly because I didn't take any records, partly because of confidentiality concerns - I cannot take the ITI exam, become a qualified member and get in the ITI directory. So it may not be worth your while until you can do that.
Regards
Dan
| | | | Robin Joensuu
Sweden
Local time: 21:48
Member
English to Swedish
+ ...
| proz + professional organization is ideal | Nov 3, 2015 |
I hate to say this, but if I had to choose between the ATA, the ITI or ProZ, I'd go for ProZ. I get a steady stream of new potential customers from this site, and while 85% are bottom feeders, the others aren't.
One of the ways to scare the bottom feeders away and attract the right clients is joining a professional organization.
Ed. Namely because members of professional organizations tend to ask for a decent amount of money for their work.
[Edited at 2015-11-03 11:49 GMT]
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I've been a member of ATA since 2010 and I live in US, so I never had a chance of joining ITI.
I used to be a paying member of Proz but never got a single job because I keep my rates.
ATA membership and owning translation software (SDL Trados) paid off for me, even if my biggest chunk of the business is still interpreting. I do get 70% of my calls from UK though....
What I do like about Proz is that there are consistent, serious professionals from all over the world helping eac... See more I've been a member of ATA since 2010 and I live in US, so I never had a chance of joining ITI.
I used to be a paying member of Proz but never got a single job because I keep my rates.
ATA membership and owning translation software (SDL Trados) paid off for me, even if my biggest chunk of the business is still interpreting. I do get 70% of my calls from UK though....
What I do like about Proz is that there are consistent, serious professionals from all over the world helping each other. What I don't like is that (in my language pair) there are non-translators bombing the site with junk, and getting answered from point-hunters, so it's populated with rubbish while membership payers have to scroll down and find the real deal there.
...not to talk about the bottom feeders who post thousands of questions after low balling their quotes for a job...
In other words, if you can join every professional association, do it, no matter the pro's and con's, they all pay off eventually.
Good luck!
Ion Capatina
Romanian Interpreter and Translator
www.ioncapatina.com ▲ Collapse
| | | | Richard Foulkes (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:48
German to English
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If you have experience in the legal field, I wonder is it possible to obtain any level of membership of the Law Society? If you're targeting direct clients, ATA / ITI / IoL is unlikely to mean anything to them but the Law Society is the professional body for the legal field and, thus, likely to have a lot more resonance. Just a thought.
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