Translation
internships

Internships are an important way for us to train, nurture and employ the next generation of translation talent. We pride ourselves on providing the very best in internship experiences and have received fantastic feedback from our interns and our educational partners.

Translation
internships

Internships are an important way for us to train, nurture and employ the next generation of translation talent. We pride ourselves on providing the very best in internship experiences and have received fantastic feedback from our interns and our educational partners.

Translation
internships

Internships are an important way for us to train, nurture and employ the next generation of translation talent. We pride ourselves on providing the very best in internship experiences and have received fantastic feedback from our interns and our educational partners.

Internship opportunities

English to German Translator

Native language: German (Germany, Austria or Switzerland)
Duration: Three months
Payment: Unpaid
Date(s): From January 2024
Location: Remote (home-based)
What you’ll do: Work as part of our translation team and translate a variety of content from English to German

Apply

What our previous interns said…

Martine Wilmes German translation intern

Martine Wilmes

German translation intern

Read
Gautier Meister Frenchtranslation intern

Gautier Meister

French translation intern

Read
Gaelle Sagot French translation intern

Gaëlle Sagot

French translation intern

Read

Our internship policy

This policy outlines how our internship programme is structured and what our interns can expect from us.

Objectives

Nurturing the next generation of translation talent is an important part of our ethos here at AJT. There are not very many opportunities for graduates of translation studies to gain first experiences in the translation industry in a safe and collaborative way. With few entry-level in-house translation positions available for graduates, new translators often have to set up as freelancers straight out of university. Trying to secure work without any prior experience can be very difficult, leading to lack of opportunities and potential exploitation.

Our internships provide much-needed opportunities for translation students to gain hands-on translation experience, work in a safe and collaborative environment and receive feedback from experienced translators and editors. The main objectives of our internships are to:

  • Provide an insight into the day-to-day work of a professional translator
  • Build confidence in the student’s ability to produce high-quality translations at pace
  • Gain demonstrable experience in commercial translation to help with future employment

From an employer’s perspective, our internships are a fantastic way to find new talented linguists and also help to support our own recruitment strategy.

Eligibility

Our internships are open to students who are enrolled in a BA or MA degree in translation studies, and who need to complete an internship as part of their degree programme. Because our internships are unpaid, we are not able to offer internships to graduates who have already completed their studies or who are looking for a voluntary internship outside of their degree programme, as this could be seen as exploitative practice. Instead, we offer paid employment opportunities to graduates.

We typically offer internship spaces for the language combinations English to German (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and English to French (France), and the students must be native speakers of the language they translate into (also referred to as target language). We occasionally also offer translation project management internships, which do not require a specific language combination.

Interns must be able to demonstrate a good level of written English to be considered for a placement. In addition, translation internships are subject to the successful completion of a test translation (see Quality Assurance).

Where two or more students have applied for the same internship dates, priority will be given to the applicant with the strongest test translation.

Duration of our internships

Our internships must be for at least two months and can last a maximum of six months. We require a minimum of two months to ensure we can deliver on the objectives of the internship and give the student enough time to gain practical experience and hone their translation skills. Every university has slightly different requirements of how many hours an internship must last to be validated by the university. We are flexible with the length of internship we can offer as long as it is between two and six months and fulfils the university’s minimum requirements. Some universities also have additional stipulations about the maximum length of an unpaid internship and it’s the student’s responsibility to check all the requirements set by their university.

Payment

Our internships are unpaid. At the end of a successful internship, we typically pay a one-off bonus of 200 EUR to the student as a reward for their work and dedication during the internship.

How our internships are structured

Onboarding

Every internship starts with a structured onboarding process, which usually lasts two weeks. Our onboarding includes a company induction, a workstation set-up session, a health and safety induction, training sessions for the tools we use at AJT (including our translation tools), as well as meet and greets with the various colleagues the intern will be working with.

Continuous feedback

As the intern slowly starts to be introduced to practical translation tasks, there are daily feedback sessions with an experienced editor who will evaluate the translation and provide feedback during the first two weeks. After two weeks, we then move to a weekly feedback session, providing feedback and instructions as necessary.

Participation in training and meetings

Our interns are fully integrated in the day-to-day operations at AJT. Our interns participate in all team meetings, training sessions and workshops that relate to their work at AJT. We feel that including interns in all training and meetings will help them gain a deeper understanding of the workings of a translation company, learn about different roles and responsibilities within the company and prepare them for the future.

Offboarding

At the end of the internship, we organise an exit interview with the intern and our Managing Director, Anja. The exit interview provides an opportunity to discuss how the internship went, provide final feedback on the intern’s quality of work and professional conduct, and discuss career aspirations. It’s also an important opportunity for the intern to feed back to AJT on their own experience of the internship, what went well and what could be improved.

References and employment opportunities

At the end of the internship, each intern receives a reference letter and an internship certificate from AJT, which summarises the work the intern has undertaken and highlights the areas the intern has excelled in. Many of our interns have joined AJT after the successful completion of their internship, either as freelancers, in-house remote colleagues or UK-based employees. If the internship was successful and there are employment opportunities available at AJT, then the intern and Anja will discuss these during the exit interview.

Quality assurance

Our translation students are fully integrated into our day-to-day operations and get to work on real-life projects. We have a responsibility to our clients to deliver the same high-quality translations, regardless of who works on the translations.

As part of the application process for an internship at AJT, translation students must carry out a translation test so that we can assess their translation quality. The test translations have to be free of grammatical, typographical and punctuation errors, they must be accurate and they must demonstrate a talent for formulating idiomatic translations. If the test does not meet our quality expectations, then the application will not be successful, even if the student is otherwise eligible for an internship at AJT.

Once onboarded, interns start to work on real-life projects. We only assign translation projects that are suitable for interns in terms of complexity and give them plenty of time to complete the translation. All translations are subsequently carefully edited by an experienced editor to ensure the final translation we deliver to our clients is of the same high standard we set for all our translations.

Partnerships with educational institutions

We are committed to developing relationships with universities that offer degree programmes in translation studies, and we continue to build our network of lecturers in Translation Studies to increase the reach of our internship programme. We send information about our internship placements to universities who share them with their students. We also engage in educational activities such as giving guest lectures and attending career fairs to give students an insight into the translation industry while raising our profile as an employer.