Conference interpreters — the stars of the translation profession?

Abstract

This article reports on a study which is part of an ongoing project, investigating occupational status within the translation profession by focusing on professional translators and interpreters of different kinds and in different contexts. The study is specifically concerned with the job status of the category generally regarded as the stars of the profession, i.e. conference interpreters. It investigates the self-perceived occupational status of a group of Danish staff interpreters at the European Union, comparing it to that of Danish staff translators in the same organization. The research is based on data from an online survey, completed by 86 respondents (23 interpreters and 63 translators). The study hypothesis was that the conference interpreters would position themselves at the very top of the status continuum for the translation profession as a whole, and that the translators would situate themselves at a lower level — though not at the very bottom, considering their profile as staff translators in a prestigious international context. This hypothesis was only partially borne out by the research findings.