Medical, legal & document
Interpreter & Translator
Bilingual is the starting point, not the qualification.
Typical pay
$40k-$90k
How you get in
Fluency plus certification; degree optional
Outlook
Strong for certified medical and legal work; weak for general translation
Average openings
55/100Fewer openings per worker than the average job, and the field is growing.
JobPOVs index, calculated from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025-2035 for Interpreters and translators. It measures how many openings arise each year relative to the size of the field — not how many people apply. BLS does not publish a saturation figure.
Interpreters convert speech in real time; translators work with written text. Certification in medical and legal settings is what separates paid professionals from bilingual people asked to help, and it roughly doubles the rate.
A day in the life
8:00a – 3:30p · 7 hours 30 min
- 8:00aArrive at the hospital for a scheduled appointment
- 8:30aInterpret a specialist consultation
- 10:30aDrive to a second facility
- 12:00pLunch between assignments
- 1:00pRemote video interpreting from home
- 3:30pTranslate a set of documents against a deadline
How to get in
Medical interpreter certification
Duration
3-9 months
Cost
$1,000-$3,000
Credential
CCHI or NBCMI national certification
- Prove language proficiency in both languages
- Complete a 40-hour-plus medical interpreter training program
- Pass the CCHI or NBCMI certification exam
- Contract with hospitals, agencies and video interpreting platforms
Court interpreter certification
Duration
6-24 months
Cost
$500-$3,000
Credential
State or federal court interpreter certification
- Build legal terminology in both languages
- Pass your state's written and oral court interpreter exams — pass rates are low
- Register with the court system
- Among the highest-paid interpreting work available
Translation specialization
Duration
1-3 years
Cost
$0-$5,000
Credential
ATA certification
- Specialize where machine translation is not trusted — legal, medical, patents, marketing transcreation
- Get ATA certified in your language pair
- Build direct client relationships rather than agency work
- Position as a post-editor and subject expert, not a word-count translator
What people love
- · Certification substantially raises your rate
- · Remote video and phone interpreting is widely available
- · Freelance schedule control
- · Genuinely consequential in medical and legal settings
What wears people down
- · Machine translation has gutted general document work
- · Freelance income is irregular
- · Medical and legal content is emotionally heavy
- · Unpaid travel between assignments