Hjhjhj, feel you on the job post, anywhere I applied to for summer or asked if I could even just be there unpaid for a few weeks for the work experience were like "oh, no degree yet? nah sis, come back later". One translation agency I applied to had their job post phrased in a way that suggested it was an 8h/week internship and said yes and I was so EXCITED, and called them and! turns out, it's not an 8h job - it's just paid like one, but it's 40h! advertised as "parallel to your studies"!
Hello! :)
First of all, sorry about the internship/job not working out, that was pretty shit of that company.
And advice, hmm, that's tricky. First I just wanna say that I did not manage to get any work experience while I was studying in Germany, but I also gotta admit I did not look for it too much. That was mainly because there were no opportunities in the city I lived in and the closest opportunities would have been a one hour commute (at least) away. Secondly, in Bavaria translation and interpreting studies exist in a kind of limbo between a vocational training course and a university course (it's strictly speaking a degree, but a state exam, not a bachelor or master, it's not taught at universities, but a special training colleges, etc.) so the labour market is just not designed for intersecting with it, and thirdly there was this rule that if you miss more than three days in your final year you were not allowed to take the state exam. There was just one person in our entire course who managed to do work experience as a project manager in the language department of a big carmaker during the summer holidays, but it was because she knew someone there who made that possible for her. And one big translation provider and CAT-tool producer we talked to just straight up told us "no degree, no internship" so I got discouraged pretty quickly and got a seasonal retail job instead.
I finally managed to get work experience when I did my MA in the UK, where I feel the translation and interpreting market is much better designed and more accessible to newbies than in Germany. Finding that internship there wasn't too difficult; I got it, because a translation agency visited us on campus and was like "call us if you want work experience!" so we did. Now, that internship was unpaid and what they wanted was free labour, but it was also our last opportunity to get work experience, we didn't need the money, it was only once a week and since it was unpaid we were able to be like "nope, got something better to do this week" whenever we wanted so we were like "ok, I guess". I still have the feeling that not everything about this internship was kosher, so to speak (at first they did not allow us to put it on our LinkedIn, but they somehow accidentally talked themselves out of that later, they downplayed our work in the end certificate, our course leader had to kick their ass so they payed the one guy who actually needed the money minimum wage at least and a few other slightly dodgy things), but it was still the best we could get.
Talked quite a lot, now, sorry, so advice. Hmm. Of course I can only speak from my experience and I don't want to generalize, but I have the feeling that translation agencies won't offer you anything better than what I described above; simply because they're the most obvious port of call, particularly for newbies, so they get away with it. But this sector kinda sucks for work experience, so I wouldn't blame any newby for accepting shitty internships with agencies. Where I fared much better (although in the job market, not for internships, but you could look for internships there as well) is law firms; particularly law firms who have a lot of international business (Mergers and Acquisitions, corporate law, patent law, etc.). I know someone who works for a big international law firm and they regularly have interns from one of the translation colleges in the city, and at a smaller law firm I know they also have two students who do odd jobs around the office. Those aren't specifically translation internships and more general office internships, but if those law firms have translation departments I'm sure you could strike some deal so you get a peak in there, too. And in general, if you can't get a translation specific internship, general office internships in relevant departments in international companies or law firms can be very useful as well. There are lots of language jobs there as well and law firms in particular will pay more than translation agencies (like 20 to 25% more in my personal experience).
Another thing you could look for is mentoring programs in professional associations (like the BDÜ in Germany), although maybe that's more for straight after your degree. That's probably quite useful if you're looking to go freelance, though. Or generally see if professional associations in your country have any offers and opportunities for students. The downside to that is of course that the membership costs money and in the case of the BDÜ quite a lot of money in student terms. You could also try to find out if those associations themselves offer internships.
And last thing I can think of is volunteering for or taking part in international events. I applied for being an interpreter at a Model European Union for example (sadly it got cancelled because of corona). So Model EU, Model United Nations and other stuff like that, or maybe volunteering as an organizer. Or another thing a friend did was supervise teenagers going on a study trip to a country their target language was spoken in. That's also not translation specific, but you might get to do some interpreting, it'll help with your target language and you'll certainly learn something, even if it's not translation strategies. Other random things that come to mind are volunteering for the Erasmus Department or student union of your uni or for local non-profits who work with foreign language speakers, like refugee associations. You can also do internships with the European Union (or take part in translation contests offered by them); they might probably be a bit hard to get into, but it never hurts to try!
That's all I could think of right now; I hope there's something useful in there for you and best of luck with finding work experience; I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you!
