Here's how you can select specialization areas as a mid-career translator.

1. Assess Your Skills Evaluate Language Proficiency: Identify your strongest language pairs. Consider the cultural and linguistic nuances you understand deeply. Analyze Your Expertise: List down the subject matters you are most familiar with. Reflect on past projects and identify recurring themes or industries. Consider Technical Skills: Assess your proficiency with translation software and tools. Determine if you have any technical writing or terminology management skills.

I think you should just go by what interests you most and what you find interesting to work on. I "accidentally" got into patent translation through a university professor of mine. I enjoyed the specialized work and stuck with it. Look for a professional in your area and see if they are willing to meet up and talk with you. I found that besides plain internet research, the direct contact and experience of my colleagues has been the most beneficial factor in my specialization.

It is good to know which fields have a high demand. I find that I get a lot of medical equipment and automotive text translation requests. As a patent translator, I have been privileged to translate various fields. I specialize in autonomous vehicles but also translate a variety of patents on various machinery, medical contents, or IT. You should make a list of high demand fields and then see what you really are interested in.

It is important to have a deeper interest in your specific field as you will need to research it and get educated further every day.

I find that even after 11 years of working as a patent translator, I am still learning a lot. Different customers have different needs and even formal expectations. I enjoy meeting new clients and finding out how I can deliver everything to their highest standards. It's important to be very customer-focused and always keep the process up to par. I would like to say especially in the legal field but I believe this should be a value for translators in general. That is one of the great things about this job.

Especially in the beginning networking is key. There are so many aspects of how to build a successful translation career (bureaucracy, terminology, software, hardware, etc.). Experienced colleagues can elaborate on all of these aspects. Find the ones that are kind and willing to support you.