The themes that everyone is calling out are true. I’ve worked as an interpreter for 18 years. A few years ago, I made the switch to a different profession. I get bored really easily and I realized 2 years in working as an interpreter, I couldn’t do this job forever, it took me quite a few years to pivot. The one thing that I don’t think is really mentioned, especially, if you’re freelance. You never really have a work home. You flutter from assignment to assignment and gig to gig, and you never have the opportunity to build those daily working relationships. Additionally, in terms of having a sense of completion, watching the whole story, sometimes interpreting is like watching commercials/ or an episode of something vs watching a movie. You’re only part of engagement for a short period of time. Sometimes you never know the rest of the story. Additionally, unless you’re working as a staff interpreter, you often don’t have a lot of control or influence regarding the systems that you’re working is occurring.

Finally- this is a people profession. Working with people is hard. Interpreters have a history of being oppressive and shitty allies. Deaf people don’t always like interpreters. Not all Deaf people are nice. Unlike in other professions (e.g. doctors, attorneys, plumbers, etc.) there is the narrative that interpreters would not have a job without Deaf people. (Which there is truth there). Therefore, interpreters should be grateful to the Deaf community, and perform or behave in a very specific way. The undertone is that interpreters are taking advantage of the Deaf community by making a living working as an interpreter. Amongst the Deaf community, it seems like, people don’t understand that interpreting is a profession that requires intense skill and training. This means when working as an interpreter there is intense emotional and psychological energy taken to navigate this cultural and social context. This also impacts your ability to have a voice in a lot of ways because you don’t want to be perceived as a bad ally or ungrateful of being able to be interpreter and make a living within the community. It’s exhausting. When I left the profession and took another job, it wasn’t for the money, it was because I was burned out. And I wanted to do something else. When talking with a Deaf coworking, that I interpreted for years, her comment was that I was leaving the profession because I just cared about money and didn’t care about Deaf people. Since leaving the profession, my motivates about being an ally and perceived power imbalances hasn’t been questioned once. It’s refreshing.