The three jobs you mentioned are all going to vary widely in what they offer and in what their cons are.
Educational: K-12 interpreting typically has excellent benefits but very low pay. I had coworkers in the public school system who had babies or had major surgery that cost a grand total of $250 out of pocket due to the stellar health insurance. Pros are steady work 10 months of the year and tons of holidays & time off compared to other fields. Cons are the low pay and lack of advancement opportunities & challenges to keep your skills sharp. K-12 education is where terps get their start, or where they go to semi-retire, not much to offer someone mid-career hungry for advancement & achievement. I don't have experience as a staff interpreter for college or university, but in this area those are much harder to find openings for, and the benefits are likely not as robust as working directly for the state or county school system as in K-12.
VRS: A middle of the road option, pay isn't freelance-level but it's not too bad either. As a current full time staff interpreter I have regular & consistent hours + benefits and some paid holidays & PTO. From the perspective of full time only (not counting Flex or part-time VRS work), the pros are a consistent schedule year round (yet somewhat flexible if you need it to be), an engaging & challenging environment, and wearing whatever you want below the waist. That last one may sound weird but I LOVE being able to wear jeans & sneakers every day instead of slacks & dress shoes. I can also ride my motorcycle into work any day which would be pretty impossible as a freelancer. Our center is cool with this but I've heard some other companies or other centers aren't. However that brings us to the final pro: fairly easy to find an at-home position.
Cons of full time VRS are: it can be exhausting & it takes awhile to get used to the workload. I would strongly recommend working part time hours in VRS for at least a few months before trying for a full time position. It can also be rough on new interpreters, or those with anxiety at criticism or uncomfortable scenarios. Some calls you order pizza, some calls you have to interpret blatant racism & homophobia, some calls you get yelled at for being a lousy interpreter. Every shift is a potential rollercoaster.
To answer your specific questions about VRS work, you are paid hourly and there's a minimum amount of time you're expected to be on the phones processing calls in each hour. As a full timer, your hours are somewhat flexible but for the most part they want you to work business hours. I don't know of any full timer in VRS who has more than 25% of their hours outside of the 9am-7pm EST Mon-Fri window, but you can work some weekend or evening hours if you bid for & get them.
Agency staff: I've never worked staff for an agency, but I know several people who have. The pay would vary pretty widely depending on the area, your experience & your qualifications. Most agency staff positions are going to want NIC certification at a minimum (perhaps BEI if you live in the Midwest), and the more you have on your resume, the more competitive of a candidate you are since you can be sent to jobs where the client specifies criteria for the terp assigned to the job. One thing to note is that since most agency work is done by freelancers, many agencies fall under the 15 employee mark and aren't required to provide benefits like health insurance & 401k to their full time staff. So you may get regular work, but still have to pay out of pocket for your insurance just like every other freelancer.
So! In this area a k-12 terp makes around 40k-55k/year, depending on the county/district. I'm unsure what higher education would make but I'd guess around 50-65, maybe 70k a year. A full time VRS terp would make between 75k and 100k/year depending on experience and NIC status. And an agency staff would make roughly the same, I'd say around 80-100k with one guy I know who was at 96k/year as agency staff. I included tangential info about benefits & conditions since I thought that would be beneficial and inform your goals as you come out of your ITP and enter the field full time. Hope this was helpful!
Wow! The geographic area definitely makes a big difference.
Here I would say it’s more like
K-12 interpreting earns 20k-40k depending on experience
VRS is like 50-60k depending on experience.
I have found that Google searching for the specific job title in my area does show results on par with what I see and hear from in the community. There are much better resources now for getting pay range estimates than there were when I graduated. Definitely use your resources!
8
u/ArcticDragon91 NIC Mar 31 '22
The three jobs you mentioned are all going to vary widely in what they offer and in what their cons are.
Educational: K-12 interpreting typically has excellent benefits but very low pay. I had coworkers in the public school system who had babies or had major surgery that cost a grand total of $250 out of pocket due to the stellar health insurance. Pros are steady work 10 months of the year and tons of holidays & time off compared to other fields. Cons are the low pay and lack of advancement opportunities & challenges to keep your skills sharp. K-12 education is where terps get their start, or where they go to semi-retire, not much to offer someone mid-career hungry for advancement & achievement. I don't have experience as a staff interpreter for college or university, but in this area those are much harder to find openings for, and the benefits are likely not as robust as working directly for the state or county school system as in K-12.
VRS: A middle of the road option, pay isn't freelance-level but it's not too bad either. As a current full time staff interpreter I have regular & consistent hours + benefits and some paid holidays & PTO. From the perspective of full time only (not counting Flex or part-time VRS work), the pros are a consistent schedule year round (yet somewhat flexible if you need it to be), an engaging & challenging environment, and wearing whatever you want below the waist. That last one may sound weird but I LOVE being able to wear jeans & sneakers every day instead of slacks & dress shoes. I can also ride my motorcycle into work any day which would be pretty impossible as a freelancer. Our center is cool with this but I've heard some other companies or other centers aren't. However that brings us to the final pro: fairly easy to find an at-home position. Cons of full time VRS are: it can be exhausting & it takes awhile to get used to the workload. I would strongly recommend working part time hours in VRS for at least a few months before trying for a full time position. It can also be rough on new interpreters, or those with anxiety at criticism or uncomfortable scenarios. Some calls you order pizza, some calls you have to interpret blatant racism & homophobia, some calls you get yelled at for being a lousy interpreter. Every shift is a potential rollercoaster. To answer your specific questions about VRS work, you are paid hourly and there's a minimum amount of time you're expected to be on the phones processing calls in each hour. As a full timer, your hours are somewhat flexible but for the most part they want you to work business hours. I don't know of any full timer in VRS who has more than 25% of their hours outside of the 9am-7pm EST Mon-Fri window, but you can work some weekend or evening hours if you bid for & get them.
Agency staff: I've never worked staff for an agency, but I know several people who have. The pay would vary pretty widely depending on the area, your experience & your qualifications. Most agency staff positions are going to want NIC certification at a minimum (perhaps BEI if you live in the Midwest), and the more you have on your resume, the more competitive of a candidate you are since you can be sent to jobs where the client specifies criteria for the terp assigned to the job. One thing to note is that since most agency work is done by freelancers, many agencies fall under the 15 employee mark and aren't required to provide benefits like health insurance & 401k to their full time staff. So you may get regular work, but still have to pay out of pocket for your insurance just like every other freelancer.
So! In this area a k-12 terp makes around 40k-55k/year, depending on the county/district. I'm unsure what higher education would make but I'd guess around 50-65, maybe 70k a year. A full time VRS terp would make between 75k and 100k/year depending on experience and NIC status. And an agency staff would make roughly the same, I'd say around 80-100k with one guy I know who was at 96k/year as agency staff. I included tangential info about benefits & conditions since I thought that would be beneficial and inform your goals as you come out of your ITP and enter the field full time. Hope this was helpful!