spanish interpreter

speaker

interpreter

sign language interpreter

retail sales associate

Ad Astra, Inc.

I worked with AsAstra as an independent contractor for more than 4 years before calling it quits. At the beginning it was all good. I was assigned plenty of work and I could negotiate my hourly rate with them. I primarily got assignments with the Department of Juvenile Services (DJS) because they are long assignments (12 hours a day). But about a year ago, everything started to change. They sent an email saying that all interpreters’ rates were $20/hr for DJS. So, after working for 4 years with them, they dropped my rates, just like that. And then recently, another email came out indicating that interpreters charging less than $20 would get preference. The problem with that is that now you have interpreters who are NOT qualified, making $13 or $14/hr. I met about 4 or 5 interpreters who don’t even speak the language. I am being very serious. These are language interpreters, English/Spanish, who don’t speak, read or write Spanish. And the client of course, who is a youth at a detention center and does not speak any English will rarely complain. But AdAstra does NOT care about the interpreter or the service. ALL they care is getting the cheapest interpreter so that they can get the most amount of money. AdAstra was just awarded the Statewide Foreign Language Interpretation/Translation Services for the second time, so I am guessing that is the reason for the change. They got the contract so they don’t care anymore. 
If you are an interpreter, stay away from this company. And if you are a client, stay away from this company. I really don’t understand how the State (Maryland in this case) does not monitor this company. Working with youths at the Department of Juvenile Services is sensitive and very serious business and should not be taken lightly. It is beyond me why AdAstra would send unqualify interpreters here,  and why the State does not have a process in place to monitor this contract.

The engineering team is given a decent amount of autonomy here, which I love. The philosophy driving the development process is generally to decentralize decision making and let teams largely handle their work themselves. One example of this is that teams choose which bugs they want to work on and sometimes have the discretion to decline fixing them.

Work/life balance is great. Culture is pretty informal and they like to drink in the office a bit. The office is also extremely white, and they like to plug some "tragedy tourism" trips to Latin America from within the company, which I personally found distasteful.

Compensation doesn't seem to be the highest around, so if you are chasing dollar signs (said without judgement), you may want to look elsewhere.

The scrappy, just-get-it-out-there development philosophy can sometimes lead to some difficult to navigate and ill-documented code.

I worked in the DHOH department…I was trained by a horrible person who kept gaslighting us and won’t own up her mistakes. She is the grandfather of the company and moved out of our department, but still works for the company. This family culture is pretty toxic and they don’t keep people accountable as they wants to ‘cherish’ people. The benefits were really great…I enjoyed it while it lasted, but it wasn’t worth it for my mental health. There were a lot of time when you have to be a self-starter (there is nothing wrong with that), although, there were too many times where you are on your own with the multiple hats. They claimed they would protect you, but I personally didn’t feel safe. Overall, this job isn’t for me. There were a several people I had a pleasure of knowing that were great colleagues to work with. The experiences might will be different for you and I hope you will have better experiences than I do! Good luck.

Put in so much effort to help people and get paid as a medical interpreter in hospital and clinic settings such as at a surgery center or a cancer fighting clinic, so you know how important as a matter of life-and-death concern for patients, and a language interpreter although cannot dispense medical service or advice but can increase the effectiveness of treating through understanding of patients' needs through communications and also rise above some cultural barriers that the patients once might have harbored, etc.
The drawbacks are the interpreter(s) do not get paid for all the efforts needed to accomplish the assignments, including bad weather and bad traffic and I got my car towed away once in Baltimore City, and I had to pay $270 to get it back when I came to an assignment at Johns Hopkins Hospital (in Baltimore, MD) in 2012.

What is the best part of working at the company?
There honestly hasn’t been a good part in my experience. Payments have not been made on time, communication has been poor, and it has raised serious concerns about whether the company is honoring its contract obligations. The repeated payment delays are unacceptable and, in my opinion, could expose the company to legal complaints, including possible Department of Labor issues.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part of working at the company is getting paid properly and on time. There have been ongoing payment delays, missing payments, and missing invoices, which create constant financial stress and make it difficult to trust the payment process.

The day-to-day work environment was genuinely pleasant. Colleagues were collaborative and the work itself was meaningful. That part of the experience I valued.

However, the company's leadership showed a pattern of inconsistent decision-making that resulted in continuous talent loss during my time there. Good people left regularly, and that instability affected internal processes and team continuity in ways that were hard to ignore.

When my employment ended, the offboarding was handled poorly — communication stopped abruptly with no transparency or closure. That experience was disappointing and didn't reflect well on how the company values the people who worked there.

Overall: a solid team at the ground level, but the organizational direction needs significant improvement for the company to retain talent and operate effectively long-term.

This is a very unstable job and only take it if you are going to use it as a part time extra money job. The calls are very minimal. The only decent contract they had is when there were calls  from USCIS that were pretty long and helped you earn money and now we don’t have any of those calls. I do not know what’s going on but now the calls are scattered you’d be lucky if you get one call every hour my pay at the end of the day is about $10. Which is insane, They pay extremely low. Before they were paying hourly a’d it was great pay but now we’re being paid cents by the minute when on a call and it’s very low call flow. Calls come in scattered and everybody is competing to pick up that same calls that only made a good 10 minutes or less. 


I would not say I didn't learn anything, because I would be lying. I learned a lot about languages and cultures. 
The owner of the company has TERRIBLE management skills and if she happens to be in a bad mood, RUN! you might be jobless the next day for no reason. She does not understand that a hierarchy is based on skill set and experience, and about how you actually contribute to the company, but rather on how many times a week you go out drinking with her. 
She also pays everyone in the office the same salary... 
Also, very unethically she uses anyone who speaks the language required, for her assignments in hospitals. So if the doctor cuts the wrong leg, it is Ad Astra's fault and not the interpreter's.

This is a good place to get your foot in the door for being an interpreter however, it is a very poorly managed company. The payments are made to interpreters 45 days after the assignments has been completed per their contract but often times are delayed by weeks for no specific reason. You'll get more assignments if you lower your rates, otherwise, you'll receive very last minute requests. They don't pay for parking or mileage, and there is no 2hr minimum. They will also sometimes ask you to lower your rates because "they can't afford it." It's amazing this company has so many contracts in MD because they are incredibly unprofessional. 

I’ve been working as an in person interpreter for about 6 months. Assignments are flexible and short duration. Overall it’s a good job and company, works too if you want to have a side hustle. 

Only cons: Good assignments and long assignments are always given to interpreters who have been working for some time, so us newbies are stuck with 1- 2 hour assignments. You don’t get paid immediately, you have to wait 45 days until you see your remuneration. I was told wait time may be a little shorter if you do assignments on regular basis but that hasn’t been my case. 

I wouldn’t consider this as a full time job due to payment issues. Sure it’s nice to pick your own hours, but one has to pay bills every month.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Spanish interpreter 22 salaries reported	$22.02 per hour
Speaker 11 salaries reported	$22.77 per hour
Interpreter 6 salaries reported	$21.67 per hour
Sign language interpreter 7 salaries reported	$39.29 per hour
Retail sales associate 1 salary reported	$700 per week

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