Ethics are very important in translation .you need to know when to preserve confidentiality,and when to refuse a job because you are not competent to do it unlike the linguidtic peoplee think translation is a solitary activity but infact translators often work in virtual teams, revising each others work hour sharing big projects..Writing skills are extremely important..translators are professional writers .For this you need to be able to meet deadlines and organize your own language perfectly:grammer vocabulary ,style,Reading voraciously helps and so will writing practice such as blogging ,student journalism and creative writing....