Over the past few decades, interpreting has become a more professionalized career field with codes of ethics and standards of practice being created to help standardize interpreter behavior. Without proper training or credentials, bilinguals who offer their interpretation services are at risk of misinterpreting vital information and possibly violating several ethical codes.
Regardless of whether an employer or client requires professional interpreter training, all bilinguals should seek to get trained and/or certified to work as an interpreter in their sector of choice (eg. healthcare, education, legal) to ensure that they are prepared to handle the ethical, procedural, and legal responsibilities of interpretation.