I think Gromozeka's post summarises the situation perfectly.

I did some translation work just after university (English --> Swedish (and Norwegian)). It was not well paid and it was quite boring.
"Please insert the CD rom disc into the CD Rom tray. After that please navigate to the...."
I did some game manuals though, and that was somewhat interesting because some of the games have an interesting plot. Technical manuals are incredibly boring and you frequently find that there IS no translation for some words, and you are forced to simply make up a new word. Everything was always super urgent and speed went before quality.

During this time I met some people who were interpreters for the EU and UN. The EU jobs are very well paid and they do require at least 3 completely fluent languages. Same in the UN, I suspect. Most of the people in such jobs are bilingual from childhood, then they add 1-2 languages to that. They have extensive entrance exams. Interpreters are not needed in most of Europe because people in business can usually speak English.
I think it's probably used in Russia though, and places like Japan, Korea and China.

Interpretation can be quite an art according to what I was told, and the interpreter has to be very professional, smart and available at a short notice. It can be quite challenging.

It might suit some people, but it's not well paid if you take into account the effort that a person has to put into becoming proficient for high-level translation work.

Of course, anyone can call themselves a translator/interpreter. The trouble is finding customers who are willing to pay you good money for it.