Reddit reviews The Prosperous Translator

It's fairly common to switch to translation later in life. If anything having a bit of a career behind you before you enter the industry can be an advantage as it gives you knowledge that other translators won't have. With your background you could be very competitive translating anything related to government/public policy for example. I can't see you making enough to live on with culinary translation alone, but some people do manage to end up with surprising niches (I know of a translator who mainly translates knitting books/manuals). As with any career shift, you'd almost certainly earn less than your current position for at least a few years when starting out. I'd definitely try doing freelance on the side for a while (once your German is good enough) before leaving your current job.

The major concern would be going into translation without being highly confident in your language skills, both in German and in English (assuming that's your native language). In particular, you need to be able to read German texts at a high enough level to pick out not just meanings but also the style/register etc., and write well enough in English to properly reproduce the style/register etc. in translation. If I were you I'd be focusing on reading as much German as possible (e.g. newspapers, novels). Whether or not this is possible in 2-3 years depends on how much you're studying and how good you are at German already.

It's also worth looking into what skills/techniques translation itself involves, for which I'd recommend a book like "In Other Words" by Mona Baker (I can send you a pdf if you PM me your email). If you're looking at becoming a freelancer, there's also the business/entrepreneurial side to think about, for which you could read something like The Prosperous Translator.

If you're really serious about translation as a long term career, and assuming it's financially possible, you could also consider doing an MA in translation, although there are differing views on how worthwhile/necessary this is (search Master's or MA in this subreddit and you'll find discussions on this). I'm just finishing mine now, and I've found it worthwhile and interesting, but it's possible to make it as a freelancer without one.