 Photo by Jared Rice on Unsplash Although I thought I was the only one experiencing anxiety and pressure coming from my own expectations, in the last months I started noticing how people around me, i.e. colleagues, friends and family members are actually feeling in the same way. Not being an expert, I am not 100% sure what’s the cause of this, but the majority of people I spoke to are blaming social medias and the stress that their jobs cause. The amount of people posting pictures in fantastic locations, conventions or job sites is endless and although I do understand that working on social medias is a job and that many people are trying to tell a story or show the best of them and of their job, I wonder if that is maybe causing damage in people’s self image and awareness. If we stop for a second and think about it, we are constantly bombarded by perfect images that create expectations that affect not only how we think we should look like, but also what we should be doing, the job we should aim for and so on.
In this context, I believe it’s important to take everything we see as a pinch of salt: if we see that someone has a super dynamic corporate job and they show in every post that they are very happy that may not be exactly the truth. I am not saying that I don’t spend time scrolling through Instagram feeds watching other people’s stories, but I can confidently say that I have taken a step back because the same people that seem all smiley and happy may have their issues too, it’s just that we don’t get to see them. So, instead of comparing yourself to all these ‘perfect’ people online, or even friends that seem perfect on the surface, be inspired by them to improve yourself; don’t copy them or try to be them, but take their positive sides to improve yourself and focus on you! With this sermon I simply wanted to say that I have been through it myself and that after some trial and error, I have found some techniques that help me with my mental and physical health, so here we go! Practise sport I am the definition of a couch potato. When I was younger I used to be very active, but then I injured my ankles and stopped practicing sport altogether, needless to say that it was an awful decision. Turned out that practising sport is essentially like a medicine that helps you avoid falling into anxiety and depression’s vicious cycles. So just give it a chance and try to find what you like: it can be zumba, swimming, running, gym classes of any sorts. Nowadays, there are plenty of options for every pocket, so you can’t escape. In my case, I tried to go to the gym, running and so on, but what I found really works for me is swimming. When I am in the swimming pool I focus only on that, I think about the movements that I am doing and best of all, I don’t feel all sweaty and hot because I am immersed in the water! On top of that, I have found that yoga really helps to soothe my nerves. Getting into it is not as fast as one would think: we all have different levels of flexibility and not everyone can find their focus straight away. The good thing about this discipline is that you mix meditation practice and sequences of poses that can be challenging but also relaxing, depending on the type of practice you choose. To give it a go, you don’t have to spend hundreds of pounds on super tech accessories and yoga classes, but you can just start familiarise with it following online videos. The one I feel works best for me it’s Yoga with Adriene: she doesn’t take it too seriously but at the same time makes everything easier and her voice is really pleasant. Meditate I am aware that this may sounds cliché or boring, but it is true. Finding some time during your day, it can be 1 to 10 minutes, can truly improve your lifestyle. Stopping and thinking about your breath really makes the difference; there are plenty of apps, like Headspace, and videos online, but if you are already feeling overwhelmed, simply try the square breathing technique. Obviously, you won’t get the benefits of it straight away, but giving it a go doesn’t cost anything and in the long run you’ll find yourself feeling calmer and more positive. This is what works for me and I thought that sharing it may help some other people that are feeling buried by expectations coming from the outside world, but mostly from themselves. Please, feel free to share your experience and suggestions!
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 Photo by Ryan Graybill on Unsplash If you follow this blog or if you know anything about me, you may know that approximately seven months ago I quit my job as project manager and in-house translator and started my own business as a freelance translator and subtitler. At first, as anyone, I guess, I wasn’t expecting to get much work, actually in my mind it would have been great if I managed to pay for my bills and keep the lifestyle that I had when I was working as an employee. However, somehow, the response that I got from starting this new adventure was very positive : thanks to ex-colleagues, friends and acquaintances, I managed to be busy every day of the week, getting a lot satisfaction.
As I said, I have been lucky enough to start working right away and, as anyone does, I was accepting every job I felt comfortable with because my schedule was pretty much empty. However, after a month or so, projects started piling up and I was getting a bit overwhelmed because even though my planning skills were (and are) pretty good, I was getting the feeling that I didn’t know exactly how long a task would take me and therefore estimating a precise delivery deadline for anything that wasn’t translation or revision was a bit tricky. So, the first suggestion that I could give to the seven-months-ago me would be to stop for a second and actually work out how long a task would take, obtaining in this way a realistic delivery deadline. This method does not only give myself some peace of mind, but it also shows my client that I will not let them down with a project because I haven’t been able to estimate the turnaround time. As you may have understood from this second paragraph, to me, time has become super precious. There have been days when I stayed at my desk for way too many hours without even standing up and days in which I felt that I needed a 50 hours working day. But every cloud has a silver lining and from this I have learnt to take the time to really think about deadlines that will make my clients happy, that will allow enough time to be able to work on ongoing projects and open orders and finally to keep me sane. This has also led me to set, and stick to, some working hours which can vary, but do not exceed 8 to 9 working hours per day, also because it affects deeply my productivity level. And if I work more than that during a day, I will make sure to take an afternoon off or finish a bit earlier the next day to balance things out. Differentiation has also been a big part of my path so far: I have learnt that translation only can be a bit monotonous for my taste (this can change depending on people’s tastes), so I decided to start working with subtitling agencies too, as I am very passionate about this area of the translation industry and I find it more dynamic. Also, in terms of clients, having more than one or two clients is very important, not only because it’s nice to ‘talk’ to different people, but also because not all agencies may have work for you every month. For this reason, having four or even five clients will provide some balance and a steady income. Talking about clients, feedback has also been one of the main characters of this story. The feedback that a translator may receive comes from direct clients, agencies, colleagues, friends and may not always be super polite and educated in terms of translation choices. What I found is important in this matter is to not take it too personally: I understand that a that text is your work and you put a lot of effort into it, but try to avoid letting your ego play the drama queen. A pair of fresh eyes or an opinion coming from someone who may not know much about translation, but who will finally be the public reading your text, may have a positive influence on your final product making it more effective. Finally, just regarding the ‘professional sphere’ (the wellbeing bit will be touched in another article), I have found that keeping my language skills up to scratch and being always up to date are key in this job. To do that, I have used two pretty simple methods: attending CPD workshops and reading, listening and speaking in my native language as much as I can. The first suggestion, to me, has only positive aspects because you get out of the house, you talk to colleagues and you learn something new in every session. The last one that I attended was only a few days ago and was carried out by David García Ruiz from Trust Your Brand. On top of being super interesting and out of my comfort zone, it taught me something that I had no real clue about, i.e. SEO searches for my own website. On the other hand, the second suggestion may seem very simple, but you’ll be surprise by how much your brain changes by only living in another country. That is why I try so hard to read and speak Italian every day, as well as going to Italy as often as I can (also because I love my hometown but that’s another story). Although this blog may seem like a diary page, I hope it gave an idea of what’s been going on for me in the last months and I would really appreciate to receive any suggestions on how to work better, but also on other translators’ experiences.  Photo by Jess Watters on Unsplash When you start exploring the translation industry or maybe you are studying translation at university, everybody will tell you that it would be best for you to buy a Windows PC, in case you want to use a CAT tool. Indeed, many translation agencies use Windows desktop computers instead of Apple computers and the same SDL Trados and MemoQ websites, which I consider the most used CAT tools on the market, mention that their programme is not supported by MAC OS X, as written here and here.
So, what if you already have a MacBook, or you just bought one because you really wanted it and now the world seems to tell you that you’ve made the wrong choice? Well, don’t despair, I was in the same situation, but got out of it fairly easily. Thanks to my IT department (*coughs* boyfriend *coughs*), I understood that I didn’t need to buy a computer that will probably be very tired and pretty useless in two years’ time and that I could keep using my MacBook Air. In case you are interested in how to run the most used CAT tools on your Mac, you have two options: The free option – with this option you will be able to partition the hard disk of your machine, effectively storing in your MacBook both Apple’s and Window’s operating systems. For doing this you will need to use Apple's Boot Camp utility, which is already in your machine; you will only need to arm yourself with patience (the process will take around four hours), an external hard disk for storage and you will have to follow the instructions at the links below. Here you’ll find exactly what you need and if your machine complies with the requirements: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201468 and https://www.lifewire.com/boot-camp-assistant-partition-macs-drive-2260116. The positive side of this option is that if you are only starting out, you don’t have to waste your budget straight away, as it is free. As mentioned before, The Boot Camp facility is already on your computer and you just have to use it + the light version of Windows 10 is free and downloadable from the Windows website. The two downfalls of going for this solution are that for switching from Windows to Mac, you will need to reboot your computer, then hold the option button on your keyboard to choose which OS you want to work on. Also, if your Mac does not have a lot of storage space, it's possible that once you have installed Trados, you will not have much room left to run other applications on that side of your computer, for that reason, it’s best to use a memory stick or some external hard drive from the start. If you have a bit of money aside option – go for Parallels and VMware Virtual Machine respectively found at these links https://www.parallels.com/uk/products/desktop/buy/?full and https://www.vmware.com/products/fusion.html. These two options do not partition your disk, but use a sort of virtual machine on your computer: a kind of machine (Windows) in the machine (Apple). With this new "fake" computer, you will be able to switch from a virtual machine to your real one without having to restart your computer, however the cost for the basic version of both options gravitates around £70. It will be up to you if you want to splash out right away or wait; it will still be better than wasting £500 on an additional computer. I hope this shed some light on what to look for and how to proceed if having a Mac and being a translator don’t seem super compatible. I personally went for option no. 1 because I did not want to spend money before getting any jobs, but the choice is entirely up to you and will depend on your priorities and budget.  Photo by Jess Watters on Unsplash CPD is defined as Continuing Professional Development and most freelance professionals, as well as people working in-house, make sure to keep up with it following a variety of courses, which can be related to what they do for a living (i.e. a course on a specific graphic design technique), their personal skills (how to introduce themselves/give presentations), or to learn something new that maybe is out of their comfort zone.
Since I joined the Yorkshire Translators and Interpreters (YTI) in September, I took the opportunity to take part in one of the workshops they offer. Luckily, it was about transcreation, one of my first interests when I started making my way through the translation industry, after finishing my studies in Applied Translation Studies. In 2016, I had indeed participated in a workshop in London presented by Adriana Tortoriello, a transcreation and subtitling expert in the UK, and I was really impressed by how much I liked this aspect of translation and how fun, but also challenging, this task could be when it was taken seriously. For this reason, I said to myself ‘why not?’ – surely, participating will not only help me refresh and update what I learnt in the past, but I will also be able to meet new people that work within the industry and have interesting discussions on the matter. Returning to the workshop, it was led by Kim Sanderson, translator and teacher at the University of Durham, and it took place in York. It was structured in a pretty classic way: she gave a presentation on the transcreation and marketing translation sectors, showing some examples of very good and very bad transcreation works that made the participants raise some very stimulating discussion points and lots of input. Then, the participants were divided into groups according to their language combination, however the Italian one was a bit mixed, as it was made of three Italians, a Brit and a Czech. Even so, the outcome and the debates were very interesting as we had different opinions that contributed to achieve impressive results, given the timeframe allowed, and we understood all the shades that the English copy was trying to transmit. Finally, we had a general discussion on the different solutions found by all the groups, having therefore the opportunity to share our thoughts and maybe improve solutions that had already been put forward. Overall, I was very happy and grateful for taking part in this workshop, as it strengthened what I already knew and it allowed some super brainstorming sessions in which translators from different countries gave their opinion and explained some hidden meanings behind the text. It also helped me meet some new people and some people that work within the sector and that I had already met thanks to my previous job. All in all, I look forward to the next CPD session and even though it can happen that sometimes these sessions are not very useful to improve our skills, they are always a good opportunity to meet people and to put ourselves in a different setting that doesn’t make us sit in front of a computer. One month in... my first impressions Photo by Mika Matin on Unsplash As promised in my last article, here's how it is going after a month of working as freelance translator: I AM LOVING IT, mainly because as far as I am polite and I do my job well, as I always try to, I don't have to ask permission to do anything to anyone - SO LIBERATING!
Going back to business, here below you'll see some of the aspects that have been challenging/new to me. Managing expectations Of course, before starting, I knew that I shouldn't have expected that all agencies would have just wanted to wait for me and be super kind and interested in working with me. In my mind I knew it was going to be hard, but I didn't expect people to actually dislike me. I won't go too much into detail, but I thought that if you are fair to someone they will treat you in the same way: well, that's very wrong! Sometimes people won't like you, no matter what you do, and you know what? That's fine by me! Manage my day This may sound cliché, however when I was working as project manager, I barely could organise my day. I was so busy with incoming projects that sometimes I had to stop to understand what I was doing... ahah the good old days... now, at times, I almost find it unsettling to have a couple of hours in which I can fit in activities that are not strictly related to what I do for living, e.g. writing a blog post, check LinkedIn for any interesting articles, check proz for jobs etc. Now I can actually organise my days without having to throw away my list because it has become useless the minute I wrote it. Work alone This is the beast that most people are scared of when talking about freelancing. Personally I thought that I wouldn't have minded a bit of loneliness, and actually I don't: I like working in bed, I truly enjoy my own company, however sometimes I do miss my ex-colleagues and their coffees (in case you are reading, maybe not, but anyway, I am talking to you Amy!). With this I am not saying I would like to go back to work in an office, but I am simply pointing out that even if you think that you are the strongest person in the world, things may change as you experience new options. Money! So far so good on this subject, thanks to networking and lovely friends I managed to be covered for the month of July and this makes me very happy, not only because I am not living under a bridge yet, but also because it means that people trust me and trust my work and this is very rewarding! Projects folders This bit can go crazy at any moment if you don't organise your folders and computer well enough. I have written some guidelines in this article, but as I said before you really need to be on top of everything otherwise you will lose hours of your own work very easily. As you may have gathered, I am very very HAPPY. For now, I believe it's the right choice for me, but I will check in again in a couple of months! Wish me luck! :) Thoughts and reasons behind the choice Photo by Kevin Bhagat on Unsplash After working for two years as a project manager and in-house translator, I decided that it was high time for me to change (partially) my life and move forward. Therefore, I resigned from my in-house position and I started my “career” as freelance translator. Some time after taking this decision and actually start working, I thought it could be interesting and a good idea to share my thoughts about it and the reasons behind my slight change of path to maybe help other students and professionals to clear their minds and, why not, have a fresh start. So, as a result, I decided to put together some sort of a series of articles, going through the reasons to change career, how to start out as a translator or professional, and how it was going for me after one, three and six months, with the hope that my journey could help those that find themselves in my exact same position.
First things first, why creating a problem for myself and leaving in-house employment (il tanto venerato POSTO FISSO) to live my working and personal life in the darkness of uncertainty? Well, there are many, many reasons and here below, I will try to go through them and explain them making some sense. More in depth, the first reason can be identified as the fact that I really wanted to be and work how I liked it: this does not mean avoid working, because if you know me you’ll know that I am a very hard working person, but to work following my logic, and sometimes the common sense, therefore leaving behind guidelines and rules that I did not choose or on which I did not have a say at all. Another important reason for me was that I could actually manage my time, basing my tasks and working schedule on my level of productivity. Saying this, it’s important to consider that every person has different levels of productivity at different hours. For example, if working in an office, employee A takes an hour to perform a task and employee B takes half an hour to go through the same task, depending on the employer, the work and performance of the two employees will be perceived differently by the boss and maybe employee B will look busier and therefore more serious and hard working in the eyes of his manager. Thirdly, I really wanted the power to matter and to take decisions that were relevant to my work and performance, of course taking the responsibilities related to my actions. Finally, it goes without saying that flexibility, being able to go home more often and diversify what I do were all on the “go for it” side; so in the end, I just wanted to give it a shot and try to see if it was as cool as everyone was making it. On the other side, when taking such a decision, it’s important to consider all possibilities and variables, keeping in mind that every “dream job” has its downfalls. In this case, regarding the possible freelance career that was in front of me, the issues were many and here below you will see which ones were the scariestto me. The lack of stability, for example, was an important point to consider; no routine, no places to be at, no timetables can create problems and disrupt many people’s balance and personal stability. As I consider myself pretty self-sufficient and I am very much able to manage my day and create a set list of tasks to perform, I thought that this should not be a great problem, as I always enjoyed this kind of freedom in my student life too. On top on this, loneliness, responsibilities and abilities that maybe are not within everyone’s comfort zone, such as being an accountant, PR and marketing manager at the same time could be considered an issue; however, here again, to me they were not a threat, but looked more like a challenge that could help me diversify my job and make it more interesting on many level, being therefore able to use differently my brain. To end this piece about the reasons that pushed me to have a career change and actually making a big jump like this, I must say that when I was writing down the theme and important things to mention for this article, including the reasons for not going freelance, I could only keep thinking about the positive sides. Hence, I believe that for now it’s looking like I have made the right decision, although it’s very important to mention that this choice may not be for everyone and I highly suggest that anyone who’s thinking about doing something like this should take a moment and, with calm, writing down negative and positive reasons that could influence the decision process, but also finally their lives.  Just after finishing a degree, for example, a Master’s degree in translation, most people feel quite confused on what to do next. Only a few students have everything already planned out, as well as, a decent budget to start freelancing; the truth is that the majority of us are not only clueless, but also broke. This is why we should always consider transferable skills as part of what we can gain through our career to get our dream job.
First things first, what are transferable skills? According to the Princeton University experts, they are “the skills you acquire and transfer to future employment settings. Common examples include interpersonal, communication, leadership and organizational skills”. Therefore, these are the skills that you will be able to gain in an office-like environment, which then will be super useful to you, when you will decide to change job, set up your own company or even start freelancing. Thinking about the translation industry, I believe that it can be quite hard and daunting to start freelancing without even knowing how to write to agencies or how to react to negative feedback. This is why, I think that starting from an in-house position, as a project manager, vendor controller or in-house translator will be a fantastic starting point to launch your career in this sector. Having said that, I would like to share the abilities that I think will be very useful as a freelance translator to further boost your position in this very dynamic and competitive market. Communication skills It’s true, there’s nothing new here, but I really do think that people underestimate the importance of having good phone and e-mail manners. Being able to handle a challenging conversation with a client or an agency is something you will only be able to do with practice. Nobody mentions this when you are studying, but the power of a very well thought and written email is priceless and can solve many issues and situations that could escalate in no time. Of course, this “e-mail writing skill” intertwines with problem solving and sales, but I assure you that it’s all part of every translator/editor/vendor controller AND project manager’s role. Problem solving This second point is absolutely essential to stand out in an ocean of translators. Not only coming up with effective solutions, but also preventing problems through different workflows/workarounds is key. Would you choose someone that whinges about the text segmentation in a CAT tool, or someone who suggests preparing the file in a different way to avoid further problems? Well, I would surely prefer the second option. It’s important to think about the person we are working for/with always as a client. I am not saying that we all have to be formal and serious all the time, but being able to be proactive and efficient will definitely make you look professional to anyone you are delivering a project for. Time management Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling… Social medias and smartphones are great, but they make us also waste hours and hours of our lives doing essentially nothing. We do need to put them down and work our way through our tasks. Talking about tasks, when planning our day, it’s crucial to understand how long it will take us to perform them. We don’t want to pack too much stuff in our day, but we also don’t want to set a deadline too far away, when we could have translated something earlier on and fit in more projects. This is something that I learnt while working as a project manager: you need to provide turnaround times all the time. Everyone needs them because everyone has a boss or client to get back to. The list could be never ending, because the skills and abilities you can gain from different jobs can have a fantastic and positive impact both on your productivity and happiness levels in your future or present jobs. If you are asking yourself what to do after your degree, try to think about what skills you would like to have in your personal portfolio and look for jobs that will provide you with them. This should not be the only requirement for looking for a job, but I still think it’s a good indicator for being able to then develop your career and help you move forward in your work life. I have had this blog post in my drafts for months and now I have finally managed to finish it and have the chance to publish it in the very interesting and highly relevant blog Apertis Verbis. Please, feel free to check it out here. It's just a beginners guide for anyone who is starting out as a freelancer or a project manager and would like to know a bit more desktop publishing, but I think that many people will benefit from it. Thanks for having me on your blog, girls - Miruna, Ele and Lara!   Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash Before moving to the UK and starting the MA, I had never written on any publications, journals or websites, neither in English nor in Italian, mainly because the jobs that I was in were not very intellectually stimulating and because Italian universities are, let’s say, not very dynamic or young. For these reasons, I had really no self-esteem in terms of my writing skills (my skills in general) and I didn’t know where to start. Therefore, it was actually my partner who pushed me to open a blog and to take any opportunity to write and put my name out there. These chances came when, as I said before, I started university again and therefore started writing reports about the Professionalisation Talks I was attending. After that, I did some volunteer project coordinating work for Translator Without Borders and I started a position as Project Manager in Leeds. Even though I was always busy, I tried to keep this writing exercise active, not only because I wanted to keep up with my writing skills in another language (reason #1), but I also wanted to share my point of view on translation subjects and, why not, helping a cause I believe in. Thus, I wrote a few times on the company’s blog, on some friends’ blog, as well as, on the first ITI Student Bulletin. On this note, writing short articles and reports, helped me get transferable skills (reason #2) that I could use when writing complicated emails, which in my job happens almost every day. You just want to get your point across without fussing around too much. On top of this, this practice helped me networking and meeting new very interesting and highly intelligent people that enriched my knowledge and life experience (reason #3); and what's even better is that you can share what you have been working on social media to make other people know what you are doing and possibly inspire them.  To provide some examples of easy ways to start, I added here below some of the blog posts and short articles I wrote.  Available here : https://www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/news/article/4350/third_cts_professionalisation_talk-translation_transadaption_and_subtitling  Available here: https://www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/news/article/4581/cts_students_volunteer_with_translators_ without_borders  available at: http://apertisverbis.wixsite.com/mels/single-post/2017/02/14/Working-as-a-Translation-Project-Manager  Available here: https://www.iti.org.uk/attachments/article/1139/Final%20%20ITI%20Student%20Bulletin%20-%20Ignition.pdf  available at: https://www.andiamo.co.uk/blog/death-office-working-freelance-future Hence, considering all I have mentioned above, I suggest everyone to write more to keep your brain busy and your mind active!
What do you think? Will you start a blog about your opinions too? It doesn't need to be about translation, it can be about anything you like :)  Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash The translation industry is known for being unpredictable, many times new projects come in waves. One week is slow and quiet and the next one is so busy and fast that you don’t even realise that is almost the weekend.
When everybody remembers that it’s almost the end of the month and they forgot to send the files for translation, things can get very busy and stressful and right at the point, we PMs forget the importance of reference material. But what is reference material? Well… this term covers a very wide variety of files that are normally sent to the translators to help them understand the source material or the subject matter of the project, and to be consistent with the previous translated material. They can be Translation Memories, Terminology Databases, previous translations (for example, this can be very useful when translating manuals as well as marketing material) or visual material, such as pictures, CAD drawings and so on. These files can be supplied by the end clients when requesting a job, however this is a very rare occurrence, as PMs need to ask for them every time a project goes ahead. It is true that translators should do their own research and spend time looking for what they are translating to better understand the subject matter, however having all the files ready for a project can speed up the whole process a lot, improving the delivery deadline and translation too. It is the classic PPPPP rule – Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance! Unfortunately, this step is often overlooked in the fast-paced industry of translation. I believe that agencies should take more care of storing and using properly all the reference material that is necessary for a project. An example are TDs which are not as widely used as TMs mainly because looking after terminology is a long process compared to simply throwing everything in a TM and then ask the translators to search for the terms they may need. Also, to create TDs, you need to make a small investment and spend time researching what the preferred and correct terminology is. On a positive note though, the programmes needed to maintain them are very cheap and are already included in other main packages, such as Excel and Trados Multiterm. All in all, I believe that taking some time to look after terminology and do some research to provide more context are a crucial step to improve the quality of translation and make a translation project flow smoothly. This will also avoid receiving negative feedback mainly based on terminology and a ton of questions from the translators! 😊 |
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