Back when I was 18, I didn’t have any dream job. Only two things were clear in my mind: I’d have preferred to avoid any 8-5 job and I loved languages (especially Latin, which I had studied in high school). That’s why I ended up choosing a Linguistic and Cultural Mediation course at University.
Almost four years later, during my Master’s Degree in Languages and Cultures for International Communication, I had to earn some credits through an internship in the “real world”. After some time spent assessing the multinational companies based in my area, one day, completely out of the blue, I had a light bulb moment: I could do that in a translation agency! With a quick Google search, I found out that in my nearest city there was an amazing agency specializing in audiovisual translations. I didn’t know anything about those back then, but I knew I wanted to give it a try. A few weeks later, I was already sitting at one of their desks, soaking up everything that experience had to offer. Long story short, three months later I walked out of that internship as a translator.
After one year, I graduated. It was time to earn some serious money, so I immediately found a job as a logistics employee. I disliked it, but at least it gave me two crucial opportunities: to hone my foreign language skills and learn how to deal with customers. However, I still remained a translator in my heart… And I started working very hard to achieve the goal to be a full-time one by translating at night and on weekends. The translation agency that had welcomed me as an intern became my first client, and a few more followed soon. Therefore, after almost two years, I decided to take a leap: I resigned and became a freelance translator.
Fast forward to over ten years later, I’m still enjoying my job and my lifestyle as much as I did on day 1, although of course tons of things have changed. I’ve specialized, I’ve attended dozens of training courses, I dumped that first client because it had become a bad payer, I’ve gotten married and become a mom thus changing my daily schedule more times than I care to remember… But my passion, willpower, and expertise can only grow with me.