Following my passion is my absolute goal. I strongly believe that being passionate about my job is what leads me to do it better. I am perfectionist, disciplined and very meticulous, and most of all, I always put myself in my clients’ shoes, so I always have their interests in mind, because I believe providing them the best service will provide me the best career.
How did I start
If you asked me if I wanted to be a translator when I was growing up, my answer would definitely be, no! But if you ask me, if I am happy with my job, I will certainly answer you; absolutely! But what brought me to this job and what has kept motivated, for more than 10 years?
I landed in this job by chance. I was working at an architect’s atelier in Lisbon and I had a very good relationship with my boss. One of my duties was to keep communication with our clients abroad, so my English level was always being evaluated. One day, my boss asked me, since my English level was very good, if I could translate an AutoCAD manual, for a staff member who struggled a bit understanding the manual in English. I had never done anything like it before, and it was technical English as well, so I wasn’t sure if I was up for the job, but since I love a good challenge, I accepted it. Because I was working there for a while and I prepared all the documents for his Projects, I was familiar with the language and I did the job the best I could. My boss was so happy with the result, that he encouraged me to do a translation course and have that in my CV.
I was so happy with his feedback and that job was such a pleasure doing, that I seriously considered following his suggestion. Sometime later, I enrolled in the Translation Course at the British Council, in Lisbon and here I am …
What motivates me
Today, I love my job and I don’t think I would choose any other. What motivates me? The fact that I learn new things every day, the contact with clients, the opportunity of meeting colleagues and engage with them to improve our industry.
I started by working in the tourism and aviation industry. I worked with an airline for about 8 years. During that time a learnt so much about that field. Being an aviation lover myself helped do my job. Now, I am working with a company in a different industry, Casino Games, and I keep learning more and more about it with every project I do. This keeps me interested and the challenges it poses keep me motivated to get up every day and come to my office for another day of work.
The negatives
Like in any other profession, there are good and bad things. For me, if I had to point out any negatives of my profession, would be the devaluation of our job, the massive deregulation in our industry and the fact that because I work from home, some people think I don’t have a job.
Our industry is highly devalued worldwide. Unfortunately, there’s a strong belief that our job is too easy and unqualified. That saddens me, because I know well how hard a good translator has to work. Our job is very complex and we do need to be appropriately qualified to do it. Deregulation means that basically anyone can claim to be a translator, that leads to unqualified people doing a bad job and giving us all a bad name. In my view, more regulation should be introduced and associations should play a major role in this. In Australia, we have it with AUSIT and NAATI, but lots of countries don’t. Good associations that would communicate between them and with governments to create a framework for good regulation, would mean that the standards would be lifted. That could also change people’s perception of our job.
The fact that we work from home, is sometimes seen as not working at all. I have seen it all my career. COVID-19 has changed that a bit, since those who may have thought that are now working from home and having the same routine that I do.
Balancing the good and bad, I can say the good outweighs the bad. I love this job and the opportunities it gives me of learning and growing professionally and as a person.