A Cup With Olivia

Q: Can you introduce yourself?

Hi, I am Olivia. I have been doing freelance translation for 5 years since I graduated in 2015 with a degree in French and Translation. I work from French into English and I do a lot of transcription work as well, mainly from English to English. When I started freelancing, I also had a full-time job for 2–3 years as it can be difficult financially in the beginning. Two years ago, I decided to go full time freelancing. I am glad it worked and that I have some freedom with my job. I also really enjoy being a freelance translator.

Q: What are your specializations?

In the beginning, I was working in a wider field. Over time, I realized I enjoyed more medical, legal, and business-related documents, such as contracts or company policies. Marketing and tourism can be quite difficult as it's about translating and recreating the text in an appealing way for the target audience, whereas medical, business, and legal documents are easier to work with. There tends to be more of a “straightforward” translation with these kinds of documents.

I think there always needs to be some human approach to these kinds of texts. It would be interesting to see the evolution in the next 10 years. As a translator, you must keep evolving and keep your field open. That is why I do a lot of transcriptions and proofreading as well as translations.

Q: Freelance vs In-house work?

I travel between the UK and New Zealand quite a lot for personal reasons. With my job as a freelancer, I am able to do that. Although I like the idea of the security of an in-house position, I would never have enough time off to travel if I were working in-house. The social aspect of an in-house role and ability to bounce ideas off other people is also great, as when you're freelancing, it can be quite lonely and solitary work.

With freelancing, there can also be a lot of anxiety if you do not have work coming in. But for me, this is outweighed by the freedom of being able to travel and live where I want to. I would happily pursue my freelance translator career for the foreseeable future.

Q: What about CAT tools like Trados?

I use Trados Studio as my main tool. I could live without it technically, but I would not want to. It is an extremely helpful tool with translation memories and the formatting aspect. It makes my life a lot easier as a translator and ensures consistency across projects, especially when working with other translators on the same document.

Q: How do you manage time zones from New Zealand?

Time zones affect my work for sure. It was a learning curve in the beginning to be available all the time when I was 11 or 12 hours ahead of the UK. As a freelancer, you have to be switched on 24/7 in the beginning. I use calendars and alarms for deadlines, and I set my phone emails to loud overnight so that I am notified when urgent emails come in. A good thing about the time difference is that I can work during UK night-time, as it is in the morning for me.

Q: Current trends in translation?

The main trend right now is machine translation and AI. As I've seen improvements in transcription tools, I'm already editing transcripts rather than transcribing from scratch when audio quality is good. It's impressive but can be daunting! Medical and legal documents still require that human touch, as the importance of accuracy means companies cannot rely solely on machine translation.

Q: Tips for aspiring translators?

Keep doors open: It is important to keep multiple skills sharp so you can adapt to market changes. Focus on networking—I used LinkedIn and emailed about 500–600 agencies when starting out.

Don't beat yourself up: You will make mistakes. Learn from them and remember there are high standards in the market. There will be difficult moments with tight deadlines.

Know your limits: Learning how much work you can cope with is crucial. Taking on too much work and becoming overwhelmed affects both you personally and the quality of your work.