What are you looking for in a freelance translator? That is to say, what can I do for you?

I am a proficient user of CAT tools, namely Trados and Wordfast, so if you’re looking for someone who can use these, I could be your guy. And of course, I can produce quality translations from English and Spanish into European Portuguese at a sensible price – but that’s the whole point of being a freelance translator, otherwise I’d be better off doing something else. And then again, so can other translators. So why would you want to choose me?

In a nutshell, what I am offering is a precious commodity, but one that many times is overlooked: peace of mind. And yes, I mean yours! Throughout my entire professional career, not just as a translator, but before that as a journalist and editor, I worked in fast-paced environments, with no room for error and tight deadlines to cope with on a daily basis. And in all that time I have never missed a deadline.

I’d love to be able to tell you this was because of some outstanding super human powers, but the truth is a lot simpler: it’s down to good old common sense, that’s all. I make a point of never taking more work than I can handle, and I always make sure, beforehand, that I CAN handle it, meaning that I have the necessary experience and skills. So that´s the first thing I am offering.

The second thing is that I love what I do. Well, again I hear you say, “so what? that’s what all translators say…” True. But let me just say it anyway: I am not a translator because it pays well, because I think that’s a good career or because I enjoy the freedom of setting my own schedule. Those things are all fine, but I am a translator because I LOVE my job. That’s important because loving my job is what makes me hunt down the meaning of every single word or sentence I don’t know or that I’m not absolutely sure about. So besides common sense, I am offering my passion for my job.

Thirdly: I will respond to that e-mail that comes out of the blue in the middle of the night on a weekend with an urgent request. I can’t promise I will be able to handle the job every single time, but I will get back to you, and at the very least, I will propose a compromise solution. I understand the value of your time.

Besides working as a translator and proofreader, I am an experienced quality assurance manager – to do this job, it really helps having a keen eye for detail and being somewhat “nit-picky”. You can expect me to always do my utmost to deliver a completely error-free job. I’ve actually found that working as quality manager has helped me become a much more accomplished translator– by being able to easily pick out the traps and potential danger areas in any source text and avoid them.

Over my career, through translation agencies, I have worked on assignments for a multitude of corporate clients. Following are just a few of the names: Heineken, Merrill Lynch, PepsiCo, Disney, JP Morgan, HSBC, Emirates Airline, AIG, Ernst & Young, etc. It hasn’t all been just translation/proofreading work, by the way: I’ve also worked on a number of linguist validation/reconciliation jobs, produced bug reports for live websites and other less common tasks.

Here are just a few examples of work I’ve done recently:

- 5,700 words – Translation of marketing campaign for international brand (EMEA region)
- 10,000 words – Reconciliation of forward and back translation – interviews for medical investigation
- 2,000 words – Translation of cosmetic products description for a cosmetics brand
- 14,700 words – Quality management/proofreading of clinical study material
- 6,500 words – Translation of supplier’s agreement for an international utility
- 4,900 words – Partial translation of a tender in the energy industry (split rush job)
- 35,000 words – Quality management – internal training documents for a large international services organization
- 7,000 words – Translation of proposal for a marketing campaign