One of the stories in the Torah tells that Joseph is asked to interpret a dream of Pharaoh about seven fat cows and seven lean cows. Joseph tells Pharaoh that the seven cows are seven years of plenty, and the seven lean cows are seven years of hunger.
As I had expected, December and January were slower months for my business. The holiday season and the winter months are usually the slowest times of the year for translators.
I did my homework and thought I had it all covered. Then, February and March have continued that trend because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to this situation, translators are increasingly seeing a reduction in work, which will be significantly exacerbated as businesses seek to cut costs in response to their loss of revenue.
While I’m happy to have some work, I’ve been making half of what I usually do. Additionally, one of my best clients announced that they are closing their translation department at the end of this month.
Meanwhile, I’ve been contacting non-regular clients and reaching out to potential ones to increase my workload. I’ve also been applying for part-time jobs in the linguistic field to ensure that I can make ends meet.
I’m very grateful to those of you who have reached out to me with referrals and recommendations. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any results yet. Whether it’s contract or employment, full-time or part-time, on-site or remote, I need more work.
While I’m positive that this is temporary and things will eventually go back to normal, the reality is that I have bills to pay – like everybody. That’s why I’d like to ask you for:
recommendations (write one for me on LinkedIn or send it to me via email – I could also use it for my website)
referrals (if you can’t take projects or have said no to a client, give them my contact data – what might not work for you could work for me)
support (likes, comments, shares here or on any social media – any gesture is truly appreciated)
To those who don’t know me yet, I’m an ATA-certified translator (English into Spanish) who also translates into Catalan—the language of my place of origin. I began providing language services in 2004. These services include translation, interpretation, transcreation, localization, subtitling, and transcription.
For 10+ years, I worked for the financial and IT sectors in Spain. In 2010, I graduated from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona with a licentiate degree (equivalent to a master’s) in Translation and Interpretation. Right after that, I began working as a freelance translator part-time.
Relocating to the US in 2016 allowed me to freelance full-time and specialize in the healthcare industry. My body of work includes translating medical histories, patient forms, legal and financial agreements, and marketing and educational materials.
Last year, I worked on almost 400 projects for 12 different clients:
Feel free to reach out to me if you need references.
Thank you for reading, sharing, and/or helping!