Third time's a charm

Well on the last day of summer for 2012 I feel that the sun is shining on my job as well as on my washing outside...

Since my last blog the jobs have been coming on rather nicely; one job to to translate extracts of a wedding speech and the second is for a project I am to be the editor of for a company in America - a project of no less than 17,700 words; so I'm thinking this one probably won't be done in less than two hours...

I also never realised that there was actual translation software out there - my thoughts were always, well I've got my laptop (ie. word reference) and I've got my dictionary, what more could I possibly need?! However, I have found that with this new software, you can translate an entire document and the database will log every word/sentence so that you never have to look up of repeat the same thing twice. It's all very new to me and I will be the first to admit that I am slightly overwhelmed by it all but I sort of feel like I'm now a professional as I have this MemoQ tool on my computer. I also got called a businesswoman yesterday....seriously. 

Today marks yet another momentous event for the business - I finally get a real desk to work at as opposed to breaking my back over the lowest coffee table ever made everyday, AND I may even go and get myself an office chair from Staples as the last one I had my eye on (mentioned in my first blog) was cruelly taken from me in a bidding war at an auction...

So as we go in to September, things are (at the moment) looking rather rosy. Right, I must get back to working out how this MemoQ software works or I may not have a job after all.

Á bientôt mes amis!

Bank Holiday Blog

So this is the second instalment of my blog and unfortunately there is not an awful lot of news to report. Apart from sending proposals for jobs on websites I have not got any business of my own at the moment so things are rather slow and my days consist of watching Friends re-runs, baking and sending proposals to translation sites. Hardly ideal but the possibility of gaining some work and also all the cakes makes it more bearable. Also, I just about have a logo for the site and the business cards will be soon to follow on from that so progress is being made. It's just frustrating not doing any work - never thought I would want to work as much as I do now. Being self-employed with no work is driving me mad and I cannot wait to get that first cheque through the post to be paid to "The French Translator".

Like I said before, I'll keep the blog up to date with news on the site and any work I get...so if you don't read anything for the next few weeks, you know why... 

Let's start at the very beginning....

17th August 2012

There is a well known film that uses the words "let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start"; well that, I suppose, is my philosophy on life at this precise moment. I am a 22 year old French Studies graduate and I am struggling to find a job. I imagine this is the same situation that many people my age are finding themselves in and it is, to say the least, frustrating. Apparently my issue is not my interview technique as I have been told this is very good, but rather my lack of work experience. So after each interview that is unsuccessful I ask myself "how am I supposed to gain any experience when nobody will give me that initial chance?" It is a vicious job circle that we are tangled up in at the moment and who knows when the economy will improve enough that we can start telling undergraduates that their £27,000 of tuition fees will be money well spent when they are guaranteeed to get a job after university?

So with frustration and disappointment in the air, I return to my inital quote, "let's start at the very beginning". As a french student, the career question that you get asked is not so much "what will you do after university?" but rather "are you going to teach or interpret after university?" Far be it from me to "rompre avec les habitudes", I always thought I would become a teacher (my Year Abroad in France would tell me that this was not to be). So after graduation I was stuck; no job prospects due to lack of aforementioned work experience led me to a decision I never even considered before - starting my own business.

Now I know very little about business and the way it works but I was assured that setting up on my own would be a lot easier than I first anticipated. So with some help from a rather clever chap I know who works in web design and seo services, I decided to become "The French Translator" (3 levels of translation, agricultural interpreting and tutoring - see facebook for more details). The business is still in its infancy at the moment but at least I now have a job and I am "something" as opposed to being "unemployed", and I will no longer feel like I am auditioning for a place on The Apprentice by going to an overly pretentious and competitive assessment day for a job I would hate anyway. I am my own boss which is something I really never thought I would be at the age of 22. However, I am not pretending that it will be all fun and games; I know it will be tough at times to find work and that not everyone wants their tourist leaflets translated into French or someone to travel to France with them to talk about sheep, but the main concept in my head at the moment is that I have a job and I will make it work in any way I can. Plus I can actually speak French, which is a help when setting up a business such as this, so surely it can't go too wrong...can it?

Anyway, this blog will keep you abreast of the business development and any work I get. I will make it as interesting as I can (although I am not sure how much I can make instruction manual translations fun...). In the meantime, keep reading this blog and the facebook page.

Right, I'm off to get myself an office chair (getting my priorities right, of course)

À bientôt mes amis!