A normal working day and my tasks

Hello everyone,

In this blogpost I would like to tell you something about a normal working day and my tasks and activities.

Normally I get up at 7 o’clock so that I can catch the bus around 8 o’clock. Then it takes me about 1 hour and 15 min to get to the office. In the office, I change my shoes and turn on my computer :) First, I always check our email inbox and then I start to work on my projects.

The process of a project is the following:

1. The client writes an email with a request for a translation or comes into the office.

2. I save his documents in our explorer and upload them in Odoo, it’s our main programme. Odoo creates a quote and I have to check if the word count is correct. Because Odoo converts the document which I uploaded to a word document and takes the word count from it but sometimes the conversion is really bad so I have to check it. When everything is correct, I can send the quote to the client.

3. The client has to pay for the translation in advance. As soon as we got his payment I can go ahead.

4. In our translator database I have to find a translator. Normally we use translators who are native speakers in the language which is requested. As soon as I find one I write them an email with the rates I can offer, the deadline and the document which needs to be translated. If I don’t get an answer from the translator, I have to text or call him or at worst I have to find someone else. If it isn’t an urgent project the translator has usually 2-3 working days to finish the translation.

5. When I get back the translated document I have to do the review or if it is a translation from English into another language I have to find a reviewer. The review is something I really like to do, especially if it is a German or Dutch translation because then I can use my English the best way. When I’m sure that everything is correct, I do the formatting, put our company footer on and send it, for a final look, to one of our project managers.

6. If the translated document is finished I can print it out and stamp it with our company stamp so that it is certified. Then I can print out a cover letter, send it to the client and hope that he’s happy with it :)

These are my main tasks. In addition, I’m responsible for the reception as there are phone calls or people who are coming in to collect a document or sometimes there are interpreters who have an interview. I also have to look after the invoices from our translators so that they receive their salary at the end of the month.

And as soon as I finished all these things I can go home, usually at 6 o’clock :)

I hope you now have a little idea about what I’m doing all day long.

Kind regards,

Céline