5 Details Worth Explaining About my Exciting Freelance Translator Life

I love my job.

No, I’m not being ironic. Yes, I do realize this statement may sound incongruous in 2025—the Great Resignation and the quiet quitting trend were just yesterday, after all.

But I’m lucky, I stumbled upon a fulfilling career.

And yes, I do have a job. Occasionally, I get a resentful comment on this blog, usually accusing me of “always being on vacation while my husband is slaving at home.” Well, dear hateful reader, I’m not vacationing, I’m travelling. And I’m working on the road—in fact, I’m rarely not working, which is good because I don’t exactly have a trust fund.

Some members of my French family also strongly doubt that I’m working. “You have no idea what you’re talking about!” a close relative shouted over the phone during a particularly heated argument. “You don’t even have a job!”

“I don’t have a job?” I laughed. “How do you think I earn a living? Selling my body?”

It became a running joke with my mum. “I’m going out for a walk, fully dressed, not working overtime tonight!”

But seriously, people, I have a job, even though I live in shorts and unprofessional tops on one continent or another, even though I don’t have Zoom meetings or a manager, even though I often work unconventional hours. I pay taxes, I pay myself a monthly salary, and I occasionally pay other people who help out on big projects. I meet deadlines, deliver press releases, edit magazines, proofread ads, tweak position statements, and generally make clients happy.

And I’m not a sex worker. I’m a translator, editor, copywriter, whatever—basically, I pick and reorder words to make proper sentences.

I’m always curious about other people’s jobs—what you guys do for a living, how you work, the best and worst part of your day, how you feel about your career and why you work where you work.

Maybe you’re curious about my job. If so, keep reading!

“Word” is a legit unit

Some professionals speak in dollars, tables, beds, kilometres or clauses. My default unit is the word. I charge per word and I guesstimate my workload based on work counts.

How many words did you fit into this last-minute, 50-slide PowerPoint presentation? How many words is your “pretty short” newsletter? Yes, it will take me more than the evening to translate your 10,000-word paper—as a rule of thumb, I can handle around 2,000 words a day…

As long as the deadline is reasonable, I like documents full of words. Words are money.

And on a side note, character limits in social media are the bane of my existence. I can’t help it, everything is longer in French—would you be okay with a translation in Mandarin instead? How do my German colleagues do??

Work is very unpredictable

Freelance work is organized chaos. I never know when I will get work, who will send it, and what I will be working on. I also suspect my clients have a secret code word to send me their most urgent assignments all at once.

I like the “surprise!” aspect of my job… but of course, I’m anxious when it’s mysteriously quiet because there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it.

Being curious is a good thing

I work for very different clients who work in very different fields. This is one of the reasons why I chose to freelance—I’m not focusing on a single industry, I get to explore different worlds.

I developed strong research skills because I have to quickly document myself on very different subjects—cybersecurity, the latest bill, social issues, product development, awards and conventions and more. I jump from a travel article on Kazakhstan to activities for kids, from indigenous issues to product descriptions.

I know some news because it makes news. I know what the C-suite will tell employees. And occasionally, I have to pause and cry because some topics are heavy.

AI isn’t my new best teammate

I don’t just glance at the source document on the right half of the screen and type the translation—I constantly pause to check the name of a program in French, the accepted terminology, someone’s job title, etc.

Google used to be my best friend. Now, Google is like “Fuck if I know, why don’t you just click on random sponsored answers instead?” The new AI search feature is a mess, ads are being prioritized over search results and I’m constantly invited to “Search instead for…”.

AI isn’t killing my job in the translation industry—for now, it just makes it more difficult.

No manager doesn’t mean no pressure

First, if I don’t work, I don’t get paid, which is very inconvenient because, in today’s society, a good credit score is more valuable than bartering skills.

Second, I often have to meet very tight deadlines and be ready whenever my clients are. I’m not part of the team but I’m supposed to read everybody’s mind. I should know that Cindy is very picky about typography and that Jen hates the Oxford comma. Oh, and they spell it like this now, which they decided at the last meeting you weren’t invited to!

“Of course!” I usually reply, mentally note-taking and reorganizing my schedule. I want my clients to like me. We didn’t sign a contract, so they can keep me on their freelancer list or just stop sending work at any time without notice.

I’m always behind the scenes

If you’re in Canada and if you speak French, chances are you’ve read something I translated.

In a way, I’m a bit of a ghostwriter. I’m rarely credited. My name is listed on a few mastheads, and you’ll find me in various papers, magazines and books, that’s it. I think I have more photo credits floating around than translation or copywriting credits!

How about you? What are you work secrets?