technical experience

I’m a technical translator with business and technical experience in information systems development, ten years as a freelancer running a video transfer business and as an Excel teacher. I lived and worked in France for eighteen years until 2018, and in the UK for fourteen years in all.

Experience in development, business analysis and project management relevant to technical translation

Database and KPI manager

It was a great sense of achievement to develop the purchasing database for a large computer manufacturer, with a complex data process. I integrated forecast and production data from multiple sources in marketing, production, and purchasing.

Managing a purchasing database for a large computer assembly company

12 buyers entered purchasing price data manually for use by procurement to pass supplier orders and by marketing to cost future products. Purchasing used it to measure supplier quality and identify areas for improvement.

My role was to collect and import the data, develop and maintain the import process, and produce the necessary data for KPIs. I collated product road maps for significant components and identified purchasing requirements for the corporate PeopleSoft implementation.

Year 2000 Business Analyst

I was responsible for analysing PC applications for Year 2000 compatibility in a large insurance company, to determine the importance of each, and whether to scrap, retain, or redevelop.

Analysis of Y2000 applications to determine whether to scrap, redevelop or retain

Development Project coordinator

I spent three months organising development projects in Access for another insurance company.

Project coordination to determine the appropriate development tasks

Supply Chain and ERP experience

odoo

Working with PC database applications has taught me the need to be organised and the importance of structured tools such as Odoo.

I understand the need for ‘proper’ communication between management and staff, to communicate schedules, plan development.

I learned about the need for rigour and organization in development work. It also developed my creativity, dealing with continually moving goalposts.

I spent four years providing data processing services from multiple streams into a single corporate database for use by purchasing, procurement, and marketing.

Functional Requirements Analyst

We use UML techniques for functional requirements’ analysis of operational contexts through use cases, class diagrams, and relational data structures.

Our involvement can take different forms. We can be involved in modelling requirements with business actors, in data modelling, or in data processing.

Data processing services:

data processing services

Technical Experience as an Independent

Later, I started to focus on organizing as the central theme. It is easier to generate ideas than to implement them.

experience organising work and tasks with kanban

As a freelancer, I need to stay focused on the essential everyday work and yet manage strategic development.

There are multiple continuous threads. It is pointless trying to progress more than a handful of projects at any one time, although it is easy to think up hundreds of ideas to develop.

Technical experience as a Video Technician

I started a small media company to transfer a wide range of analogue film formats (videotapes, audio tapes, and Super 8) to DVD, CD, or USB keys. We duplicated all types of digital media: CDs, DVDs, SD cards, floppy disks, and Iomega ZIP discs.

I edited digital video for events, which sometimes required colour and exposure correction, reduction of long films, or compiling photo slideshows. I now transcribe video into text for English translation and video subtitling.

The challenge was to decide what equipment to invest in, based on customer feedback and my vision of the developing market. I began to offer translation services to increase turnover but found video subtitling and transcription at the intersection of video and translation.

How technical experience relates to translation

As a translator, I specialize in subjects in which I have some experience, but other learned skills are also useful. For instance, the technical experience of development teaches precision, down to the last character. Grammar, spell-checking, and phraseology need detailed attention. But most of all, it requires spending just a little extra time, and an eye for detail.

technical experience

The expertise in management helps in managing priorities in everyday work, and provides valuable insights useful when translating management content.

My contact with purchasing, engineering, procurement, and marketing has helped me understand the challenges of supply chain management. I went on an eighteen-month supply chain training course and worked in a factory that was rebuilt from the ground up.

My technical experience in Access development helped me develop a Technical Translation Terms database to manage technical terms in current projects and make them available in future projects.

Relevance of Technical Experience

I carried out several projects on document management, from which I developed a document management glossary, which falls into my information systems specialization. I understand the need for documentation and what it means to acquire and manage a document management system.

Technical Experience

Producing detailed reporting for management has given me vital insights into the process. Managing and producing end-of-year accounts have helped me deal with accounting subjects.

Having managed several websites, I have experience in producing marketing text for a site and the rules of SEO (with the help of tools such as Rankmath).

As a business analyst, I learned how to document methods and systems and gained an understanding of the use of such documentation both for business and in development teams.

My video and technical experience are valuable when doing subtitling, video editing, and transcription work. My eighteen years living in France help when trying to understand even technical texts.

Developing transcreation

And finally, I enjoy words and composing text. Words have become my work. I have spoken French since the age of thirteen, and I came back to work in languages even after my studies in the sciences and in IT.

Developing translation and content creation

I offer a range of translation-related services (technical translation, transcription, and subtitling). I am interested in artistic and subtitling projects that intersect with my multimedia experience and interests.

Recently, I was involved in an exciting project for a service provider offering interactive, immersive multimedia services to a museum.

I worked on a labour of love project to subtitle the masterclass for a well-known writer in France. Multimedia, cultural, and artistic work is my new direction. I hope to build on this technical experience.