Poll: Do you have more opportunities to travel than non-freelancers you know? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you have more opportunities to travel than non-freelancers you know?".
View the poll results »
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Not now! My circumstances have changed a lot! I lived alone in Brussels for 30 years but the fact that my children were in Lisbon made me travel at least every month until I retired from my job and decided to move back in 2015. I haven’t traveled since…
| | | | Axelle H. 
France
Local time: 21:46
English to French
Depends on the job of non-freelancers...If you are talking about in-house translator, I don't think they are traveling so much ??
| | | | | Not interested in travelling | Sep 26, 2018 |
But I undertood the question was about business travel. I'm quite fine with travelling on holidays.
Philippe
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Not anymore. When I was an in-house translator (two different international organizations), I traveled to almost every country in Latin America and several in Europe. In those days, headquarters translators were sent to every meeting. We often worked through the night to have documents ready for the delegates in the morning. As each page was produced (and checked by a senior reviewer), it would get passed on to the typing pool for retyping in the proper single-spaced format.
That wa... See more Not anymore. When I was an in-house translator (two different international organizations), I traveled to almost every country in Latin America and several in Europe. In those days, headquarters translators were sent to every meeting. We often worked through the night to have documents ready for the delegates in the morning. As each page was produced (and checked by a senior reviewer), it would get passed on to the typing pool for retyping in the proper single-spaced format.
That was before the Internet! My switch to freelancing coincided with introduction of the current practice of delivering electronic documents attached to emails.
So when Axelle H. wrote:
If you are talking about in-house translator, I don't think they are traveling so much ??,
there was a time when in-house translators got to travel a lot!
I might add that, because of my experience working for meetings, I was transitioned to précis-writing, which continued to involve some travel. But I gave that up some time ago. I find that traveling takes more out of me than it used to.
[Edited at 2018-09-26 09:37 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | It depends... | Sep 26, 2018 |
Axelle H. wrote:
Depends on the job of non-freelancers...If you are talking about in-house translator, I don't think they are traveling so much ??
A number of people working for the EU as in-house translators (I’m not talking of interpreters) have to travel a lot between the three places of work (Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg) for some meetings…
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I attend a couple of national and international conferences for translators every year
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 21:46
French to English
I don't see that the question is necessarily about business travel? Working in-house, I had to go to the firm's annual meeting, usually in the north of France but once in the Netherlands. I very occasionally had to work on-site for a client too. As a free-lancer, I don't particularly want to have to travel for business. I'll happily go to lunch with a client, and there's a friend who sometimes asks me to go over to her place for us to work together, it's also an excuse to see each other. If a c... See more I don't see that the question is necessarily about business travel? Working in-house, I had to go to the firm's annual meeting, usually in the north of France but once in the Netherlands. I very occasionally had to work on-site for a client too. As a free-lancer, I don't particularly want to have to travel for business. I'll happily go to lunch with a client, and there's a friend who sometimes asks me to go over to her place for us to work together, it's also an excuse to see each other. If a client started asking me to work at their place I would have to negotiate hard to be able to retain all the freedom of free-lancing, because no way could I go back to working 9-5 again.
As a free-lancer I can work wherever I happen to be, which suits me fine. I took the opportunity to stay with friends in July: they were having a big celebration and I was able to go for a week rather than just a quick weekend. Staying longer meant I could catch up with everyone properly, and actually relax and visit the area rather than just go to the party and come back exhausted with a backlog of work to get through. As an early riser, I did most of my work before any of my friends were even out of bed, then I could have fun with them once they'd had their coffee.
My partner will be retiring soon, and we hope to be able to travel a fair bit. So long as I have an Internet connection, I'm pretty easy as to destinations, and there's no limit as to how long we can stay anywhere (apart from money of course). ▲ Collapse
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Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 16:46
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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| Not translators. Interpreters maybe. | Sep 26, 2018 |
Opportunities to travel are more common to interpreters. Translators have less opportunities even to leave their own homes! The people who really have more opportunities to travel abroad are the rich ones, not the freelancers.
What we do have more than the others is the opportunity to move abroad. We can really live anywhere in the world, as long as there is an internet connection and a method to transfer money electronically from one currency/country to another.
[Edited at 2018-09-... See more Opportunities to travel are more common to interpreters. Translators have less opportunities even to leave their own homes! The people who really have more opportunities to travel abroad are the rich ones, not the freelancers.
What we do have more than the others is the opportunity to move abroad. We can really live anywhere in the world, as long as there is an internet connection and a method to transfer money electronically from one currency/country to another.
[Edited at 2018-09-26 15:25 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Since my work has been entirely freelance since 2002, I have been quite free to travel to the UK and to several countries in Europe (Rome, Central Italy, Portugal, Paris, Spain, Ireland, England, and Wales) whenever colleagues and clients have invited me to visit as their guest.
I find that most clients are very understanding when I tell them I won't be available for at least a few weeks.
[Edited at 2018-09-26 16:22 GMT]
| | | | Ricki Farn
Germany
Local time: 21:46
English to German
| Opportunities | Sep 26, 2018 |
I guess freelance translators can do anything from becoming digital nomads to growing roots on their butt.
One of the reasons I chose freelancing was the opportunity to avoid (business) travel, but I realize that the exact opposite is just as plausible.
| | | | | Since I can work from "anywhere" (at least in theory) - absolutely! | Sep 27, 2018 |
I took the poll question to be about traveling that isn't mandated by your job - but chosen/voluntary.
I'm much more flexible than my salaried husband, so I travelled to help my youngest settle in to university in Liverpool recently - and I travelled to help my oldest daughter when she had surgery in January in Oslo. A also spend at least a couple of weeks annually with my annually in my home town with my parents - all while working.
A few years back both kids were out of the house ... See more I took the poll question to be about traveling that isn't mandated by your job - but chosen/voluntary.
I'm much more flexible than my salaried husband, so I travelled to help my youngest settle in to university in Liverpool recently - and I travelled to help my oldest daughter when she had surgery in January in Oslo. A also spend at least a couple of weeks annually with my annually in my home town with my parents - all while working.
A few years back both kids were out of the house temporarily on exchanges, and I could travel to Belize 6 weeks. I'm also able to join my husband when he travels for work, at least once in a while, and we try to do a day or two extra for actual exploring of the place instead of just working both of us. ▲ Collapse
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