Last week we bid adieu to lovely Jagoda who had completed her four-month work placement at Mastermind Translations. Making the transition from university to the world of work is never easy, but it can be a very rewarding and truly motivating experience for a young professional trying to find his or her feet in the translation industry. Read on to find out what Jagoda thought of her first taste of working as a specialist translator at Mastermind Translations.
On a particularly gloomy November night, MA Translation students came to their evening class at London Metropolitan University to listen to me speak about specialising in medical and pharmaceutical translation. After my two-hour lecture, Jagoda was particularly keen to learn the tricks of the trade and with the help of her mentor we arranged for her to join our small team at Mastermind Translations in February this year.
Jagoda took to the job like a duck to water and quickly developed skills she needed to help us deliver even the most challenging projects. As she soon discovered, there is more to translation that meets the eye. However, Jagoda welcomed the opportunity to get an insight into our everyday work and did not shy away from other linguistic tasks. Her most valuable contribution is a Translation Memory (TM) she has built from a set of pharmaceutical and biotechnology patent applications our team has translated over the past few years. Jagoda also tried her hand at translating patient literature which she really enjoyed.
Here is what she says about her experience at Mastermind Translations: ‘I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Kasia and her team over the past four months. There is no better way to start a translation career than learning by doing and this on-the-job experience gave me exclusive access to a successful translation business. Working with medical and pharmceutical documents is very challenging. To be able to produce a reliable translation, you need to know the subject matter very well. In addition, you need to be aware of regulated terminology and writing conventions used in some pharmaceutical documents. There is a lot to take in! I felt especially motivated by the Mastermind Translations team’s strong work ethics and commitment to professional standards. I will make sure these core values are reflected in my own work as a professional translator.’
We wish Jagoda best of luck with her final MA project and look forward to continuing working with her on a freelance basis.
