Having completed a contract as a translator in Madrid, Niamh Lynch has been taking a break while planning her next move. A choice of jobs Well, my life of leisure is coming to an end. My mum is going home tomorrow, and my boyfriend is coming to visit next week, but on the 24th April, I stop ‘doing lunch’ and start a new job.
In the end, the real choice was only between two of the four interviews - both of the translator/writer jobs. Of the other two, one still hasn’t got back to me, and the other is a job I think I might find less than exciting, translating patents (although the interviewer pointed out that translating patents is a skilful business, and that for the first, ooh, four years or so, I would only actually get to translate communication between people who were talking about translating patents…) The new job is looking good, and I’m happy to start it. I chose it over the other, almost identical job because it is easier to get to, and they are offering me a proper contract, un contrato fijo, something a bit like the holy grail in Spain. Employers know that good jobs are scarce over here, and exploit it by offering contracts to 35-year-old managers that 18-year-old supermarket bag packers would laugh at in other countries. Two-year temporary contracts, working as a freelance contractor (in any area, not just translation) but coming into the office every day and charging ‘fees’ up to a pre-specified ‘salary’ are not unusual here. In other words, contracts that offer the employer all of the benefits without any of the problems associated with employees such as health insurance, legal holiday requirements and other normal entitlements are really popular. A sense of humour tooThe new job is right in the city centre, is from 08.00 - 14.00 every day and will hopefully see me writing and translating away to my heart’s content. They seem like nice people, and when you enter the office offer you water, coffee, a coke or a giant chocolate coin, which at least shows they have a sense of humour (at least I think it does). On their website they state that in 15 years of business only one person has ever left to join another company, which seems promising (even though a friend did cruelly ask if they had made available information about the numbers of employees, say, throwing themselves under a metro or leaving to enter a mental hospital…) All the freelancing work has taken a back seat while mum has been here, as I decided it would. I have one giant job in the background, but am chipping away at it bit by bit. It is a nightmare, a horrible mishmash of translation, proofreading and searching for already translated phrases, but the client knows that, and is paying good money for my troubles. Today, however, there is still a last-minute dash of sightseeing to be done - my mum would never forgive me if we didn't spend at least some time oohing and ahing over a Goya or two in the Prado..... Share your comments about Niamh's blog Read Niamh's previous job logs |
