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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dioltach" data-source="post: 6237938" data-attributes="member: 21843">So how do you earn your money? Are you happy doing it? Is your job something you always dreamed of doing?Also: how did you get into it? Is your job the logical step after your education, or did you study something completely different? Did you get a lucky break, or did you have to fight hard to get your job?Myself, I'm a freelance translator. Dutch into English, mostly legal, financial, B2B stuff. It's not what I always dreamed of doing (fighter pilot and writer were my two preferred choices, as I recall), but I'm good at it and, as they say, it's indoor work with no heavy lifting.I have an MA in English Language & Literature, with the main focus (there were no majors/minors or things like that at my university) on Middle English chivalric romances and poetry. It used to annoy me when people assumed that because I was studying English I'd go into translating or teaching. I figured I'd get a job in publishing, but soon after I graduated I got a phonecall: an acquaintance had passed on my name to an office of Coopers & Lybrand who were looking for a translator/editor. I went along and started almost the next day. I moved up and on for a few years, learning quite a bit about finance and law, then got engaged to a coworker and decided the time was right to freelance. That was 11 years ago, and I have to say I enjoy it. The hours are long, but the income is above average and the Dutch tax systems offers quite a few tax breaks to small businesses.</blockquote>

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