Is interpreting and translation a job that you can do wherever you are?
It depends. It is true that I travel a lot. Both for work and leisure. Sometimes for a nice blend of the two.
Most of my translation assignments give me the freedom of moving around Italy and the world. But not all of them. Sworn translation, for example, is restricted to Rome and Bari, where the two courts where I swear my translations are located.
As for conference interpreting, I mostly work in Rome, where I live, and sometimes in Bari too, where I was born. That’s because I definitely prefer in person conference interpreting than remote simultaneous interpreting, even though I do accept RSI assignments for the sake of my trusted clients.
Finally, when it comes to community interpreting, my services are still required in person, to comply with the UNHCR standards.
Overall, this means that I work in Rome 80% of the time, but I do try to divert most of my jobs to Bari over the summer for a healthy bit of South Working.
This year I attended the Bansko Nomad Fest for the first time, where a pool of digital nomads meet every year to share experiences, tips, and techniques. I was quite surprised to find very few translators there. Perhaps, translation is not as location-free as we might think after all.
