Dear Workshift Users, I am writing this story, my life story, at the AirFrance business lounge while waiting for my plane from Paris to Rome. It is not my first visit to France and the reason for visiting France is, in fact, connected to Japan and my multilingual mediating skills. I was attending the famous Phenix circus Festival Mondial De Demian 40th anniversary, helping a Japanese partner select the brightest shows for the Shizuoka Daidogei street festival and to negotiate with the artists. So literally, the current page of my life is burlesque colorful, like sparkling wine provided by the main sponsor.

  I still remember the day back in 2003, it was my father’s birthday when I informed my family about getting my first working visa to Japan and a week later the airplane touched down in Tokyo.
  A year before, in 2002, I had acquired a Master’s degree in International Economics Relations and Japanese Language Arts. Six years earlier, in 1997, I had entered Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Institute of International Relations in the Ukraine, and decided to study Japanese.

  Working, studying, traveling, in total I spent 7 years of my life in Japan, including 4 years at the United States Army Garrison at Japan’s Camp Zama military base, and 3 years working full time at the marketing department for Russia and Eastern Europe countries at the international telecommunication company office in Tokyo.

  I have experience in Project Management, successfully completed the First Ukrainian Project at the 49th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia, Italy. Also, for 8 years now, since 2010, I have been officially employed by a Japanese Embassy abroad in the Ukraine, as a researcher and Diplomat Assistant for the Political Department.

  I feel quite a bit Japanized in many ways. The country of the Rising Sun had an obvious influence on shaping my personality. My eyes truly become wet observing the last sakura bloom, dropping from the cherry trees with the spring the breeze.

  I have traveled the world, hugged koala bears and kangaroos in Australia, visited weddings in Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, and of course in Japan. I have visited almost all the European countries including the smallest Luxemburg and Monaco, and explored the USA from New York to Honolulu.

  I have been professionally engaged for years in administration and office management, customer service, customs clearance, journalism, and editing. But I am a linguist in my heart. Each time standing on the metro platform in a new city, I cannot stop myself from identifying the languages spoken around.

  If people near me are speaking one of my working languages (English, Japanese, Ukrainian, Russian, Polish or Dutch), I keep translating to another language in my head. That was advice I received from my old teacher when I was a student. I still find that advice very helpful to improve my interpreting skills and I am happy to pass that advice on to a new generation of translators and freelancers. Never let yourself relax by how cool your occupation title might be, always keep studying new things in your sphere of expertise.

  I have been in and out of freelancing for almost 20 years, since 1999, and was able to fill the gaps in my full-time employment career with it, when I wanted to be away from routine office life and travel more or stay home with my kids.

  Freelancing and remote jobs are great for work-family balance in life, and in my opinion it is perfectly suited for creative people, it gives more flexibility, with less physical, mental and emotional pressure. More importantly, freelancing can bring more inspiration and passion to the job.

  The biggest benefit of freelancing is the freedom to choose clients, projects and location. For example, you can choose where to have your “laptop-lifestyle”. Of course, cooperation with Workshift is providing all the mentioned above advantages. Those are the reasons why I joined Workshift and do connect my future with freelancing.

  The core benefit of working with this company is not only the obvious positive sides of being a self-employed entrepreneur. Workshift also covers well the possible disadvantages, the dark side of freelancing, because your pay is guaranteed before the work is delivered to the client. Then after the job is done, checked, and delivered you just transferring the money to your bank account in Japan or any other convenient bank account in the world. It is awesome! Historically, name and reputation carry huge significance in Japan. Luckily this remains true in the modern business reality of Japan. Workshift is worth your trust, whether you are a Japanese client or, like me, an outsourced foreign worker.