My name is Yuka Fujii, born and raised in Japan, currently living in Spain.
I have lived and worked in USA, Qatar, Singapore, Luxembourg, Spain and UAE.

I started my ‘international life’ by taking a year off from my university in Tokyo and going to Seattle, Washington in the USA to study. That single year definitely helped me to brush up my English and gave me a taste of living in another country.

When I graduated from university, I went to Qatar to work. It was supposed to be a ‘one year job’, but I enjoyed it so much I ended up staying there for 5 and a half years! What I loved about the Middle East is the diversity. 95% of the population there consists of expats, and you literally meet people from every part of the world.
And what’s amazing is that I kept all of my cherished friendships and connections from that time up until now.

As I moved and changed countries so many times in my life, being able to self-sustain myself regardless of the place or regardless of the languages spoken where I lived became a very important factor to my survival, and so I started to work as a freelancer.

My business development experience in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe has helped me expand my career and I always love working to build a bridge/partnership between Japanese companies and non-Japanese companies. I truly enjoy creating that connection between two parties!

As part of my business development work, I have presented companies at many exhibitions around the world, and I always like challenging myself to do something new even if that new thing scares me. One of those scary times was when I had to present a company in front of 400 people.

On my personal side of life, I enjoy very much going on adventures, learning new cultures, and sports! Freelance jobs give me the freedom to pursue those adventures.

There are many ways to work but I love being able to have control over choosing my own projects. Market research, business development and translation work can be in many different industries and cover different topics. Every time I need to work on something new, it is very interesting and gives me a new learning experience to add to my foundation of knowledge.

When I started to work with Workshift I first applied for a job, was hired, and everything went so smoothly for me from making the contract through to payment. Communication was very smooth and I am really happy about the experience and I hope to keep working with Workshift on many more projects!
I am eager to expand my expertise as a freelancer and look forward to challenge myself in new types of work as well.