Note: This blog post was originally written in Japanese for our Japanese website. We used our machine translation platform Translation Designer to translate it and post-edit the content in English. The original Japanese post can be found here.
Have you ever daydreamed of how a day would go by if you had a different job? Let's experience it a bit in this post! Being in charge of quality assurance (QA) at a translation company might not be your dream profession, but it's still interesting to know how others go about their day.
QA is a vital part of professional translation services. Our specialists perform various tasks in order to achieve quality that satisfies our customers. They include writing work instructions for translators, evaluating project workflows, answering questions that come from translators and reviewers, maintaining project specific terminology, and even doing small translation work or translation reviews themselves. QA specialists are working on multiple projects at the same time. From large-scale projects that last for several months to daily projects that come in every morning to be delivered within the same day — it's quite multitasking!
In this post, we would like to introduce a day in the life of Kawamura's QA specialist. As many of our team members have been working from home even before the pandemic, this is her typical day of remote working regardless of our current environment. To get the feel of experiencing a day as one of our members, everything in the following timeline will be written in first person!
■ 5:00 AM — Rise and shine
I pack lunch for my kid in a bento box. I'm grateful that I have time to take care of things at home before work because I don't have to commute.
■ 8:40 AM — Start working
I check emails and plan the day's schedule according to requests and priorities among projects. For daily projects from our overseas customers, what's written in their emails decides our day's work. So, it's a scary moment every morning when opening the emails. I share my work schedule of the day to colleagues.
■ 9:15 AM — Review translations
I resume a review of translation that I started yesterday. Unfortunately, there are many errors. I need to send feedback to the translator.
■ 11:00 AM — Check deliverables
I do final checks of translation quality before a delivery for another project. This includes a final inspection of the translation, confirming whether it meets the specifications and the customer's request, and checking translation memos that will be included in the deliverables. It's very important to stay focused whenever you check deliverables, no matter how experienced you are.
■ 11:45 AM — Lunch break
I take a lunch break at the same time as my colleagues who work at the office.
■ 12:45 PM — Prepare for new project
Since I received a new project request from one of our project managers, I start preparing for the project. Good preparation is the key to a successful project. I put together work instructions, check the files to be translated, and see if there are glossaries or translation memories that we can use. I had some questions about the requested specifications, so I call the project manager. Because I didn't quite understand how to use a certain translation tool, I ask to share screen on our video call. The project manager goes through the steps on the screen, and everything is clear now.
■ 3:00 PM — Team meeting
I join our weekly team meeting.
■ 3:30 PM — Send newsletter
I get a message from our customer about a regular project. It seems like some translated terms were updated. I write and send out a newsletter to notify our translators and reviewers who are part of the project. We send a newsletter about once a month to share project information such as customer preferences, terms to watch out, customer product outlines, and tips on how to use computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools.
■ 4:00 PM — Answer questions from translators
I answer an email from a translator who had questions about how to handle tags in the CAT tool editor. We always try to reply immediately so that translators can keep on working without interruption.
■ 5:00 PM — Deliver project
I perform a final check of translation quality for a project that we support on a daily basis. I check once again to see if I've covered everything that was due today. I also make sure that I've responded to all my emails.
■ 6:15 PM — Report to manager
I report on the day's work to my manager. Before logging off, I check tomorrow's schedule.
■ 6:30 PM — Wrap up work
If I still have some work left, I'll take a short break here and come back later to finish.
In this post, we introduced a day in the life of Kawamura's QA specialist working from home. She said that having collaboration apps now makes everything better. It's easier to interact with team members, and the share screen feature can solve most of the problems even when there is a possible miscommunication. However, she warned not to get too comfy and to get some exercise. Apparently, the lack of exercise is her current biggest issue working from home!
Kawamura's translation services
Kawamura International is ISO 17100 certified, which is an international standard for translation, and provides professional translation services based on the international standard.
We cover industries such as IT, software localization, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, tourism, manufacturing, finance, legal affairs, SAP-related documents, and all other general business documents. We assign the most suited translator according to your industry and specialty. Since our translators are all experienced professional translators who have cleared our screening standards, you can rest assured in terms of quality.
Feel free to reach out to us if you need professional translation services or have any other questions about translation and localization services in general.
