I have worked in a wide range of fields up until now, and that gives me a flexibility and willingness to take on new subjects. I worked my way through college at a garden center, and that gave me a great deal of knowledge of plants, agriculture, pesticides, etc. After that, I worked for four years in telephone support for America Online, gaining more technical knowledge.
I did a six-month internship in 2003 in Paris with IPAC, a translation company specialiizing in Medical/Pharmaceutical translations, before returning for my Master's at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
Since granduation, I have been freelancing and working in the property management field, expanding my vocabulary in the fields of real estate and also construction terminology (maintenance, renovations, etc.).

This may sound like a no-brainer, but I feel my translation abilities boil down to two things: understanding the French, and then expressing that in English. I am constantly working to expand my knowledge of French, as well as learning as much new vocabulary as I can in my native language.