During my studies I spent the summer holidays in England, working in youth hostels. That helped to improve my English. After my teacher's training I taught German as a foreign language and began my career as a translator. I had the great opportunity of working as an inhouse translator for a large IT company and started serious translation work. I also acquired hands-on experience in that area and established first business contacts. Some of the customers I met then are still relying on my services as a translator. I think I belonged to the first translators to use a CAT tool when Trados was launched - a great development. Since then I've tried some more CAT tools and find them a great help in some cases.