About Petra

Born and raised in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, I successfully completed my bank training in 1976 after finishing high school in 1974.

After I had resigned from my training bank in 1978, I was employed with two US-American banks in Frankfurt, Mellon Bank N.A. and Irving Trust co. (now: The Bank of New York) in the period of 1978 until late 1983, mainly in the documentary credit department. At  Mellon Bank N.A. (1980) I was in charge of translations for the change in computer and operating systems for the entire branch in Frankfurt during a period of 4 months. At Irving Trust Co. my main responsibilities were the processing and handling of documentary letters of credit, which included close co-operation with the New York based head office as well as translation tasks.

During the years of 1984 until late 1993 my priorities lay with my family - although I never neglected to maintain and expand my knowledge of the English language.

Late 1993 the time had come for my comeback to the professional world - at first in the form of a part-time job as clerk, secretary and translator for a small office equipment company, whose business activities were mainly focused on English-speaking countries.

In 1999 I started with my studies to take the translator exam at the Institute for Industry and Commerce fiw in Frankfurt/Main and the Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Wiesbaden/Germany. Both exams had been successfully passed in the year 2000, the Chamber of Commerce & Industry exam in Wiesbaden with excellence.

During all my previously mentioned working years, the professional tasks were always linked to translations. Prior to going freelance in February 2002 I was employed as an in-house translator with a German/American company for 2 years.