I am inclined to emphasize directness and clarity in my writing while remaining true to any critical nuances in the source text. This has naturally oriented my professional focus towards the technical, scientific, legal and medical fields (as opposed to marketing/sales, literature, poetry).
Most of my work is IT>EN, but my extensive background in FR, ES, DE and RU has proven invaluable for 'triangulating' the nuances of any one of these languages into my native English.

TECHNICAL - bolstered by my lifelong enthusiasm for tinkering, including carpentry, bricklaying, tiling and metalwork (much of this while in Italy for 10 years). This is coupled with more refined work - ranging from computer programming (AI) in college to continuous tinkering with the strapless wearable 'desk' I designed to optimize the ergonomics of my home-based work station (sit, stand or pace at will, with no break in the work flow - see photo below). Structure, materials, fittings, mechanics... Much of my initial translation work, years ago, was for solar power plants, railway engineering/communications, and local server setups, and highway safety, and seaport construction, and...

SCIENTIFIC - is more intellectual, and for me it started out with advanced biology, physics, chemistry and math in high school, followed by a BS in Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences at Brown University. Scientific method remained a core issue in the social sciences in graduate school (UC-Berkeley), where I continued studying languages and international politics (I also have a BA in International Relations from Brown). My very first translation work was for (the brilliant, generous and supportive) Prof. Antonino Zichichi - some of his writings on the 'culture of science' - plus some healthcare sociology and air/water quality studies, not to mention the national census a few years later.

LEGAL/administrative - is a specialty I began to acquire, by necessity, while living in Italy for 10 years. Dealing with customs, immigration and residency, purchasing homes, filing taxes, running businesses, entering into contracts, the whole gamut. I lived the 'fine print' and legal nuances firsthand as I refined the subtleties of my Italian over the years. Early on I did a great deal of translation work (at slave rates) for Italy's national judicial administration and anti-monopoly authorities. The legal field has also been the focus (60%?) of my IT>EN translation work for the last 3 or 4 years - Supreme Court rulings, tax audits, court depositions, writs and injunctions, corporate financial statements, contracts, corporate bylaws, etc.

MEDICAL - while taking neuroscience, psychology and linguistics courses back at Brown, I was also training in martial arts with a former NJ State Trooper who had 'gone back to school', medical school at Brown, to become a general surgeon. He actively applied his growing medical/anatomical/physiological knowledge base to the physical techniques he was teaching us. This biological perspective on martial arts gradually diverted me towards physical health practices (chi gung, Tai Chi, bodywork), and I eventually became a certified, practicing massage therapist (requiring even more study of anatomy and physiology). Ten years of depending on the Italian medical system for the birth of our child and all the other bumps and bruises along the way was another valid input, of course. Lately the 'tides' of my work flow have been shifting, tentatively, towards medical - mostly SAE reports and clinical trial agreements.

The big decision in 2008 was whether to go back to school to become an osteopathic physician or to dive into my translation work full-time - the latter was a more 'mobile' profession, and was already paying most of my bills... and I have always loved to write.

N.B. - my "credential" with AITI is that I passed the IT>EN translation test for 'technical' work in 2008. I did not pass the test for 'politics', though, which was more rhetorical and journalistic than the American-style 'social sciences' in my background, so I failed to become an actual AITI member. Shortly thereafter (2010) I reestablished residency in the US, which meant that I no longer qualified to re-apply for AITI membership. IMAGES OF ACTUAL TECHNICAL TEST AND RESULTS, BELOW. This was a timed test, we were given 3 hours to do two tests online with internet resources at our disposal.