Klara M. left the office for a whole new world of remote work
After six years working at an academic institute in the Czech Republic, archaeologist Klara M. found herself at a crossroads. Though she enjoyed the editorial and translation aspects of her job, the rigid structure of office life began to feel confining. Then the 2020 pandemic hit, forcing a lockdown that prevented her from indulging in her true passion — travel.
"I was quite depressed not being able to take all my little trips. They really helped me make it through the year," Klara recalls. "The job started to feel like a prison." When employees were eventually called back to the office, she made a life-changing decision to leave her full-time position and pursue a remote, freelance career.
With this goal in mind, Klara moved to South America for a few months, determined to build a remote career doing translations. But like many who transition from traditional employment to freelancing, she quickly discovered the difficulties of establishing herself in a competitive marketplace.
"Before moving from a full-time position to freelancing, you need to build some kind of client network, which takes time," she explains. Without existing reviews on freelancing platforms, she looked like a beginner despite six years of professional translation experience. "I was just about to quit everything and go back to work in the office."
Everything changed in early 2024 when Klara spotted a posting on LinkedIn for an opportunity offering remote work with flexible hours and a chance to contribute to AI. The only requirements were fluency in Czech and English — languages she already spoke.
"It sounded too good to be true," she admits, "but I applied, completed the onboarding, and started tasking."
What followed was the discovery of "a whole new world," one that perfectly aligned with her desired lifestyle. "I log in whenever I want, which is amazing because sometimes I get busier with other projects and sometimes I don't have anything to do."
For Klara, the flexibility extends beyond just choosing which days to work.
"The most important thing is that I can work at any time during the day," she says. "I'm really not a morning person, so I usually work in the evenings and nights, which isn’t compatible with normal office jobs."
This freedom has transformed her daily life in meaningful ways. "If the weather is great, I can just grab my bike and go for a ride rather than sit in my home office. Then I can do the work in the evening when I don't have anything else to do."
Working on Outlier projects has also deepened her understanding of AI, an interest she already had as an early user of ChatGPT.
"It was like seeing behind the curtains," she explains. This insight has proven valuable in her other work: "It really helped me to use ChatGPT in my own personal life. When I need it for other projects, I understand how to make better prompts."
The experience has even enriched her relationship with her native language. "It's really funny to see how, in your own language, you don't really pay that much attention to grammar," she notes. One project required her to rewrite answers with 100 percent grammatical correctness — a challenge that pushed her to explore the nuances of Czech more deeply.
Most important, Outlier became the first stepping stone in Klara's journey to becoming a fully remote worker.
"I’ve been able to join some other projects and become a 100 percent remote freelancer," she says with evident satisfaction. "Thanks to this, I am where I wanted to be, and it's actually a dream come true."
While the amount of available work can vary, Klara particularly values the consistent relationship with Outlier. After years of chasing one-off translation gigs, she appreciates having a stable opportunity she can return to.
"Being a translator, you can find a lot of these one-time clients who need a page of text translated and then the job’s over," she explains. "It takes a lot of time searching for new clients." With Outlier, she knows she'll be notified when new projects become available. "Even though there isn’t work every day, it's an amazing opportunity," she says.
Klara has become such an advocate for Outlier that she's recommended it to friends — two of whom have already joined. "They are absolutely outside of this field," she says. "They are Czech speakers, and I told them that's the only qualification you need."
Now based back in the Czech Republic but able to travel regularly to South America, where her boyfriend lives, Klara has crafted exactly the life she envisioned when she left her office job. With the freedom to work when and where she chooses, she's living proof that sometimes those opportunities that seem "too good to be true" can actually deliver on their promise.
