How to boost your career?

Starting out is never easy. Thankfully, there are many ways at hand to build up your résumé and boost your career. Here are a few tips you could easily implement in your daily life:

• §  Work on your skill set: take on an online marketing class on Coursera, read non-fiction, listen to a podcast episode in your native AND second language. These can be focused on translation (e.g. “Smart Habits for Translators”, “Speaking of Translation”, “Squiggly Careers”), but you could also simply listen to a discussion about a topic you are personally interested in. 

• §  Volunteer at an organisation that will allow you to implement both your soft and hard skills e.g. Translators Without Borders, or work on your writing skills by creating a blog or doing proofreading work.

• §  Dive back into Ancient Greek or other languages you’ve half-learned in school or start anew and study a (rare) language. This will increase your value on the market and show that you have an authentic and long-lasting curiosity for other languages and cultures. 

• §  Find your niche – not necessarily what you‘re passionate about! – and become an expert in that field.

• §  BUT don’t stay in your lane; remain curious about other industries and keep an open mind. Professional development isn’t a linear process. 😊 

• §  Create yourself a network by reaching out to fellow translators and linguists on LinkedIn, join translator groups on Facebook, ideally try to find a mentor who will guide you professionally and give you previous advice.

• §  And maybe the most important step of all: sit down and create your own website. This will put your name out there and market yourself much better than a mere CV. There are many free softwares such as wordpress that are very user-friendly and will give you a decent result. It might also be worth hiring a professional web designer as this will be a good investment in the long-term.

Dedicate a few hours a week to specifically work on these goals and you should see progress and notice a change for the better in no time!