Sarah's Archives

an archive of content from ≈ 2005 - 2015, relating to international business, translation, freelancing, and working online.

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Blog Archive

Hello AUSIT Queensland members

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Hello to fellow AUSIT members who are dropping by after yesterday’s professional development session on building a strong professional presence online.

I will upload my slides, along with some additional resources, by the end of the day today. In the meantime you might find the following posts interesting:

  • A 5-minute video on how I use WordPress for this blog. This is the same system I use for my website.
  • Some 5-minute videos with demonstrations of how I use LinkedIn and Google Reader for professional purposes.
  • A half-hour presentation on social media for translators, which looks at Tweetdeck (co-presented with Philippa Hammond – check out her blog for a great guest post on search engine marketing (SEO) too).
  • Finally, here is a list of 107 blogs by (mainly) freelance translators. (There are also plenty of blogs by interpreters, but these can be a starting point for finding them if you wish). If you’re thinking of starting a blog, it’s a good idea to know what’s out there already. If blogging is not for you, that’s fine too: but you might be interested in keeping up-to-date with what other professionals are writing.

Thank you very much to everyone who attended last night, and for your interesting and insightful questions.

21 Tips for Timid Bloggers

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Student blogger Shana being shy

Blogging isn’t for everybody. But if you’ve considered blogging but are too shy to press “Publish”, here are some translator-specific tips to help you over the hump. Remember, the more translators who blog, the larger the pool of expertise we have to draw on, and the more we all learn as a result. And y’all know I’m about the learning, right? 🙂 [Read more…]

CPD Matters: What is CPD?

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I refer frequently to professional development on this blog (in fact, I have an entire category dedicated to it), but life-long learning is not specific to translators or language professionals.

Doctors do it, engineers do it, and I have it on good authority that even educated fleas do it. So I’m running a mini-series on CPD over the next few weeks: what it is, how to do it and most importantly, where to get it, even if you’re not in a position to fly 10,000 miles for a one-day workshop. [Read more…]

Avoiding the famine: be ready for anything

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Here is my list of things all freelance translators would ideally do to keep current in good times and in bad, inspired by Rowan Manahan‘s post So your job is under threat?

The idea behind this is that we shouldn’t wait for work to dry up before assembling the materials we need to showcase our skills, tempting as it is to let non-translation things slide when the words are flowing.

  • An up-to-date website. As Céline Graciet recently pointed out, as service providers and remote workers, our websites are our shop windows.
  • An up-to-date list of training and events attended to prove your skills are current.
  • A well-maintained network of colleagues in your field. The best time to build a network is well before you’re looking for business.
  • A list of client testimonials and references. Again, the best time to build your reputation is when times are good. (Plus they’re nice to review for a pat on the back every now and then.)
  • A clear view of your financial situation: what’s coming in, what’s going out, and what’s in the pipeline.

Anything else?

Interestingly, job-seeking expert Jason Alba said he felt like he was “cheating on his employer” if he tried to work on this safety net when he was happily employed. Maybe as freelancers we’re cheating ourselves if we don’t?

Book review: The Entrepreneurial Linguist

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The idea of the linguist as an entrepreneur resonates very strongly with me. In fact, exactly how entrepreneurship “fits” with freelancing is something I mulled over (not very eloquently) in the very earliest days of this blog. So it’s been exciting to see the idea finally given a name and a widely accepted definition, and even more inspiring to see two such capable professionals give it a face.

The Entrepreneurial Linguist is Judy and Dagmar Jenner’s new book on the nuts and bolts of growing a language service business. It is aimed at translation and interpreting practitioners who want to work with direct clients, a largely neglected area which I’m sure will pique the interest of many.

Translating twins Dagmar and Judy maintain the popular translation blog, Translation Times, and are regular contributors to the ITI Bulletin and ATA Chronicle. ATA members will almost certainly have heard of their well-received Entrepreneurial Linguist workshops. Judy is actively involved with the Nevada Interpreters and Translators Association, while German-speaking linguists may know Dagmar through her role with the Austrian Interpreters and Translators Association.

The following are some of the points that particularly impressed me about this book, and which in my opinion, make it stand out from other books in this genre.  [Read more…]

When being organised is overrated

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My Reference Files

Knowing how to construct a good search query is a key skill these days, and not just when it comes to Google.

A powerful search engine almost negates the need for a classification system in your email inbox or even on your hard drive. Because if you can find and open the precise file you’re looking for in a couple of quick keystrokes, why worry about a carefully nested file structure? I spent years thinking about how best to organise my files and folders until Quicksilver came along. (And there are plenty of other powerful utility applications out there too.)

I was reminded of this a few months ago when I came across a post by Merlin Mann, in which he suggested that people stop obsessing about organising their email and focus instead on whether to trash it or archive it. Simple as that, one of two options: trash or archive. ProfHacker similarly summed it up with the catchphrase “Don’t file. Search.”

This approach certainly appeals to the side of me that’s always suspected tidying up was a waste of time. Peel back the layers of social convention, concerns about first impressions and most powerfully of all, what my mother would say, and you’ll find I secretly believe that the floor really is the best place for everything. At least then I always know exactly where to look when I lose something.

Anyone have any other utility software they can recommend?

Photo credit: My Reference Files, Tim Morgan’s photostream on Flickr

Smells like team spirit: establishing a team culture when you work remotely

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Team Spirit, December 2006

Lots of practising translators serve on committees, groups or teams, and often work remotely with colleagues. For example, most professional associations are run by volunteer teams and offer many opportunities for translators to work with fellow wordsmiths and get involved in running their institutions at the same time.

As a result, meetings via Skype or Gotomeeting.com are increasingly popular, even among us (traditionally technology-reticent) translators. They save money, travel and time away from work and family, but a downside to this can be a lack of team spirit – one of the benefits of volunteering for a committee role in the first place.

Céline Roque and her readers over at WebWorkerDaily have some great tips on creating a team culture in a teleworking environment. Her post and the follow-up comments are well worth a (re-)read if you find yourself organising meetings remotely. These are my favourite:

  • Don’t hold group meetings for every important decision. Instead, talk to people individually before coming together as a group to summarise or moderate decisions.
  • Give teams the freedom to find and develop their own processes.
  • Encourage team members to work on projects they feel passionate about.
  • Establish one or two communication norms from day one.

This last one in particular strikes a chord with me. A company I once worked at had a strict policy regarding the format of subject lines on all internal email. As a result, it was easy to quickly scan your email inbox, see precisely what kinds of events, actions and information it contained and prioritise accordingly.

This is something I’d like to see more groups and organisations implement. Of course, as per point two above, over-prescribing can be damaging to team spirit in itself and it’s always better to wait and see how things evolve naturally. However it’s usually a given that any group of organisers will generate a deluge of email, which isn’t very helpful when we’re all trying to achieve the holy grail of email zen (email filters can only do so much – believe me, I know).

Finally, information specialist Clare Aitken had some great tips for getting the most out of teleconferencing on a recent guest post at Ramblings of a Remote Worker. She included some tips on establishing communication norms around turn-taking, for example, which can be particularly tricky in a teleconference where we sometimes lack helpful visual clues.

All in all, it’s clear that with a little planning, there’s no reason why working in a remote team can’t be as uniting and as satisfying as working in a face-to-face one.

Photo credit: Team Spirit December 2006, Jiheffe’s photostream on Flickr.

Translator education in Australia

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Whatchu Lookin At Willis?


Debates on appropriate education levels for translators and interpreters are common in Australia, and heated discussions on the value of professional development regularly pop up on association egroups and forums. A recent exchange reminded me of a session I attended at the 2008 AUSIT Biennial Conference, which gives – I think – some context the situation in this country. [Read more…]