Episode 23: Smart Habits for Planning Your Professional Development

We all know that professional development is extremely important for both translators and interpreters, but it can sometimes be a challenge to prioritize it over paid work, marketing, or establishing and growing your business.

Especially these days, with so many learning and training opportunities available, it can be overwhelming to pick the right one.

In this episode, we share our own experiences and thoughts on the topic of professional development for language professionals: how to choose, plan, and schedule it, as well as how to implement what you’ve learned.

Here is a summary of our conversation:

• How to choose from the multitude of professional development options that exist for translators and interpreters

• What mistakes we've made (and have heard other translators say they've made) when it comes to professional development

• Why planning your professional development is better than taking an ad hoc approach

• How to budget for professional development and find affordable (or free) high-quality training

• How to find the balance between working on your translation or interpreting skills, improving your knowledge in the area of your specialization, or learning more about the business side of freelancing: marketing, admin, business development, etc.

• How to find time for professional development

• Where translators and interpreters can look for professional development opportunities

• Why it's important to implement what you learned and how to do it effectively

• How to incorporate professional development into your business planning/review process (for example, the business retreat exercise that we talked about in Episode 8!)

• How to make the best of all the online training courses, conferences, workshops, and webinars that are available now during the COVID-19 pandemic

resources we mentioned in this episode:

• Episode 8: Setting Goals for the New Year

• Madalena’s blog post: “Simple Ways to Budget for That BIG-Ticket Professional T&I Conference or Course”

• Madalena’s blog post: “Learning vs. Implementing: A Simple Strategy to Start Taking Action in Your Freelance Business during the COVID-19 Pandemic”

• MOOCs: Coursera, Udemy, EdX, LinkedIn Learning

• MasterClass

• MasterClass: The Art of Negotiation by Chris Voss

• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss

• Headspace

• Calm

• Book of the Month

• Genius Scan

• One Tab

“Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

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