Financial planning: tips for freelancers

Guest post by Rebekka Wellmanns

Alison Lane is a very experienced financial planner. In her webinar last year, she gave some very solid advice on the financial side of freelancing, as well as a comprehensive overview of protection and planning for self-employed professionals.

Although the examples she gave were more specific to the United Kingdom, any freelancer could apply these principles to their financial situation.

Alison went over the different life-stages we might face and stressed that there are different things to think about depending on our age.

She then highlighted how to set about achieving some of the following goals:

20s

• Sticking to a budget
• Protection in case of illness
• Saving for a house deposit
• Starting a pension

30s

• Building an emergency pot of money
• Writing a will and getting life insurance cover 
• Starting a pension (if you have not started one already)
• Saving for children or any other large expense

40s

• Reviewing your plans
• Planning for retirement
• Other options available to you

50s

• Assessing your life goals and risks
• Focusing on retirement
• Investments and pensions 
• Will writing

60s

• Tax planning
• Drawing your pension
• Equity release
• Downsizing

She emphasised that having a plan is especially important for freelancers as it enables us to keep track of where we are headed over the course of our careers.

She also gave some great advice on how to choose a financial advisor, and provided links to various web resources such as budget and pension calculators.

Did you get the most out of your CPD/ CE this year?

Guest post by Rebekka Wellmanns
 
Janet Fraser presented a webinar recently on how best to reflect on the benefits of the CPD or continuing education (CE) that we undertake as professionals.

This workshop really opened my eyes to what reflection is and why we need to reflect in a professional context.  

We undertake CPD for different and individual reasons. It may be to put ourselves on a par with other professions, or because it is a requirement of certain associations. Either way, it’s not enough just to do CPD. We need to reflect on it too.

We can do this by consciously asking: How has this helped me, and how has it helped resolve any hesitations, discrepancies or dilemmas I may face? How has it impacted my personal practice? Sometimes, the very act of reflecting is self-solving.

In order to develop any degree of professionalism, we need to reflect on our development. But it's not enough to just look at ourselves in the mirror and then forget what we have seen once we turn away. We need to deeply and seriously consider our professional activities and give thoughtful consideration to the problems we face and potential ways forward.

Janet provided some great exercises and suggestions on how to reflect in a productive way and how to focus on the correct professional activities.

She also provided many resources and including one for informal education, lifelong learning and social action.

Access this webinar on our website. Originally broadcast: 6 December 2011. Duration: 67 minutes, including question and answer session.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our guest author is Rebekka Wellmanns, a Spanish to English translator with a background in music, linguistics and education. She is also the author of a widely-read translation blog, and tweets at @WellRebekka.

Applying for job offers: top tips for translators

Guest post by Rebekka Wellmanns

Marta Stelmaszk, DPSI, ACIL, is a former translation project manager. In last week's webinar, she covered everything a freelance translator might want to know about CVs and cover letters, from replying to job offers and analysing the competition to planning, writing and revision.

Here are just some of her suggestions:

Before you even think about replying to an offer, take care to analyse it first by making note of the client’s requirements, language used, etc. Then try to mirror this in your own cover letter.

Make sure you do all that the client has asked you to do, i.e. use their suggested subject line, address the reader etc. Stelmaszak provided a great tip: if you do not know the name of the person you need to address, instead of saying “Dear Sir/Madam”, say something like “Dear Project Manager”. Including an email signature is also very important.

On writing CVs, she suggests analysing the competition by finding CVs of other translators in your language pair and specialities, and applying what you like about them to your own CV. You may even learn of other opportunities in this way.

She also addresses the issue of adapting CVs to specific offers. She supports having as many different versions of your CV as specialisations/target audiences. Stelzmaszak also reminded us to continuously bear in mind the motivation and purpose of the CV.

When it comes to planning and writing your CV, what counts is that you showcase your tangible achievements. Don’t include your age, marital status or a profile picture.

She also gave a detailed outline of each of the headlines below, all of which should be included in your CV:

• Professional headline and statement
• Key achievements
• Professional experience
• Qualifications
• Memberships
• Publications
• General skills
• Making it interactive

In summing up, Stelmaszak addressed the language and revision of CVs. She reminds us that translators are wordsmiths yet we somehow seem to forget this when writing our own CVs. We have to make sure they are impeccable as they showcase our ability.

This webinar was packed with helpful hints and suggestions for getting the most out of your CV and cover letter. Marta also shared the details of her free e-book, “How to write a translator’s CV”, and offered to look over the CVs and cover letters of the translators on the webinar.

Access this webinar on our website. Originally broadcast: 22 November 2011. Duration: 71 minutes, including question and answer session.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our guest author is Rebekka Wellmanns, a Spanish to English translator with a background in music, linguistics and education. She is also the author of a widely-read translation blog, and tweets at @WellRebekka.

Technical writing tips: how to accurately transmit information

Guest post by Rebekka Wellmanns

Technical writing consists of transmitting technical information accurately to a technical or non-technical audience. In last week's webinar, Karen Tkaczyk, herself an experienced technical translator, provided some very useful writing tips for ‘into English’ translators in this field.

Technical translators need to have good instincts, subject matter expertise and writing skills to convey terminology in the correct manner. They also need to be precise, clear and brief to produce effective technical texts.

Karen provided some excellent practical examples in French to better highlight the dos and don’ts of technical translation. For example:

A technical translator should:

• use strong action verbs
• write economically
• use the active voice
• write in plain English

but avoid:

• wordiness
• needless words, such as ‘of’

Here are some of the problems ‘into English’ technical translators may encounter:

• Ambiguity - although you may have to translate a phrase ambiguously depending on the type of technical text.
• Every source language has different problems which can carry over into English, e.g. noun-heavy texts, implied subjects, lack of strong verbs, etc.
• Lack of ownership on the part of the translator. You may need to defend your decisions and be the expert.

There are many style guides on the market to educate translators and help us develop our own style of technical writing in English. Karen concluded the webinar with an extensive list of these valuable resources.

Access this webinar and the handout on our website. Originally broadcast: 17 November 2011. Duration: 66 minutes, including question and answer session.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our guest author is Rebekka Wellmanns, a Spanish to English translator with a background in music, linguistics and education. She is also the author of a widely-read translation blog, and tweets at @WellRebekka.

Welcome to Rebekka Wellmanns! Coming to a webinar near you...

A big welcome to Rebekka Wellmanns, our first-ever intern!

Rebekka is a Spanish to English translator based in South Africa, with an impressive background in music, linguistics and education. She has very kindly agreed to help out behind the scenes at eCPD for a couple of weeks.

She'll be sitting in on webinars as a panellist whenever she can, and will be sharing her thoughts, impressions and all-around summaries of some of our sessions, right here on our blog. We're delighted to have her join us.

Rebekka is well known to many translators already through her own excellent blog. You can also follow her on Twitter, so why not drop by, say hello and help us make her welcome!

Sign up for event reminders

We've had a couple of sold-out webinars this year. While we do make the recording available to people afterwards, we know that nothing beats being there on the day.

So we've added a new string to our communications bow. Prospective attendees can now sign up for an automated event reminder for our webinars. This means we'll send you an email reminder five days before the live event, with a quick and easy sign-up link.

Never miss out on a live webinar again! Sign up here (choose "event reminders") or update your current subscription profile (see our FAQ on how to do that).

Looking for work experience?

Are you looking for a short-term work placement or internship? Maybe we can help each other.

eCPD Webinars is considering offering an unpaid work placement or internship.

You can be based anywhere in the world, and start and end dates are flexible. Ideally we'd like a commitment of 8 - 10 hours a week, but you would be welcome to do most of these hours at your convenience. We only ask that you're available once or twice a week between the hours of 09:30 and 12:30 GMT/ UTC for team meetings via Skype.

We're looking for someone who is enthusiastic, open to using new technologies and willing to give things a go. You will need to be able to work independently and have access to a reasonably modern computer with a webcam, headset and speakers, an up-to-date installation of Skype and a reliable broadband internet connection.

What we can offer:

• Flexibility to work from home (or where-ever you like) and to set your own schedule.
• Flexible start and end dates: 2 weeks plus.
• Projects related to online marketing, content management (video, audio and text), event management, networking, web design, and more, depending on your background and interests.
• Training in our webinar platform, newsletter software, or other tools related to your placement with us.
• Experience working with a cross-border virtual team and communicating with experienced professional translators.

What we hope you'll get out of it:

• Acquire practical knowledge to apply to your career in the short and long term. 
• Raise your profile amongst your peers.
• Participate in online seminars for professionals in the translation and interpreting field (maybe pick up some ideas about webinars in general, if that's not your area).
• Gain understanding of professional development as it relates to translation and interpreting.
• Learn more about key themes and players in the translation profession.

Some information about our company:
Launched in 2010, eCPD Webinars has run over 50 online seminars over the past 12 months under its own name. It has run many more on behalf of flagship bodies such as the UK's Institute of Translation and Interpreting, the American Translators Association, and the Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators.

eCPD Webinars is fast becoming the premier career development resource for translation and interpreting professionals. Over 500 professionals from 25 different countries have attended one of our online events over the past 12 months alone, including leaders and opinion makers from across the industry. Almost half of these have returned for more than one event, creating a uniquely engaged, global community.

eCPD Webinars is run by business partners Lucy Brooks in the UK and Sarah Dillon in Australia.

Please note that, given the nature of our business, this placement does not include any hands-on translation or interpreting work.

To apply, please send your CV and an expression of interest (including proposed start and end dates) to Sarah Dillon, Marketing and Communications Director, sarah@ecpdwebinars.co.uk.