One More Good Reason to Network with Other Translators

Other Translators Are Not Your Competition 

It’s no secret that I think that a professional network is very important for freelance translators. Translating can be a lonely way of spending your days. Sitting at our desks, it’s easy to let the world pass by. Other translators are a treasure trove of information and we’re lucky that there are so many generous and helpful translators out there.

What Happened

Recently, I attended a networking event for translators in my town for the first time. It was a great evening and I stayed much later than I had originally planned. Events like that are fun and worth taking part in. But there’s more. A few days later I received an email from a translator I had met there. She had been looking at my website and noticed something that needed a little work. And then she took the time to write to me about that. That in itself is unexpectedly generous. But she also went to the trouble of including additional information to help me see what she was talking about and provide ideas on how to improve what she had seen.

Now, nobody likes having weak spots pointed out. And I wonder how many others saw the same thing – it makes me cringe a little. Yet, my nice translation colleague sat down and thought about what advice she could offer to help me.  And that goes beyond professional courtesy and is simply a very generous and much-appreciated gesture.

Networking is often maligned as an insincere way of meeting other people. What I like about my little story is that it shows that networking is what you make of it.

The Moral of the Story

The moral of the story is that if you surround yourself with your professional peers only good can come of it. And who’s to say that we always have to be at the receiving end? Maybe we’ll have some good advice for someone else next time.