The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2023 - 30

BUSINESS PRACTICES by Deborah Wexler
Mentoring:
Get As Much As You Give
The following was originally published on Next Level: The ATA Business Practices Blog. This initiative
by ATA's Business Practices Education Committee provides information for both freelancers and
company owners to use in all aspects of their careers, from improving their privacy protections to
planning for retirement.
From the Next Level team:
Do you remember the first
few years of your career in
the language industry? Was
it smooth sailing, or did you
sometimes wish for someone
who could give you advice and
point you in a new direction?
If you've ever wanted or had
someone to help you find your
footing, consider doing the
same for someone else.
ATA's Mentoring Program
creates peer-to-peer
relationships in which
an experienced language
professional offers counsel
and support to another who
requests help with a specific
area of their business. This
relationship doesn't include
tutoring in translation
skills; it's strictly for
discussing business topics.
Those topics can include
finding agency work,
finding and keeping direct
clients, marketing through
a website or social media,
transitioning from an
employed position to a
freelance career, using a
newly gained certification
to land more work, or any
other non-linguistic area a
mentee wishes to focus on.
Both mentees and mentors
benefit from the pairing.
Mentees receive valuable
business advice for which
they would otherwise pay
handsomely. They also gain
understanding and support
from a close contact in the
T&I world. Professionals
who volunteer to mentor
are not guaranteed a match
with a mentee every year,
but those mentors who are
matched earn continuing
education (CE) points toward
ATA recertification. They
also gain other benefits,
which Deborah Wexler
describes below in an article
originally published in Deep
Focus, newsletter of ATA's
Audiovisual Division.
To learn more about
serving as a mentor, visit
ATA's Mentoring Program
page and watch the ATA
Mentoring Experience video
showcasing veteran mentors
speaking about what the
program brings to both
mentor and mentee.
During ATA's 59th
Annual Conference in New
Orleans in 2018, a colleague
asked me, " What was the
motivation that drove
a group of translators
to create an audiovisual
division within ATA? "
I sat for a minute,
pondering. " Many different
factors motivated each of
us, " I said.
He then asked, " Well, what
do you think was the single
most important thing? "
I replied without hesitation,
" We want to help the next
" Business Practices " will alternate in this space with " The Entrepreneurial Linguist. " This column is not intended to constitute legal,
financial, or other business advice. Each individual or company should make its own independent business decisions and consult its own
legal, financial, or other advisors as appropriate. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of ATA or its Board of Directors.
30 The ATA Chronicle | January/February 2023
www.atanet.org

https://www.ata-divisions.org/AVD/deep-focus-1-letter-from-the-administrator/ https://www.ata-divisions.org/AVD/deep-focus-1-letter-from-the-administrator/ https://www.atanet.org/career-education/mentoring/mentoring-program/ https://www.atanet.org/career-education/mentoring/mentoring-program/ https://www.atanet.org/video/the-ata-mentoring-experience/ https://www.atanet.org/video/the-ata-mentoring-experience/ https://www.atanet.org/career-education/next-level/ http://www.atanet.org

The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2023

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