Lifehacks for language professionals 2022

Session review

MET’s new cycle of online talks, Lifehacks for language professionals, kicked off on 24 May 2022 with a dual session led by Silvia Ortiz Miñarro and Christa Bedwin.

In the first part of the session, Silvia gave us a helpful guide to financial planning for the self-employed. She talked us through three categories of risks affecting freelancers: short-term cash flow issues, medium-term risks such as economic crises, and long-term considerations such as retirement. Silvia emphasized the importance of earning enough to save 60% of your income by raising your rates regularly, specializing, looking for new and better clients, and minimizing your fixed expenses. She also touched on ways to protect your income and savings in the future by looking for other sources of income. This could involve investing on the stock market, buying rental properties or having another economic activity.

In the second half of the session, Christa gave us some tips on effective communication, which, it turns out, can actually mean communicating less. She described the benefits of sitting back and allowing others to take the lead as a way to enhance people’s desire to listen to what we have to say. Often, we’re tempted to talk too much out of anxiety or a need to control the situation, but this can cause people to switch off or may damage our relationships with others. In a business context, it’s a smart move to give others space to speak so that we can learn about their assets, experiences and passions. This could even lead to some excellent partnerships we might otherwise have missed out on. Ultimately, Christa reminded us, people don’t remember what you do, they remember how you made them feel.

Thanks to Silvia and Christa for these insightful tips that we’re all able to put into practice right away.

Review by Eleanor Staniforth