Today, classes start up again on the Master’s in Conference Interpreting at the University of La Laguna. And while I won’t actually meet my new students in person for a couple of weeks (too much work-related travel getting in the way), I would like to take this opportunity to welcome them virtually to the training course.

While I’m at it, perhaps I could share with readers what my blogging plan will be for the next few months. When I launched the Interpreter Diaries, I set myself three main goals:

1) offer useful information about the conference interpreting profession to those who might be considering it as a career

2) give readers an inside look at conference interpreter training and guidance to students currently on a course

3) share useful information for new interpreters trying to break into the market.

For the past year and a half, I’ve been slowly working my way through this plan. The posts I wrote for the first series in the spring and summer of 2011 can be found under the category “for aspiring interpreters”. The second series, “for interpreting students”, was written over the course of the past academic year, between September 2011 and June 2012. Now I think it’s about time I tackled my third and final goal and started addressing topics of interpretes to new interpreters just starting out in the profession. I have published a few posts on the topic, which you’ll find under the category “for recent graduates”, but the section is still looking pretty anemic, and it’s time I changed that.

So, basically, what I’d like to know from you is: what issues would you like me to address under this category? What would recent graduates of a conference interpreting course like to know? I have some ideas of my own and have already started drafting a list of possible topics, but I’d appreciate some input. You can share your question in the comments section below, or tweet me your concerns at @InterpDiaries, or post a question on my wall in Facebook.

I’m certainly no expert in the subject of how to get a job as an interpreter, but I promise to do the best I can to answer your questions. And if I can’t come up with an answer, maybe I will know someone who can!

Image courtesy of photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

P.S. If you are a student of conference interpreting just starting your Master’s now and you want to find relevant articles for your stage of training, just flip back in the archives (located in the bar at the bottom of my homepage) and see what I posted starting last September.