Availability management

• Keep track of all job offers and their status
• Maintain a database of people who have offered you work and when
• Keep regular recruiters informed of your availability.

A conference interpreter’s checklist

• Valid ID card and/or passport
• Mobile phone, fax, answering service, high-capacity email
• Make your details known to your business contacts
• Valid work permits
• International vaccination booklet (for long-distance assignments at short notice)
• Tax returns and social security charges
• Banking instructions and credit cards details
• Health, travel and other insurance cover
• Up-to-date database of colleagues and contacts.
• A good travel agent to turn to for travel arrangements

Other items

• Business cards (learn when to use them and when not to)
• Up-to-date curriculum vitae
• Filing system for your engagement contracts
• AIIC dues and other professional subscriptions
• Filing system for articles, documentation and other job-related paperwork
• Business card binder
• File management system (to keep track of potential clients, recruiters, job announcements, terminology).

Make the most of your free time

• Learn to take time off and rest when you can;
• Keep abreast of current events;
• Surf the Internet and subscribe to publications of interest, read them and make notes
• Hone your language skills, including your mother tongue
• Improve your knowledge in specific fields

Further Reading

• Interpreting the Internet
• Communicate!, the AIIC Webzine
• Searching for Creativity in Simultaneous Interpreting