What is the WHAT?
by Teodosia Rivera 

Hello everyone, and welcome back! For our second installment, I would like to circle back to a question I posed last time. It’s a question that all new and emerging translators and interpreters tend to ask themselves from time to time: What do I do when I don’t know what I don’t know? As a guide to answering this question, I proposed the 5Ws method, that is: the who, what, where, when, and why of your decision to embark on this journey.

In part one we answered the WHO? question, and we established that you are the embodiment of the success you want to achieve. You can check out our first installment of this five-part series here on the Northwest Linguist Blog. Today, we will tackle the WHAT?

The WHAT? question here is twofold:

1. What is your ultimate goal? and, 
2. What do you possess that guarantees you can reach that goal? 

Your ultimate goal, for example, could be to have more than one specialization for more marketability. Another goal could be to have your own business and train other language professionals to find their niche in the industry. As for what you possess, think of it this way: if you are the embodiment of the success you want to achieve, what is it about you that makes that so? 

HINT: Jot down your answers to questions one and two above either in the “Notes” space in your phone or on post-its in your office. If you’re like me, your mind may play tricks on you when you are trying to remember what you need to remember at a given time or place; been there, done that, right? 

Here (below) are some DOs and DON’Ts I believe can guide you to answer these two questions on a more personal level: