How can junior conference interpreters make their way into the market with no experience at all?

Hello Silvia,

I recommend you what I did:

• don't loose touch with your University teachers and people that studied with you
• get in touch with the local aiic colleagues and tell them you are there
• join a translators and interpreters' professional association you can identify with
• participate in continuing education courses for translators and interpreters
• attend as many translators and interpreters meetings as you can: you need to be seen!

Good luck!

Linda makes a very important point. Pro bono work gets you rapidly seen by a lot of audiences - many of which happen to contain people who might want to use interpreters later on. I'm doing a 2-day simultaneous job at the end of this month (May 2012), hired by someone who was in the audience when I was working consecutive, pro bono, at a small literature festival here in Beijing.

As a trainer I try and funnel graduates (and sometimes more experienced colleagues) into pro bono jobs. I have a couple of regular streams of these - the literature festival, an arts centre in Beijing (which has built-in sim booths!), and an annual sustainable development / NGO meet.

When the above jobs are in sim, I can give people experience working with people they don't know - more experienced colleagues, or graduates from different schools, or even earlier graduates from the same school whom they haven't worked with yet.

Plus they're all about fun stuff. As I write these words, someone's in the arts centre doing a gig about Lady Gaga and her fashion sense.

Quite a few young interpreters start by working pro bono for charities, NGOs etc. This is often the first experience of working 'live'. And since the teams are often recruited by experienced interpreters who are themselves a part of the team, the young interpreters can learn from them and gradually become 'known' and recruited for paid work. Young interpreters should contact as many experienced interpreters, consultant interpreters, agencies or institutions as they can find in their chosen place of work. A day here, a day there is how it starts.
But depending on language combination, place of work and market openings, getting started can be a long process.

One interesting option is to apply for pre-candidature with AIIC: http://www.aiic.net/ViewPage.cfm/page208.htm

I'd like to recommend this article by Chris de Fortis ("our man for further training"). Thanks to Andy Gillies for posting it:

http://interpreters.free.fr/startingwork/GETTING%20STARTED.pdf

Here are some of the points covered in his article:

• understanding the market and competition
• administrative steps
• remuneration
• professional behaviour
• volunteer jobs

I would also advise young interpreters to sit accreditation tests with international organisations employing interpreters. For that you may need to travel to the place where the test is held - but it may turn out an excellent investment if you pass. Naturally sitting an accreditation test requires advance preparation, a suitable language combination and potentially willingness to relocate, if you pass. You need to ponder carefully whether for you it is better to wait a bit after finishing your degree, get some practical experience and only then sit an accreditation test or whether you wish to sit a test at the first possible instance after getting your interpreting diploma.