Mentors are very important people in our life. They are people who inspire us and help us achieve our goals, either as personal or professional mentors. Their role is to share their experience with us and help us in our path.
Personal mentors
These are amazing people who lead the way. I would certainly say our parents are our life mentors; since we are born, they do everything in their power to teach us and guide us in our path.
But as long as we get older, other figures may become our personal mentors as well. They may not know they are, but they play an important role in our development. They are not teachers, although we learn a lot from them. They are people who help us achieve our goals by sharing their experiences with us, or telling us where we can improve.
Professional mentors
In our career, we can also find amazing people who become our mentors. Usually, they are people who have a lot more experience than us and are happy to share that experience. They help us reach our goals, telling us ways of improving and avoiding those mistakes we all do.
There are very good mentoring programs for translators. For example, AUSIT in Australia has its own program, where younger professionals can learn from more experienced translators and grow in their professional field. In my case, I came across with my mentor Virginia Katsimpiri through an amazing course I’ve done with her. After that, I had a mentoring session with her and she helped me overcome some of my insecurities and set out a strategy for my own success.
Being a mentor
There are a few requisites you need to fulfil in order to become a mentor. AUSIT has a program every year. Members can apply and help other colleagues. For that, they must be happy to share their experience and knowledge about important aspects of our profession, such as pricing, marketing and others. It is something I’m looking forward to, doing in the future. I would love to be able to help someone the same way I’ve been helped. It’s very rewarding to be able to contribute and help the new generation of translators.