Girding the loins...

[alexpgp]

It didn't occur to me until just now to take a look at where my earnings are coming from this week so far. If we don't count today, I've made more in "outside" work for the client than I have in the office. If we include today's office work, however, the sum of "outside" revenue does not fall too far below 50%.

I got a call from a potential new client today, although there is much to discuss before we start actually talking about steak and potatoes. I also found out that I'll be at the MCC tomorrow, supporting a telecon first thing in the morning, followed by some simulation work through the afternoon.

I started my LJ after my "telecon period," so you've been spared the litany of rants and raves about telecons and the people who participate in them. Telecons, or telephone conferences, are a peculiar form of interpretation where one interprets the proceedings of a telephone conversation. It sounds pretty straightforward, until you consider that in an unscripted conversation, anyone can say anything about any subject, which is why telecon agendas are worth their weight in platinum to the interpreter. Any level of Clue™ that registers above the normal background count is considered a plus.

And you - as the interpreter - must come through like Secretariat at the Belmont Stakes.

Every time.

Fortunately, I am one of the top interpreters in the country. (Get away from me, boy, you're bothering me...)

No. Seriously. I'm good. After all, I've worked at the United Nations and at the White House.

I can do this telecon, even though there is no agenda or any clue regarding the subject of the conversation to be held.

I've done this before.

A-roo-gah! (Psych! Psych! PSYCH!!!)

Cheers...

Comments

[brenk.livejournal.com]

Y'know that psych!psych! feeling! Reminds me of me when I take my seat facing delegates who are scientists, cops and politicians, and who will be discussing things that I have at most a tenuous grasp of (I'm a linguist, not an expert forensic science, for instance, and however much I've tried to read up on it). Here too, you never know what they're going to discuss (agenda? Oh... that). And then I have to write it down in a way that is a) correct b) short c) within a tight deadline and d) in a way that upsets nobody. The moment where the chairman says 'so, the report on the last meeting - any comments?' is the one where my fingers go sweaty and the heart rate does weird things.

But yeah, good as we are (we are! we are!) it's still scary - which is probably fairly positive. I think if I ever got really blasé / over-confident it'd be a bad sign (although better for my health).