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Photo by Ian Schneider<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n This year marks our CLD colleague Jessie Doherty\u2019s 20th year in the profession. Yifeng<\/em>\u2019s editor-in-chief, Sijin Xian, recently sat down with Jessie to talk about her journey. From discovering interpreting through an intensive note-taking course in college to working as a staff interpreter at ICANN<\/a>, Jessie\u2019s career has taken her across continents and disciplines. In this conversation, she reflects on the skills that matter the most in the field, memorable assignments that shaped her perspective, and how interpreters can prepare for the future of the profession.<\/p>\n Sijin: Jessie, thank you so much for talking with us today. We\u2019ve really been looking forward to this interview because you\u2019ve had a long and successful career as a conference interpreter. Could you walk us through your training background and career path?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jessie:<\/strong> Thank you so much, Sijin. I wouldn\u2019t necessarily call myself \u201csuccessful,\u201d but I do have some experience. For the past 20 years, this is the one thing I\u2019ve been doing, so I hope I\u2019ve learned enough lessons to pass something on to younger interpreters and help them avoid some of the mistakes I made.<\/p>\n As for how I became a conference interpreter, it was definitely a process. I majored in financial management in college because all our textbooks were in English, and I was very interested in Western economics. Then, in my junior year, I took a course in notetaking for interpretation. At the time, interpretation was very much a new concept in mainland China. Even though my English was good, I had never really heard of \u201cinterpreter\u201d as a profession.<\/p>\n That course was extremely intensive: 18 days, 10 hours a day, focused almost entirely on notetaking, using press conferences of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs as practice materials. After those 18 days, I was hooked.<\/p>\n About half a year later, after a lot of practice, I passed an interpretation certification exam offered by Beijing Foreign Studies University<\/a>. At the time, the pass rate was around 10%, so passing it on my first try gave me a lot of confidence. It made me think that maybe this was a path worth pursuing.<\/p>\n I then started teaching at the same interpretation school where I had taken the course. For more than five years, during winter and summer breaks, I taught notetaking. I was very young at the time\u2014I think I was about 21\u2014and many of my students were graduate students, so I had to work extremely hard for every class. That experience taught me how to teach, how to explain concepts clearly, and how to overcome my shyness to speak in public. Without it, I probably would not have become a good conference interpreter, because it helped me develop a lot of the soft skills the profession requires.<\/p>\n After college, I worked briefly at a translation company. That was my first real exposure to market-facing translation. The market has its own standards\u2014formatting, punctuation, acronyms, terminology conventions, client expectations\u2014and that experience gave me a strong practical foundation as a technical translator. What I learned there was that no matter how well you do in school, when you enter the profession, you must start from zero. You must be humble, listen tentatively, and learn from mentors and colleagues.<\/p>\n
![\"Jessie](\"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Jessie_Headshot-300x300.png\")
With nearly 20 years in the language field, Jessie is an AIIC member and EU-accredited Chinese\u2013English conference interpreter who loves bringing clarity to complex multilingual settings. She is also an ATA-certified translator and CHI\u2122 interpreter, experienced with RSI platforms and CAT tools. With added coding skills for website localization, she enjoys blending technology with human-centered communication. Outside work, Jessie paints in oils and watercolors, sketches flowers, gardens, and crafts. A proud mom to three furry babies, she lives in Memphis, TN with her husband, son, and mother\u2014her daily source of joy and inspiration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"