Development of personal marketing skills among translation and interpreting students

The article examines the role of soft skills in the future career and professional competence of translation and interpreting students. The expectations of the modern-day language service industry make these soft skills just as important for finding a job after graduation and performing well professionally as the hard skills related to academic subjects. Current standards for translation and interpreting education programs in Russian Federation (Federal Educational Standard 3+ for bachelor and master degrees) include a significant part of the soft skill set. The European Master’s in Translation standard also features soft skills. One of the key soft skills college graduates require no matter what career path they subsequently choose has to do with presenting themselves on the labor market. This includes resume and cover letter writing, well-considered social media positioning, etc. The article reviews the available theoretical and practical materials on the subject, inspects the concept and types of soft skills and their presence in Russian and European educational standards, and discusses the skill of personal marketing and its aspects. Based on literature analysis and personal teaching experience, the authors provide recommendations to linguist educators on the development of students’ personal marketing skills such as resume and cover letter writing and professional social media presence.