What are the important localization project manager skills that you should have? In this Live stream, I ranked 30 hard and soft skills that we collected from different Loc PM job posts. The focus was on the junior role.
Andrej Zito
Hi, everyone. This is Andrej. We should be live, hopefully, on YouTube and LinkedIn. I don’t want to go into too long intro because this will be, this video will be published on YouTube forever. So we will not do any special editing probably for this one. So what we’re going to be doing in this stream and in this video is that I’ll be trying to rank using Tiermaker. 30 hard and soft skills that we found across different job postings for localization project manager position. So that is what we’re gonna be doing using Tiermaker anything else that I need to say, yes, so since we are alive, you should have the option. Hopefully it will be working to tell me what you think about the different skills, some of the skill skills I guess I’ll be maybe struggling with. Because you know, different skills can have different meanings based on different companies based on your different experience. So I’ll try to always say what I consider that particular skill to be to be doing for that role. And based on that, we’ll try to put it somewhere. So I didn’t want to over analyze this, this Tiermaker too much, because you know, it should be fun in a way. So I think without further ado, let’s just get into it. Because that’s the that’s the other thing. I’ll try to keep it short for each skill. Hopefully, I’ll stick to my word. Because if we have 30 skills, if I spent two minutes with each one, it means it will take us one hour, which I think would be still a good length, but I don’t want to overdo it and maybe go I don’t know, two hours. Because then I’ll get hungry anyway. So let’s see if this works.
Andrej Zito
Now and works, okay, so these are this is the actual text that we pulled from the from the job postings. Sometimes I have these extra bullets, which is I mean, the same thing, but they worded it differently. So based on that I kind of like grouped it into these things. And the right thing that you see here is what we have here on the Tiermaker. So that means I mean, let’s just get started. So the first thing I kind of shuffled this a little bit. So it’s not only like let’s say hard skills, and then soft skills. So we’ll start with communication. And oh, one thing that I forgot to tell you is, I think in this one, I said that we will be focusing on their junior role. So again, the definition of what a junior project manager should be doing can vary depending on different companies, on your experience, and so on. So, what the Junior, or entry level localization project manager means to me is someone who will first of all not have any direct contact with the client, especially when we’re talking about this enterprise clients who give you ongoing projects. So that to me is probably a big no, although I’ve had a chat with a company where they want to hire PMS, and then then they want them to take on requests from new clients right away. But in this case, I think it was more like their new clients are just companies who just I don’t know, just dump some files. It’s like an on demand service. So you don’t have any I don’t know long term relationship with those clients. So I guess in that case, it makes sense because the PMs just add on no data request. Say, Yeah, we got a we will start a translation and then they do the translation and they send back and then maybe they’ll never hear from the clients. So it’s not the typical, at least typical for me. sense where you have, I don’t know, a big account like I don’t know, Google, Microsoft, Apple, or whatever. And there are a lot of high paid people, as your clients, and they, and it’s really about relationships. So that’s not what I consider. Let’s see, clients, in this case, are dealing with clients. So dealing with, let’s say, enterprise clients, and what else do we consider junior people? I think they are still responsible for basically managing the projects, like taking them from start to finish, going through the workflow, assigning it, maybe doing some admin things in your ERP system, like doing POS. And what else, I think I think that’s about it. So really, someone who’s just sort of starting out as a project manager and trying to get into the localization industry, I think maybe depending on the different skills, I may contradict myself with what I just said, hopefully not. What else I have here another note, which is my disclaimer that everything that I say here is based mostly on my experience, what I think is important. And some of it is actually based on some of the companies that I work with. And when we do the bootcamp based on what, what they are looking for, in junior people. So that’s also based on that. And another thing is that some of the things you can mention, based on my experience, my experience could be highly affected by what I’m actually good at. So for example, when we’ll be talking about being analytical, I will probably put it high because I think, based on myself how being analytical can help you with certain things.
Andrej Zito
But of course, there are, let’s say different aspects to being a good project manager, like in general, again, depends on what you consider to be the thing. Anyway, I’m talking too much. So let’s just get into it. Communication. Let’s start with that one. I think communication, let’s see what they actually put in, in the job posting excellent written, verbal communication, excuse me. And then I think they even had the same line with presentation skills. So I decided to put the presentation skills in a separate thing. So when it comes to the communication, I think here is again, maybe I should have split it into a written versus verbal communication, but let’s try to keep it together. I think if you are starting out as a junior localization project manager, a lot of the things that you will be doing are sort of, I would say, template it like you shouldn’t be using things that the other project managers are already using. So it’s not like like, you’re going to have to write long emails, right? Like, for example, if I think about like writing a nice long email to a client, I imagine this being done by project managers who first of all have contact with the client. So I think most of your communication will be pretty simple, I would say. But I think then it comes again to should we also consider the internal communication, how you communicate with your team members, because that’s, that’s actually a good point. Because if you are doing the junior tasks, maybe you’re partnering up with someone who’s more senior who should be watching over you and kind of like giving you a hand and guiding you mentoring you through your first days with a company and doing localization projects. I think, in that case, not I think about it. I mean, you don’t have to be super great at communication, I think if you just understand things, and you just say yes, yes. Maybe sometimes you can ask questions, I think I think that’s good. So I don’t think that communication is that important. Now that I think about it in my course, I actually put communication as one of the key things. But I think, let’s say for the course we consider someone like as communication as something that you will need eventually because yes, you are managing different teams working with different people. So yes, you need to communicate with them. But I think if you’re starting out just as a junior person, you don’t need to have such a strong communication. Certainly me when it comes to that. Certainly me my communication style, let’s say was very, not so professional. That Always politically correct. But I still somehow made it work. Even though I sometimes wrote very nasty things to even the clients, so. Yeah, so when it comes to junior people, how about we just put it somewhere to be? And I’m not sure if anybody’s watching. Let me know like what communication means to you. Now let’s move on to the next one, this will be presentation. So to me, I don’t think that junior people need any presentation skills. I would say that even a regular opinion doesn’t need to present that much. Again, it means on what depends on you. Maybe if you have, I don’t know, internal meetings, and the PMs, what are their junior or regular standard or senior PMS, maybe they are working on some initiatives, and they need to present their ideas. So again, it means what we mean by that if people actually need to create the how do you call it slideshow or pitch deck for something to share. But to me, this is really, really not important. presentation, presentation skills. So I would put this into D as like completely not necessary. Like you don’t need to know even how to I don’t know, open Google Slides.
Andrej Zito
And how to create one if you want to be a junior acquisition project manager. Next one is fast pace. And what this means is let’s look at this one deep sense of urgency and ability to work in a fast paced environment with high volume. Now, this part, of course, high volume, fast paced environment depends on the company that you’re working with. But I think, at least based on some of the companies that I’m in touch with. And in the general, I don’t know, sense that a lot of the projects tend to be more agile from the customers, so they’re sending you more small requests more often. I think that the high volume of projects, is probably what is happening. So what do we mean by this fast paced, deep sense of urgency and ability to work? Okay, so let’s say you’re getting a lot of smaller projects. And you need to actually, well, deep sense of urgency, I guess, means that you need to be I don’t know, you need to consider them urgent and actually do something because they’re urgent for the client. And working in the fast paced. Again, I’m not sure what exactly this means to you. It can also depend, it will be similar to where we have, like working on the pressure will have later on. So fast paced. Again, getting high volume doesn’t mean it’s fast paced, like you have Yes, fast turnaround. But like, as like, is everybody in the office just walking around and doing things fast? Or is it just that you get a lot of things, but you can do them one by one systematically and consistently? Which is, of course, how I would approach it. So then, is the fast paced actually considered fast paced? Like does it put you under pressure or on the clock? Or is it just like you can work your normal regular pace and still be able to handle large volume of small projects? I think maybe I’m just overthinking this. So let’s say in general, you are working for a company, which has a lot of things normally, like maybe fastbase, I would say that people prefer to work I don’t know, quickly, efficiently. And maybe there’s a lot of things coming at you, which in case of small projects, it can be true. So then let’s put this somewhere higher, I would have put as an S tier or as an eight year. I think for now maybe we can keep it as a and we’ll see what we’ll put two s so in a way it’s kind of like ranking them relative to each other. Although with this one. quite confident that like D is like you don’t need it at all. Okay, next think problem solver. Generally a very good skill to have, again, depending on what it means to you, what did they put here? So Problem Solver with creative and innovative approach, ability to think outside of the box. So thinking outside of the box, is of course the general thing that is very good at being able to solve problem comes with creative and innovative approach. I think we also have innovation we have separately in general being able to problem solve, how would it work with a junior role? Now thinking outside of the box, I wouldn’t I wouldn’t get I’m getting stuck with my thoughts. Because when you say thinking outside of the box, I’m thinking like having that big picture view, like being able to think outside of, okay, I got this email with the request, now I need to download the files, and I will need to do something with it.
Andrej Zito
So that is something that I would not expect from someone who’s Junior, to really have that. Thinking outside of the box, I think, I think part of it comes with, with experience, like, of course, you will be better at solving problems as you gain more experience during the projects and alert learning from more senior people. But I will also say that you can still problem solve on your own even if you’re a junior person. In some cases, you have to actually ask your more experienced people. So instead of just sitting there and having the problem, just be there, I don’t know, waiting until you do someone asks, like, let’s say you actively try to solve the problem, or what we tell it to a lot of people in our courses is ut of GE used to fucking Google, for example, if you have technical issues, or something like that. So I think problem solving sort of goes with I think we have it somewhere here, I think it’s ownership, or basically being able to work on your own. I think it’s independent, so many things here. So I think I would say if we say, problem solving in general, even if you don’t have experience from localization, I think it’s quite important. And I will put it in this case, right here, as I still don’t think it’s that super necessary, especially for junior people who, let’s say will be told exactly what to do. And then they should just follow things. But let’s put it here, because I think it’s a general, generally good thing that, let’s say can make you grow further in your role. Next one, detail oriented. Okay, attending attention to detail, sharp attention to detail. Now, detail orientation. I think communication is something you can learn solving problems, or not sure how you can learn it, of course, let’s say if you experience a certain problem, and somebody helped you how to solve it, if you encountered a problem, the next time, and you are now able to solve it, is it because you are, let’s say intelligent? Or is it just because you already had that experience? So I would say it’s more about your approach to new problems, rather than being able to solve previous problems that you already had experience with, because then you’re basically just redoing the same things. So when it comes to being detail oriented, what I’m not sure if this is something that you can learn. I’ve had experiences in my career with some people, and even in the courses, people who are, let’s say, sloppy, which I guess could be considered as the opposite in a way to being detail oriented. And I think it’s one of the things that we normally or at least I suggest it to the companies that those people would not be a good candidate for the role, the sloppy people, because then you need a lot of hand holding and somebody needs to always check what they do. And especially if we’re talking about fast paced environment with a lot of things. I think it’s important to pay attention to the little details among all those messy requests that you can get. And so I’m going to say that this is quite important to be detail oriented. Again, this could be like I mentioned beginning, this could be based on let’s say my attributes and I think I am pretty detail oriented in some cases, so I would put this high as well. So probably s or a tear but Since we’re talking about the whole fact that we at least I encourage companies not to deal with people who are not detail oriented. I guess I would put it into St. I’m still thinking of this as correct for let’s say, a junior localization project manager. I think I bring probably, yeah. All right. Next one, positive attitude.
Andrej Zito
Positive attitude when experiencing obstacles and twos enthusiastic to get things done. I can do and problem solving oriented attitude. So I guess we problem solving, we already have some that somewhere. So a can do attitude. So funny thing, the first thing that comes to mind is that one of the companies that I work with, a lot of them are considered to be pessimistic. And recently, I saw some posts on LinkedIn who sort of the person wrote something that I also sometimes feel when I read the comments on LinkedIn, is that like, LinkedIn is very positive. Everybody writes very positively. And sometimes it feels like it’s a fake positivism. So I don’t think that you again, depends on what what is your definition of be having a positive attitude. So if something goes, something bad happens, does it mean that if you start yelling and screaming at everyone, and you say, Fuck this, fuck, that doesn’t mean that you have a negative attitude? Maybe, but maybe that’s exaggerated. So if positive attitude means that whatever happens, I’m just going to be looking at the brighter side. I think that’s not what’s that important. I think you don’t have to be always positive in every situation. Like I mentioned, the fake positivism, like sometimes things just suck. I think like, let’s say, even speaking from my experience, I think, in some cases, if something is really like, bad, maybe I can, I don’t know, burst out at first, or like, just just walk away, and I just need my time. Maybe, excuse me, maybe then when I come back, I can maybe think about, like what we can do about the situation. But it’s not that in every situation, regardless of what happens, I’m always positive. So this is again, I don’t think this is a super related to being a junior person. I think maybe you can, you would expect more positive attitude from someone who’s like a manager level or, I don’t know, the top management, because if they have positive attitude, probably propagates to the rest of the company. So if you just hired someone, and they’re not always positive, I think that’s okay, as long as they get to do the job. And maybe over time, maybe you can infect them with your positivity, whether it’s fake or not. So positive attitude, I don’t think it’s that important. I still think communication is more important. So let’s try to put this into C. All right, good. 123456. And I’ve been live for 22 minutes. So it means less than four minutes by we also had the interest. So I think maybe we’re doing fine. Next one customer experience. I think we have this in the hard skills, or maybe not. Oh, no, no, this is a different one. Passionate. We were I put XP there. I don’t know. Customers is that the one? I think it’s the one. Customer’s passionate about customer experience. That’s where it comes from. So not having an experience deal with customers, but being passionate about customer experience, and customer service excellence. I think this is quite important. Now I’m trying to think about whether this would be important for a junior person. Because we said in the beginning that for junior role, we don’t consider that person to be dealing with the customer. So technically, you are working for the customer or with the customer indirectly through the more senior PMS. And maybe in the sense you can think about that. Okay, maybe your team who is giving you work is your customer. But I think I would put this probably somewhere high because if you think about it, all that we do in localization is technically four customer. So, which doesn’t mean that you have to follow the rule that the customer is always right. But just just just realizing that, like without the customers there, you wouldn’t have a job, you wouldn’t have any, I don’t know,
Andrej Zito
any salary or anything like that, there wouldn’t be a job for you. So I think that is quite important and kind of like making sure that I want to do my best for the customer. I think that is important. And I think this is something attitude that you can have at any any position level, I would say, especially if you consider, let’s say, your teammates, as your customers. So maybe I’m just thinking about is like as doing a high quality work. Maybe I’m overthinking this. Do we should excuse me? Do we actually have something like a high quality work? Or do we not have that because customer experience? Maybe it’s something for more senior people? I’m not sure. But from what I was saying that saying so far, let’s say doing quality work and thinking about the customer? I think that it’s quite important. So maybe I would put it maybe. Sorry, I’m not sure why I’m coughing so much today. Maybe I would put it here after problem solving. And before false based. Hey, km. Thank you for your incredible videos as localization specialists attempting to segue to look as a project manager, I found your channel immensely helpful. Thank you very much. A km. Do you have any? Yep, yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that. And let’s get back to this one. Collaboration. What do we have here? Collaborative thinker, works well in a team. Now I’m thinking if I have something like a team, I think we have a team spirit said no, it’s part of this team spirit. Mission to learn that somewhere else support and be part of talent. It’s truly international localization team. Okay, so collaboration. How is collaboration important? I think this sort of relates to communication. And what I was just talking about the customer experience, let’s say, if you consider your more senior PMS to be, let’s say, your customers, so you’re, they’re not your customers, but you’re technically collaborating with them. Right. Now, I think, when you’re Junior, again, I think this could be technically related to communication, I’m just inclined to just put it next to the communication because communication and collaboration kind of go hand in hand. Because you’re basically interacting and working with other I’m not even collaboration, collaborating, okay, collaborating with someone, okay, communication, you can have technically with your clients, although you can also collaborate with your clients on something. And you also have communication with the vendors. In which case, you’re just mostly, let’s say, assigning or giving them work, which I wouldn’t consider collaboration. But sometimes maybe if you have some initiative, you can collaborate with the vendors, let’s say, I don’t know, like, you want to build your quality program. So you want to I don’t know, collaborate with your translators, some of them. I’m building this to when it comes to collaboration, okay, let’s think about the junior perspective. Okay, I join in, I’m a junior, I need to. Now, it depends on what you consider cooperation. Because let’s say if the the more senior people, they just tell me like, Do this, do that, and I do it. And I say yes. Is that of cooperation? Well, um, I wouldn’t consider that a collaboration. Whether these guys say collaborative thinker who works well in team, okay, so working well in a team. So yes, you will be part of a team. So I guess that is important. I guess when I look at myself, I think my collaboration skills, or being like a nice team member or thinking about the team spirit, or putting the team first. I think that’s not a quality that I always had. And well, I’m not sure if even even if I have it now. But okay, I think I’m no I’m cutting is because I’m talking too much. So cooperation, let’s think about is, is it important? Yes. It’s from experience. I think that’s from experience with in law I opinion come first like thinking about a customer, rather than being a good collaborator because you can still do a lot of good work for customers. If he even if you’re not collaborative, I think
Andrej Zito
maybe the first base, I would put that maybe first base below now then communication. And maybe I would put collaboration here, or do I put it into the beat here? Collaboration communication. Yes. I still think collaboration as a junior might be. Well, fuck login depends on what you consider. Okay, let’s keep them like in the same row fastbase. Did I make a mistake with fast paced? fast pace, let’s say handling multiple things, like many things and multiple things at the same time. Do I keep it here? Yeah, let’s keep it here. Let’s keep it like this. Okay, next one. leadership that will be a quick one demonstrated successful leadership or mentoring experience preferred? If your junior No, I don’t, I would never expect for you to be a leader or dry things. So I will put that here next to the next one. prioritization. Where do we have this must be able to prioritize the team’s work on multiple projects simultaneously in a fast paced environment? Yes, with the ability to adapt to changing priorities efficiently and effectively, flexibility and capacity to manage multiple streams of work at once prioritizing what’s needed and producing consistently high level of work, even with very tight deadlines. Prioritization, to me is very important skill in life in general. Although
Andrej Zito
I think this sort of leads to being methodical like being able to say, Okay, I’m going to work for some this, and this, and this and this. For example, when I work on localization Academy, different things, I’m pretty sure that many times, especially like, you know, like, since we have a very limited budget, and let’s say, I’m the person who’s working on it, and the only person who’s working on it, let’s say full time. Because we have this limited time, I need to, let’s say, think about what should be the right thing to work on, which is typically a thing that you have associated with startups, because they have a limited budget and so on. So prioritization is very important. Now the question is, was I always able to pick the right priority? Pretty sure I didn’t, because sometimes, you just don’t know if he can best guess. But especially when we combine this with fast paced, I think prioritization is important. I’m not sure how, let’s say I would teach prioritization to someone. But being able to, I don’t know, organize your priorities, think about what’s what’s what’s important. First, I guess if you’re Junior, maybe you just get told, like, what are the deadlines? What needs to be done ASAP? What doesn’t need to be maybe based on your experience? Being able to I don’t know, judge or think about how something is going to take I think it’s, it’s, it’s a it’s definitely a good skill. So I think even for a junior person, and I think like the general sense of having an idea about priorities is a good skill in general. So I would put this somewhere high. Now I’m thinking where I should put it into S tier, or a tier. Problem Solver. prioritization. I think. I think I would, I mean, I’m thinking about putting it into ES. But I think, okay, let’s maybe put it at the front of a, and maybe we consider it to put it into us. Is it more important than problem solving? I think it is, because you still need to prioritize a lot of the work. Like we said, especially in the fast paced, I think, problem solving, I think is a very good but not that required. So maybe, okay, I’ll put it into this. Next one. negotiation that will be easy. One thing that must have excellent negotiation skills, with the ability to find solutions and provide recommendations to all levels of management. So let’s just strictly think about what is negotiate So let’s say, I don’t know, I want to convince my client not to do certain things or to do certain things. I don’t think this is really important. So I’m going to put it somewhere down here. Next one, being analytic. So I mentioned this, Ken. Oh, nice to meet Nice to meet you. Would you say prioritization? is a learned skill? And if so, would you have in addition to how to strengthen? Exactly, I think I was even mentioning, I’m not sure how I think maybe I would, the first thing that comes to my mind is what I want to say, is maybe giving you some examples, like, let’s say, I don’t know, like, I started my day, this is how my inbox looks like. I would first I don’t know, go through the emails, and then maybe think about what I should do first, second, third, and why I should do those things in that order. And maybe if I did that exercise, maybe first of all, you would learn something about how I think about creating the priorities. And maybe second thing is that, I, if I think about how I prioritize, I would be able to give you some tips, but because I never was in that position. I I don’t know how to how to strengthen it, but I’m pretty sure you can. Again, most of the things are learned through experience. So I think, for example, like when I work with my assistant, maybe sometimes she says like, Okay, I give her some tasks. And she says, Okay, I’m willing to do this, this, this and this, and then maybe says, I don’t know some of the tasks I need to do tomorrow. And maybe when I look at the list, I look at it differently. And I can hopefully explain to her why I think something needs to be important. So sometimes it has to do with
Andrej Zito
with the deadlines, sometimes it has to do with how easy that task is, like if something is, I don’t know, super simple to do in five minutes. You don’t need to I don’t know delayed. And again, another thing important when it comes to prioritization is about your approach. Like for a long time, I was a fan of the eat the frog thing, which means that you start your day with the most, let’s say, challenging task. And then you work on this more simple tasks. Right now, maybe sometimes, or depending on my day, when I’m feeling lazy. I think it’s better for me to start first with tasks that are more simple to do. Because they get me into the rhythm of doing things and ticking them off. And then maybe I’ll have enough, I don’t know, enthusiasm or motivation to do the big thing. So I think the priorities can change even based on how you feel that day. So a lot of it comes from the experience. And again, like to your question, I don’t have any specific suggestions right now, because I didn’t think about it. But if I eventually had to teach someone, what I said is how I would probably start. And is it a learned skill? I think so although I put it here as a put it into sto even for the junior person. Maybe I shouldn’t have think about it. Because I think what I meant is just just having a general sense of okay, priorities, like like what I do first what I do second, and why I do the things in certain order. So prioritization slash, being methodical about things, which is something that I’m, I think I’m very, very good at and that’s why I think it’s my strength, and that’s why maybe I put it high. But is it a learned skill that the junior people can work? Especially if they never work anywhere? I think absolutely. Yes. It just comes with your experience. Okay. All right. Next one analytical. So being analytical. Unlike prioritization, this one I’m not sure how you can teach people to be analytical. Maybe it’s related to prioritization, because if you are setting your priorities, you’re technically analyzing, you are being analytical. I think about the tasks that you have to do, I think, but like I mentioned in the beginning, I think being analytical is one of my strongest things. And I think when I search, what actually means to be analytical, it’s means like, sort of like taking a problem. decomposing it like putting in small things, like having that top to top down, top down approach, like breaking things apart. Maybe it’s not that important for junior localization, PMS, especially if they are just being told what to do. Maybe they don’t have to think analytically. But I still think in general No, it’s a very good thing to have for future. So I think when I’m looking at this thing, maybe I wouldn’t put it into str, although I definitely like working with people who are analytical because I can easier cooperate with them. I think, you know, one of the definitions of analytical I even read it’s like a rational or being logical things. So I have a really hard time with people who argue based on their feelings, let’s say and not about I don’t know, facts or data. And our and they don’t make sense to me, or they are not logical in that explanation. So, but I’m going off topic. So analytical, is being analytical, important to do your job as a junior person? Surprisingly, to me, I would say maybe not that much. But fuck, it’s like a generally good skill to have. Is it so important for junior? We do have a problem solving here. Collaboration, maybe I would put it just next to this one. Problem Solver. It’s kind of ghosts. together in a way. Okay. That’s cool. Exactly. Learn. Now, ambitious and with a desire to learn progress, this will be an easy one. To me, that is one of the key things in life again, in general, but especially if you’re Junior, you just want to have to learn right? Because you know, nothing. So desire to learn, absolutely goes to the str. Like, like, I don’t want to meet people who are like, I have learned everything, I don’t need to learn anything more.
Andrej Zito
I put it to the top. Is this one flexibility? Now what does it mean? adaptable and flexible to a changing work environment, flexible and open to change and able to work in a dynamic environment. Now this is sort of related to, to the fast paced environment. But plus best I guess, means like, church, like things are coming in, you have to do them fast. Flexibility is like I don’t know, somebody sends you something. And then in the next 10 minutes, something changes. And how do you react to it? So I think flexibility is definitely good to have. I think the bigger question is, do the environments first of all change that fast? A lot of companies think they are, I don’t know, agile or changing things fast. But I don’t know. A lot of the times, they just do the same things again, and again. And if you want to make actually a change, it takes so many levels of approval to get things done. But that’s my rent. awkward to change able to work. I think being flexible. I think it sort of goes hand in hand with being a junior, because I think a lot of that in flexibility. I hope that word is correct. Like people not being able not being flexible and not be able to change is because they already have experienced, let’s say doing something for I don’t know, 10 years. So let’s say someone who’s been working in a corporate environment, suddenly they join a startup, that would probably struggle a lot. Because they’re used to doing the things in a certain way. They expect certain things. And let’s say if you’re working in a startup, you need to do a lot of things, things change fast and so on. But if I think about a localization company, I don’t think they change that much like what they do. But if they do, if they do require flexibility, I think it’s always a good thing to have. Maybe if you’re a junior, maybe the flexibility is related to you are no, no, scratch that foot. So okay, being flexible. Where would I put this without much context? Do I put it next to the positive edited? No, I think it should be higher. Collaboration. Yes. US based communication. I say I would, I would not even expect junior people to be not flexible. Especially because they don’t have any experience or they don’t have any baggage from their past. But then technically well actually did have some people who were older because they used to work as translators. And like for example, in your case, can like you have experience working in a different role in localization. So maybe you bring that experience and those habits into the new role, and you could still be a junior localization project manager. So the question is, would you need to be flexible? I think so. So I’m going to put this as higher because, okay, let’s imagine that people, regardless of their age, or experience can bring something, some habits that are, let’s say, not desired, and they want you to change it to be flexible about it. So let’s think that this is what it means. So I think that it’s quite important to be flexible and say open minded about certain things. So where do we put it now, now that we know what it means? I think I would put that actually quite high. I’ll put that here into a tear. I mean, like, let’s say, worst case scenario, like you join something, and you they tell you to do something in in a way, and you have always been doing in a way b, and you never want to change. And of course, I guess you still get fired. So in that case, maybe we could consider it to be an S. But I think flexibility. Also, you know, like flexibility. Okay, so somebody wants me to change? Do I just always say yes, that means you can be considered super flexible, because you’re like, okay, just I can do whatever you want. But maybe sometimes, it’s okay to just maybe ask a question like, Why the change needs to happen? What is the reason behind it, and so on. So maybe I’ll just leave it here. And in the eighth year, next one, ownership must exhibit a high degree of ownership and accountability. So this means that the work, at least what it means to me is that I take the work that I get,
Andrej Zito
either through some automated systems, or from my fellow project managers, and I take it as my own, I try to do the best thing, and I will take responsibility for what I do. So I think ownership is to be ownership doesn’t mean driving things. This may be more about innovation. So ownership. Absolutely, yes. Even if you’re a junior person, you still have things that you need to do. And wait, do we have any other thing here? Oh, I have so many XP things here, which I think I should have. It’s all the hard skills are here at the end should have mixed it up a little bit more. Going back to ownership. So we have independent, what is the different difference between work independently and within a team with a minimum supervision? ownership?
Andrej Zito
Ownership ownership? Well, I would definitely put it into St. Pierre. But right now, I don’t know what is the difference between this ownership and being independent.
Andrej Zito
So being being independent means that, okay, you can do those things without supervision, which definitely is important. Now, ownership means that the odd that I know that I’m responsible for the things, I guess I would put it together would I move it desire to learn? Definitely. Number one, detail oriented? Very good, I think. Independent, maybe I would put it before data oriented, and ownership. I’m responsible for things. Maybe let’s leave it here. Okay. So we have so many XP things here, so I’m going to mix it up a little bit. Should have done this before. Alright. Wait, let’s, let’s take one of the XP things here. Let’s take the vendor XP. So what does it mean this is a hard skill, knowledge off and experience working with external vendors. So I think in the job posting, they didn’t mean working with localization vendors, per se. So let’s make this let’s say more generic, generic general, that you as a person already have some experience working with vendors. They don’t have to be localizations specific. So what that means basically, you are able to work with people from outside companies who will be doing job for you and you will send appeals and they will do the work and then they think eight. So is that important for a junior person? I don’t think so. It’s definitely a plus. I mean, if you have some experience, but for junior, probably no. But I’m probably going to put it into the seat here. Because with with presentation leadership, it’s something that I don’t expect you to do. But as a junior, you will be working with vendors. So then it’s it’s a good thing to have. It’s not like it’s super important. And as you can see the things that I consider super important, have nothing to do with localization. It’s just about how you approach work. So I will put it here. And after positive attitude, I guess, is it more is communication collaboration more important? Yes, absolutely. Okay. Next one, innovation. Bop, bop, bop, bop, innovation, reputation for innovation, do you have reputation to be able to identify new opportunities above the agreed scope of work? So
Andrej Zito
in a way, this could be related to problem solving. But we’re almost one hour, have a few things left. And it’s the hard skills that will be easy. So innovation, okay, could be related to problem solving. But would I expect junior person to innovate something No. And the reason for that is that they simply lack experience, I think, a lot of innovation that you can do, comes actually from experience from understanding the things. And once you have that solid, I don’t know, baseline, like the things that are expected to you are kind of like a routine thing to you, maybe that’s a good point where you can start looking at how to do things differently. So I definitely don’t think this should be anywhere high. Although of course, in general, if you want to look for waking thinks be better, it’s definitely a great thing to have. But for a junior person, if they join, what I expect them to do is just do to think Do it, do it, well do it, right. I don’t expect junior person to come up with, I don’t know, 10 suggestions how to make the program more efficient, or projects or any simple things. But of course, they should be encouraged to come up with suggestions. Because that’s another thing which is related to this. This is actually comes to the flexibility. Actually, a lot of the changes in an organization in a company can come from junior people because or junior or new people that you just hired is because they’re not used to doing the things that you’ve been doing them so far. So I think it’s important to let’s say, give them the space and listen to them and evaluate what they come up with whether they junior or more senior. Because once they get to the rhythm of your company, once they inherit the habits that you have, then maybe people would just keep doing the things because you know, it gets the job done. They get paid. And maybe they don’t have a reason to look for better ways to do things. So with that being said, let’s put it right here. And I would actually put innovation. Oh, actually, okay, I’ll put it behind. Next one, I’m multitasking, this will be an easy one. If you’ve seen some of my posts here, and they’re very occasionally, I you know that, to me, multitasking is one of the worst things that people put in their job postings as a requirement. Even if you’re working in a fast paced company, which sends you many things, it does not mean that you have to be working on multiple projects at the very same time. So yes, in a day, you can be dealing with, I don’t know, 10 projects, but you them in order, which goes back to prioritization. And you do them one by one, doing things one by one means that you can dedicate your whole brainpower to doing the thing, which means that you should be able to do it in a better, let’s say, more quality way and be less prone to errors. So if you’re doing I don’t know, pos for it doesn’t even make sense to me. I wanted to say that if you’re doing POS for three different projects at the same time, like why would you at three windows open and do it at the same time? I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense to me. So multitasking to me is absolutely bullshit. I prefer single tasking, regardless of the amount of things that you have to do. So to me, this will go into the details here for sure. And, yeah, if there was something that I would say is like a golf tear, then this would be this would be it. Maybe we should maybe I should edit. Next one. Computer X perience now computer proficient computer skills Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Acrobat, HTML, XML. So these are a bunch of things here. Maybe if I wanted to be more specific, maybe I would change this into I don’t know, Office programs. This to me is like more demands, like, why would you need to know HTML? So this one, I would just say that you are pretty good at using computers. Of course, it’s open to the definition of what it actually means. Being good with computers, but people who I don’t know are very slow with computers. I don’t know they they don’t use keyboard at much. They don’t know what it’s Ctrl C, Ctrl. V, they know what it’s L tap. Yes, those people can learn things. But I think in this era,
Andrej Zito
especially as a junior pre poll person you will be doing you will be handling a lot of stuff in I don’t know, spreadsheets, DMS systems, email, and so on. So all of this is tech, right? It’s it, it’s computer skills. So like the basic skills, like having the basic skills, I think are quite important, pretty much for anything that we do. I don’t know maybe if you’re a more senior, maybe if you spent I don’t know your time traveling and talking to people, talking to clients, and so on. Maybe you don’t need to be that good with computers. But I still think you should be able to use computers in a more efficient way, the basic things. So I would put this somewhere higher, for sure. Especially since I was talking to someone recently, they said that, yes, this is important for them. For internship roles. So where would I put this? I would not put this into the St. Pierre. I would put this into a tear, because I think it’s really related a lot to your job online collaboration and communication, I think. So I put it into a tear. Now. Problem Solver analytical customer experience out here maybe regarding hard skills, what when a potential position says something is a plus or advantage, how much would you say that factors into the hiring, decision making? Process vendor experience? Well, I never know it’s okay. No worries. So I never, I only participated in hiring once in my whole life. So I don’t know. But the first thing that comes to my mind is my my ex colleague, my friend, we were doing some other podcasts for for for teenagers. And we were talking about these like Job things and the job requirements. And she said that a lot of the companies just put stuff out there, and it doesn’t mean that you need to actually tick off all the boxes. And now, I’m not sure if people I don’t think, at least based on my experience, as a person who was being hired and being interviewed. I don’t think that a lot of the companies actually have some like, like they give you a point system. A lot of the times I think it comes down to do the people like you, do they think that you would be a good fit to the team. And that is more important than whether you check some preferred think. So I think if you I don’t know, let’s say at least fulfill the basic criteria. And then you get to an interview, I think what matters more is how you do during the interview your personality. I think that matters more than whether you have the preferred skill or not. But I could be wrong. Of course, you know, when we will be talking about degree, there are still companies who think about the grease as a as a minimum thing that even use it as a filter. But I’ll talk about the degrees once we get there. So maybe I don’t know some companies if they have to. I don’t know if they have too many applications. Maybe they decide, like who do they interview based on? I don’t know, it’s let’s say everybody covers the basic requirements. Maybe they start with the people who have the preferred skills. But ultimately, I think it’s more about once you once you get the interview, I think it’s more about how you do and what you say how you say it and how you come off as a person. I’m not sure if that answered your question. So, yeah. So maybe before the interview process before you start talking to the people, maybe it helps. I’m not sure to what degree because I think it depends on each company. How much value they put into the preferred things. But again, even even during the pre screening phase, is it screening phase, like when the the HR people look at the resumes, maybe you can stand out, just by having basic skills, but maybe it’s about, I don’t know, having a nice layout, no grammatical errors and so on. So, yeah, that’s my point. Next thing 1-234-567-8910. Okay, let’s try to do this within half an hour. So passion for languages. Let’s see where we have this.
Andrej Zito
Two, language, passion, passion for languages and cultures. So this is quite an interesting one. To me. This is not that important. Although I know that a lot of the people on LinkedIn say that, yes, they’re, they love localization. They love languages, which I think is great. But if you’re working as a junior project manager, I don’t think you need to technically have a passion for languages. I think it’s more about organizing work. And all the things that we put here into the str, rather than having passion for languages, because again, yes, you will be exposed to different languages to different translations. Yes, you can open the files, yes, you can look at things in different languages. And maybe that I don’t know, gives you satisfaction. But it’s not important for the role of a project manager. You don’t need to understand languages. And I don’t think you need to be passionate about languages. So does it help? Yes. So I think this, I will put this simply into your seat here. And I will put it even at the end. What I wanted to say is that actually, when I was talking with one lady that I used to do some content with, I know that for them for their company, it’s actually quite important to be passionate about languages for pm rolls. Because they want their PMS to I don’t know, check the files before delivering, but even then I don’t. But I just simply disagree with it. So very helpful. Thanks. Yeah, no words. Next one stakeholders, I think this is what is this excellent ability to manage and develop stakeholder relationships. So I don’t think this is. So to me, this is different from customer experience, like thinking about the customer? Stakeholders, I think this is more advanced think so I would definitely not consider this. Important. Like, when you started maybe you don’t even know what stakeholders? Certainly not what is stakeholder management? Not even I know what it means or how to do it. So I would put this into the detail here. Excellent ability to manage and develop stakeholder relationships. Presentation, probably maybe more important, leadership, probably good to have negotiation. Let’s put it here. All right. Anybody any degree, so this is the fog of tear. Again, if you know what, what I stand for what moralization Academy stands for is that I don’t think that a degree should be a filter for for you, to getting a chance to get an interview. To me degree means absolutely nothing. It means that you just went to some school for many years, and somehow you passed some tests. And now you have a nice paper. That’s all but that’s not what what I need you as a junior project manager to do, right. So the sad thing is that many of these companies, you can see it here minimum qualification. And I don’t know this for sure. But I’m pretty sure that a lot of the companies like if you don’t have a degree that you simply, you don’t even get through the first filters. Which again, like I said, it’s sad, because this is what matters to me. And this are the things that you cannot prove or show through a degree. If I found people who has this, and they don’t have any degree, I would pick them anytime because I know that this person can, let’s say work. more my style look like work similar way that I can do. And especially if their desire to learn. That’s far more important than having a degree. If you have a degree, it doesn’t mean of course, the I guess the the obvious explanation is that yes, you want it to learn something but I’m sure there are so many people who just ended up at the universities just because they thought it was the right thing to do. They wanted to get a degree because of all these Stupid things that companies put in their job postings. But does it mean that they actually desire to learn something? I don’t think so. So to me, this is definitely at the at the very, very, very, very end. Right, next one client facing. This one will be, I think, very simple, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, excellent client facing skills. So we talked about the fact that we don’t expect the junior people to be facing the client, especially not in person or through Zoom meeting. So you’re just there sitting behind your computer, and maybe you collaborate with your teammates a little bit,
Andrej Zito
although technically client facing could be considered communication is it goes into communication, like when you just write an email to them, I don’t know, it doesn’t matter. So I think client facing skills, they said, they put skills here. I thought it was like a previous experience facing clients, I think that would be very, very good to have, like something like with the vendor experience. But I don’t think this is important. So I’m going to put it to, I’m actually going to put it behind. So let’s say that the client facing is like having previous experience working with clients, like we have the vendor XP. So I think that I will put it here, but vendors are more important because you will be dealing more with vendors than with clients. Next one localization experience. So these job postings were not specifically for junior roles. They were for localization project manager. So if you are a junior, then of course, we don’t expect you to have some localization experience. But you can apply or junior localization project managers, even if you have previous localization experience. So I think this, this is something that I would say is a big plus, of course, if you have it, you know, the basic things. And that’s actually technically what we’re trying to teach in the courses to give people some basic experience with localization projects. But I still don’t think this is this is that important? Of course, if you Junior, then we wouldn’t expect you to have it. But when it comes to this thing, I would put it probably somewhere here, right? So this is like having experience working with vendors in general. This is specific to localization. So since we’re talking about localization roles, then I guess it’s more important, but still within the seat here. Next one, working under pressure. I think I was touching on this previously, Ba Ba, ba ba, this one able to meet deadlines and work under pressure. The first question is, I think I was talking about this when I was talking about the fastbase. First thing is What does pressure mean to you? I think when I was preparing longtime for some interview, and was looking at the typical questions, and what are the expected or the nice answers to give to the recruiters is that they ask you are you good at working under pressure? And you say something like, to me, it’s just like a situation like I don’t feel pressure. So I think there’s some truth to that, because people different people react to different situations differently. And some people can freak out. I don’t know, right away, some people just don’t. So does it mean that the people who don’t react to things, they’re good working under pressure? Or is it that we just haven’t seen them under pressure? Another thing that comes to my mind when I was thinking specifically about this skill, working under pressure is that I never knew that. But I know that some of my two of my ex colleagues, when we went out the ones they said that sometimes they just go to the bathroom and they cry, and then they come back, they just continue working. And sometimes even for for no reason. So I don’t think what I would consider this skill to be like working on the pressure doesn’t mean that you have a shitty boss who just I don’t know, wants to dominate you and just doesn’t treat you very nicely that you’re okay with it. Is that working under pressure? I am not sure. Another thing that comes to my mind is that okay, so if something bad happens, does it mean that you freak out and you I don’t know leave and go home and just or quit right away? Maybe yes, that is not desired. But like, like, not reacting having no emotions to whatever happens. I think that’s not what I would call working on a brochure like I mentioned to you. Sometimes when some bad things happen sometimes I just need some more time maybe to sleep on it, then I come back and I’m more positive. I think it’s related to the positive attitude. So, with that being said, I don’t think it’s that important. So working under pressure, I will put it next to the positive attitude. Okay, next one PMP certification. That will be a quick one. I was just talking about that recently, with someone.
Andrej Zito
Okay, I think it’s probably a nice thing to have, because you know, at least something about project management. But it’s very general, I guess. And is that related to localization? So I think I think when it comes to certification, maybe I would put it here. I still think that having localization experience, knowing what localization is about from like, a hands on experience is more important than maybe if you know something about project management is great thing to have. Vendor experience, yeah, less and less, I think this is sorted correctly. Next thing we have localization tools, experience with CAT tools, TMS and excellent computer skills. So we covered computer general computer stuff. This one is about localization tools. So I think it would probably be somewhere here. So it’s like a nice thing to have. But if you Junior, then I mean, we can just train you, right? Simple as that. Next thing. Second Language. Our is that two more things good. So fluency in at least one language other than English. And another job post set by second language is preferred. So yes. Second language can be good to have. I know, in my last job, when I was working here in Canada, we had so many nationalities in the office, like, like, not even remotely or online, like I could just go talk to my colleagues who spoke Polish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, German, Russian, whatever. It was very, very helpful. So I think it’s a good thing. But again, it’s not, to me, it’s not a requirement. It’s like a nice thing to have. But like, knowing a second language doesn’t make you a good project manager. I think what it helps is that maybe if you know, a different language, let’s say other than English, if your source is in English, and then you, I don’t know, walk alized those files or the project into the language that you actually can understand. So the second language, and you can look at it. And because you understand that you can actually look at it from the perspective of the end user. I think that could that is the place where I would see this as being quite helpful. But again, to me, like I mentioned before, when it comes to the passion for languages, or is it this one? I don’t think it’s, it’s technically not your job to look at the files, maybe again, depending on the company. But if you if you see things with one language, let’s okay. What am I talking about? So, there are also SLPs, right? LSPs, who do localization only into one language. So if you, let’s say, going to about Italian creative words, if you know English, and then of course, you know, Italian, which in their case, most of the people know because it’s a native language to them, then it’s very helpful because all of your projects are into Italian. But when it comes to the the thing of getting projects done, I don’t think second language matters that much. To me, actually, my second language is English, which I guess in that sense, it’s very important because all the communication happens in English. But I think that’s not what they meant with this. So I’m just simply going to put this next to here and I’m going to put it before finally. Yes, we are at the end. We have the pm skills before I run out of my voice. pm skills, excellent project management skills, including strong and demonstrable planning, prioritizing and organizational skills. I don’t know why I never put organization here. To me organization is probably STR Yeah, yeah, they can edit. Anyway. pm skills. So if you’re a junior, we don’t expect you to know anything about PM. And I would put it actually somewhere to here because here we have some experience with project management. But output before the certification
Andrej Zito
when I put it before, I mean, it’s kind of like, around the same thing. Well, this one is certification. I’m not sure if the PMP actually requires to have some real project management skills. But if you have the actual skills, like experience managing projects, versus having a certification where you just pass some exam, again, I don’t know how how the certification is worded. I think to me skills are matter more than having a certification. That’s it. That is the end of our Tiermaker. So 9:45am Let me see just quickly if I got this, right, these are to learn absolutely. Independent, detail oriented. Yes, preposition ownership. Problem Solver, analytical computers, computer basic computer stuff. Computer experience. Customer like working for a customer. customer centric, I guess. Flexibility. Yeah, yes. Okay. Collaboration, US based communication, positive attitude. Working at a pressure, you know, ation, look, as you experienced blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And finally, the things that we don’t need at all presentation skills, leadership skills. stakeholder management and negotiation, multitasking. And any degree. All right. So that’s the end. Ken, surprising list expected a lot of the steer C skills to be higher up. Really? Like, which. But yeah, like I mentioned, everything here is just based on my own preference, based on my experience. And again, like we’re focusing on the Junior, right, right, like something who doesn’t need to have any previous experience, because all of these things here you can learn. I don’t expect your new people to innovate under pressure. I think I talked about it with positive attitude. It’s like, Yeah, it’s nice thing to say, but it’s not the most important thing. And then the thing about languages, I also mentioned that to me, it’s not required for a project manager, if you’re managing a no projects into 20 languages. Why is it helpful that you know, I don’t know. Japanese, like one other language. That’s that. End? Yeah. Like I mentioned in the beginning, this would be the things that based on my experience, working with some companies, where we try to find the junior people that they will hire, these are like the general traits, that I think would be way more important than let’s say, for example, this thing, because if you have this thing, it means you can of course, learn new things. And you want to learn new things. And you are good at organizing your work planning, prioritizing, and delivering good, good work. So it means if you have these traits, you are good for the company, even for the future. If you’re not good at these things, I don’t think there’s any any other role where these things wouldn’t be desired. So it’s like a general think. Simple as that. All right. And 48. So thank you, everyone for spending the one hour plus, with me. Hopefully this was useful. One last thing that I mentioned before organization, I don’t know why I don’t have it here. That will definitely be sto for me. And yeah, you just replied, working well under pressure seems to always be one of the first thing mentioned. Yes. Yes, I know they they put it there. That that’s what I’m saying is that I don’t think that a lot of the I actually wanted to make make a video about this. And maybe I will at some point, not like a Tiermaker by where I look at, I don’t know, job posts, which I actually did, right. We just put it into a Tiermaker and say the things which I think are totally wrong. And sometimes the HR people maybe they are a bit disconnected from what is actually required for the role because they’re not project managers first of all, and I’m not sure if the the real project managers are hiring managers actually require them. But yeah, like they’re working under pressure. Yes, I know, you see everywhere, but what does it mean that the company creates a lot of pressure for you? Like, would you even want to work for such a company? Right? So yeah, it’s debatable.
Andrej Zito
Like I mentioned, like, like working on a brochure, like, it doesn’t mean that whatever I throw at you, you’re just going to be stone face and just poker face and just, yes, okay. I’ll do whatever, you know, I still think it’s fine as people sometimes I don’t know, need their time again, based on my experience, or knowledge. I don’t know. You definitely don’t want people who would just I don’t know, quit at the first indication of trouble, but it’s a very gray area. Yep. All right. So once again, thank you for watching. Hopefully, this was useful to you. Hopefully, it gives some hope. Some people again, it doesn’t mean that if this is my opinion, I’m not hiring anyone. Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean that if this is my this is what I think is important that the companies will suddenly start changing their mind about who to hire, especially when it comes to this, we think. But yes, who knows. So, one last time. Thank you for watching. If you enjoyed this video, make sure you subscribe to localization Academy, give this video a like, also, I think if you’re on LinkedIn, maybe comment or whatever. And I will probably share a link below I’ll add it later to this Tiermaker by any chance you want to do your own video or just try to see how these things would rank for you. And that’s it again. I’m going to cook my dinner. Thank you again for participating. No worries, I enjoyed this. The only thing that I don’t like is my cough. But yeah, this was good. So thank you and see you in some other video. Bye bye.
