Thinking about a career in localization but don’t have a degree? Discover why formal education might not be as pivotal in this field as you’ve been led to believe.
In this enlightening video, we dive deep into the perspectives shared by our panel of expert hiring managers – Beat, Camila, Ilan, Olga, Senem, and Vera. Join us as they discuss the true prerequisites for succeeding in the world of localization.
Beat Stauber
I never went to college, and I don’t have a degree and had a pretty, you know, almost 30 year career in localization. And I would say that I’m pretty decent at what I’m doing. So I think that it’s not something I put a lot of weight on. This is very much my personal opinion that a degree, you know, somebody who went to college might have gained some maturity through that somebody who specifically has a degree in localization, I know there are a few programs around the world, you know, they might have some more depth on uncertain things. But I’ve worked with people who had those degrees, and I didn’t really find them to be more knowledgeable, necessarily, or more valuable than other people who didn’t disavow very, you know, of course, anecdotal information here. But I mean, I don’t even ask, and I really don’t, that’s probably the last thing I look at when I look at a resume.
Senem Konuklu
On a personal level. So I had a chance to work with professionals, highly successful, individuals who didn’t have a degree, but they learned how to code or how the, you know, backend systems work. So they created miracles. So I would say that, personally, I wouldn’t focus on it. But I know that in big companies, it’s the must have. So you need to have a degree, you need to have a nice to degree. So maybe if you don’t have a degree, you should target the companies, which wouldn’t have to worry about a degree. So if you follow them on LinkedIn, if you look at the people who are work in that company, so if you went when you go through their qualifications, if you don’t see a degree, so maybe it can be a good target, but I don’t have a degree in localization, but I ended up working in this industry for more than 15 years now. So I had a very, very limited knowledge before my first interview, you know, related to localization. So I would say that it is not important to me. And it can mean human, something good to hell, because you would, you can think out of the box. So if you came from this industry, if you have education, so there is a potential that you will speak the same language. But when you’re out so you can be more creative, I think. And if you have most of the required qualifications, and you believe that you have the skills and experience necessary to do the job, without a degree, yeah, you should still apply for a job.
Ilan Bloch
As an ISO 7100 certified company, it is quite critical for linguistische positions, you can’t, you can’t really mess with that, for nonlinguistic. It doesn’t matter at all, nor any higher education degree matters. In my view, I think we’ve we’ve a bit forgotten maybe what degrees really are and what they’re not, they’re not a guarantee for talent, and then soft skills, they do stand for something, of course, like your ability to learn stuff that you’ll never need, or that will be expired by the time you come to the market, or even your ability to pay for dining occasion. I’m half kidding. But truly, education is super fundamental. Don’t get me wrong, but education at large, not not just a degree. So definitely for nonlinguistic jobs. A A specifically translational and localization degree is not necessary. It’s not a stopper if you don’t have that. But as soon as we’ve identified you have the skills and the talent that we’re looking for, we’ll train you, and we’ll teach you our methods and our tools in and obviously, if you have to squeeze better, don’t hurt, but not necessary. Don’t worry about it.
Vera Richards
To me. No to really, again, I’m looking at the experience. That’s the one and I want to talk to the candidate. So for me, personally and for our company, we look at, you know, we look at the candidate, not from the perspective of Which school did they attend, you know, by the brother, what skills do they have? Do they have the experience? Are they excited about what they’ll be doing? So, I mean, I’m making it very generic. So like, Yes, I love French language. So I’m now going to apply for the role of a project manager. No, that’s probably not going to work like that. But again, if that person has worked in the language industry and has worked in different different areas, different roles in Then, because they don’t have a bachelor’s degree or they don’t have any kind of special school, that’s not going to stop me from actually, I don’t even look at that. To be honest, when I look at a CV, I don’t even get that far down when it comes to schools. And oftentimes the schools could be also another country, because in our industry, so you cannot even that doesn’t tell me much, right? If I see any other school in a different country, I cannot even judge the caliber or so that’s why I’m looking at the candidate and the experience. First and foremost.
Camila Pedraza
I would say that any kind of degree is more important than a specific degree, simply because when you are a translator, there is a certain degree of no pun intended, of knowledge that is required of you like general culture, there is a certain expectation on your ability to do research, to format your documents to find appropriate sources. So usually, when you’ve gone through a degree, any kind of degree, that’s very helpful in that regard. I have never in my life hired anyone based on their degree, I none of my job descriptions ask for a specific degree, I have not necessarily felt that for most of the jobs that I’ve been involved in hiring or hiring directly, the degree has made any sort of difference, I feel the degrees are important in certain jobs. So for example, if you’re looking for people that need to be very knowledgeable about machine learning, and computers, you probably need someone who has done a degree in linguistics, or computer science, right, or some sort of that type of background. But for most of the localization, translation roles, I feel that this is not necessary. And I would feel that if you can demonstrate that through your experience and skills and potential, you have the same things that someone with a degree would have, I think you’re good, especially in the localization industry, yeah,
Olga Gulla-Kowalik
I would say it depends on the role really. So for example, if your aim at becoming a professional translator, I think something to keep in mind and to be aware of is that there are certain requirements that for example, originate from certifications norms, there is this ISO norm, for example, what if you want to work for a given company and they are ISO certified? It may mean that they can be simply obliged to ask about your degree or experience. I think, one of the expectations is that someone is a graduate from an institution of higher education in the field of translation. That’s the scenario where I think a formal degree can be important in a sense that it is something that is simply needed to perform this job. But I think for other girls, I don’t think that having a degree is that crucial. I think, probably any related education is something that I’m happy to see in a resume because it usually proves that someone is interested in the field of language translation, localization, something similar to that. But on the other hand, I think you can get this knowledge when taking part in courses when studying by yourself or most importantly, when you know, working with something and when you’re just learn on the job.
