Looking to land that dream job in localization? Get ahead of the competition with our resume tips from our 6 hiring managers – Beat, Camila, Ilan, Olga, Senem, and Vera. Your journey toward an exciting localization career starts here!
In this informative video, we delve into the insights and practical tips shared by our panel of hiring managers from both buyer and vendor sides of the localization world.
Camila Pedraza
I look for a lot of clarity in a resume. translators have to be good writers. So if I have a translator that doesn’t know how to clearly set out their experience, explain what they’ve been doing. I cannot expect them to do a good job as translators. So if I’m looking for linguists, obviously, I’m looking for the grammatically, orthographically perfect. This, you know, resume or cover letter in general, I do I do expect that. And yes, their style of writing will be very helpful and understanding just how good they are, when it comes to transcribing, for example, are they able to like creatively communicate something, and it doesn’t have to be the type of resume that is kind of out of this world and tries to look like it’s like a magazine article or anything of the sort, I’m fine with the standard formats, but that’s part of it.
Beat Stauber
I love a resume that fits on one page. And I’m not talking about a really, really small font, give me the real, really the highlights of what you’ve done. Describe what you’re actually doing what you’re strong, you know, what are your strength? A, you know, are you really good at working with customers? For example? Are you really good at technical troubleshooting? Maybe some examples of of things you did you know, what type of a team do you work in? Are you you know, really good at working, collaborating in a team? Are you more of a, you know, put your heads down and solve problems on my own, those kinds of things, I think are valuable. So yeah, and really, I think the more recent experience is just so much more important than stuff too far from the past. I’m not saying there’s no, you know, no importance to that. But the last five years are probably the most, because I assume the last five years, you’ve been doing the things you want to be doing,
Senem Konuklu
I think the first one would be relevant skills and experience. So they should be highlighted and placed on top of the list in the resume and quantifiable achievements. So how you contribute to the success of the previous employee, or to the school project you were part of, or what was your contributions as a volunteer sell these achievements should be very well written. And I think it should follow like education and credentials, relevant degree or certifications courses you have taken. So it clearly shows that how you learned on your own, and there are many localization courses and lessons that you can sign up for. So I think in that sense, we are lucky in this industry. And I would also look for professionalism. So you need to showcase your attention to detail to see me though it should be well formatted error free and tailor to the job that you’re applying for.
Vera Richards
So I’m also looking at how long a person stays with a different company. So if I see a few months here, payments or payments here, big, big space, you know, those are all flags to verify why, why that person is jumping from one company to another, and only staying several months. That concerns me, sometimes, there’s definitely good explanations like, you know, company layoffs, which we’re seeing right now, for example, and there could be some personal reasons for the gaps and so on. But those are, that’s another thing I look at the experience I like to see is if you are applying for, let’s say, an engineering position in localization that you have spent time and with with a company in that role for several years, and that I see you consistently maybe holding that role or growing from within that particular discipline. So those are my good indicators. And then for the engineering role, in particular, I would like to see all the technical requirements to to be there, right? Whether it’s the knowledge of different computer system tooling, or the knowledge of other platforms and tools to be used in the industry. So that’s important.
Beat Stauber
I mean, I can look at myself as an example. This is not a secret. It’s on LinkedIn, I worked for Intel for 20 years. And then I worked for two different localization service providers for three years each and still doing work for Intel. So I’ve been doing work for the same company, essentially, for 27 years, you could say, well, you know, maybe a little variety, more variety would have, you know, changed who I am as well. So I think there’s some switching can be a good thing too, because you see, especially when you see a person really having a trajectory of moving to different roles that are more difficult and more challenging. So you see that growth, and that’s a little bit maybe a little harder to see and from somebody who’s been with the same company for a long time, however, again, in an interview, you know, that’s something I would want to address to see how how did that person move through the company or ditches kind of stagnate, they’re just happy to do this one thing and some people do, right, they’d like to do the same thing for a very long time, which is a benefit to that, too, they might be really loyal and might stick around for a long time. So pros and cons,
Olga Gulla-Kowalik
my background is basically in quality management. So I might be a bit biassed here. But I think I need a resume to look good. And to be properly written. I think if you apply for a role within the localization industry, where everything revolves around language, its quality, I would just suggest to put an extra effort into checking if your resume where it doesn’t contain typos, if it has a consistent layout, and if it reads well. But apart from that, I think I also like to see that someone is genuinely interested in growing their professional skills. So I would recommend that you include any relevant courses, any relevant experience are that your, for example mentioned, your participation in, let’s say, a student conference or some kind of industry event. And I think speaking of resumes in general, I think there are some universal things to keep in mind. So for example, don’t make it too long. Make sure to tailor it for the role that you’re applying for. And I think if you’re not sure about something, if it looks good, if it reads well, just make sure to consult it with a friend, your teacher, or mentor or someone you trust and consolidate. Don’t assume that it’s alright.
Camila Pedraza
Also awareness. And it’s like business awareness. I want a translator that understands what is the business like and what is not business like, I mean, it’s fine if you want to tell me a little bit about your hobbies. But if you’re going to fill half of your resume talking about hobbies and things that are not relevant to the job, how can I trust you to understand what is relevant to a translation, right. So in general, just those sort of business skills that you can perceive by looking and reading a resume that will help me get a sense of just how much you understand how to read your client, how to understand their needs, what their expectations are, right, because as a translator, this is what you’re doing all the time, they’re not going to always give you a brief, you’re not always going to have full clarity of what it is that they want kind of need to go out there and explore the brand. Look at what they’re doing. Look at who you’re you know, the person you’re talking to, how do they behave, and that will help you understand what it is that is expected of you, if you give me a resume that shows that you have no understanding of what it is that we expect from you, then I cannot expect you to do that. Well, as a translator,
Ilan Bloch
I’m reviewing resumes all the time, even when we’re not actively recruiting when I’m looking for something special, which doesn’t need to be completely funky, you know, like, but within the experience in the skill that we’re presented with, I’m looking for something that can be an asset for our current activities and for what we want to develop in the future. So for instance, now, I would very much like to develop our machine translation capabilities, be able to train and maintain engines, we don’t have an opening for that, officially. But if I, if I hear something and feel something that concept with that, for instance, I think that’s for a large part, the way we work is that we are, we’re on the lookout, we’re not looking for something specific, but always trying to connect some dots. So what can we use and what we are going to look for an CV, that would be those skills that stem from the experience that the candidate has or from nothing, but the skills and the talent if you don’t really have any experience whatsoever.
Beat Stauber
So another thing is a little bit of a pet peeve of mine is if people have this huge list of tools and technologies and file types they’re working with that take your path to resume. And you know, the one time I’ve worked with software tools don’t list 10 Different bug tracking tools or version control tools, anybody can learn how to use those tools. It’s not rocket science. So there’s really no big benefit. Just list defect tracking, source control of just lists various you know, to say I worked with various tools, I can find my way around and all of those instead of these long lists of tools that really doesn’t add that much value.
Vera Richards
Some people get really creative and get pictures and of themselves. They have different colours and fonts, I would say basic is fine. It’s it speaks for itself. The addition if you don’t have the experience, or you don’t have you know, many companies you have kind of going through or experience you that the colours are not going to make a difference. But what will make a difference so let’s say you are just straight out of school or or you have gone through Andres course list the different types of courses you have taken doesn’t need to be a school you know, it doesn’t need to be Harvard and translation. But if you have taken you know these these type of courses because out Do something like Memsource praise training or if you have taken XL advance courses or just list that and and that’s really almost as good as the experience because then we can see where the fifth would be the best.
Camila Pedraza
I am looking for a diversity of experience as well. Someone who is curious who is interested in different things can explore different subjects. I’m not necessarily interested in someone who has like only done translation and has only done it in a single specific way. Because the wonderful thing about translation is that in localization is that you can translate and localise for any type of company in the planet. So the more diverse your experience, the more likely it is that you’re going to be able to easily adapt to any subject that I give you. For example, right now the company I work for Skillshare we are translating all sorts of subjects all the time, you need to really quickly become an expert in watercolours need to become an expert in Python or Ruby, you know, just so that you can quickly check a class and see if the, you know, the translation makes sense. You have to get acquainted with tools very quickly. So I am going to be looking for someone who can highlight that type of additional experience in a positive and businesslike way.
