Localization Academy

Localization Jobs: Do You Need To Tick All Boxes?

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Do you hesitate before hitting Apply for localization jobs? Wondering if you’re good enough? 😓 Our 6 hiring managers – Beat, Camila, Ilan, Olga, Senem, and Vera – will clarify whether you need to tick every box in the job requirement list or not.

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.


Olga Gulla-Kowalik 

I would say, definitely, yes, be bold and apply even if you don’t meet some of the criteria. And I think that’s for at least two main reasons. So first of all, I think the hiring managers are not like deadly serious about all the qualifications and requirements for a given role. So I think if there is at least some alignment, if they see a potential in a certain application, I think they can be flexible, they can hire the candidate, and they can let them grow into their own. So I think the chances are high that you might be successful, even if your application doesn’t really take all the boxes. I, for example, prefer hiring for attitude, rather than for extensive experience or formal qualifications. And I think if you are curious and passionate about something, then probably it means that you can learn rest of the things that you need, as you go.

Beat Stauber 

if you meet, you know, 50 plus percent of the requirements, I think you’d be in a pretty good spot, if you’re not sure I would apply, right? If you’re not sure if it’s sufficient, because I’ve screened a lot of resumes. And I’ve interviewed a lot of people over the last 1520 25 years. And if I look at who we ended up hiring, they, you know, maybe they checked half the boxes, maybe not.

Camila Pedraza 

Yes, yes. And always yes, apply. Even if you don’t meet every single criteria, it’s like when you imagine, you know, you’re five years old, and you imagine the ideal wedding, or you imagine the ideal partner, right, you do want them to tick off a lot of boxes, but they nobody’s like, quote, unquote, perfect. And number one, number two, a lot of these job descriptions or when by people that are copying off other job descriptions, these are HR people that don’t really know what to actually expect of a candidate, what’s going to be valuable. So if you can get your foot in the door, then you need to turn them during the interview. But what’s important is trying to Yes, match as many of the requirements as possible, highlight why those are very important. And also highlight how you plan to overcome the gaps that you have, of course, you know, like, maybe you don’t know the tool that they’re using, but you’ve used very similar tools, and they’re comparable, you know, it’s like, I’ve never used Google Docs, but I’ve used words. So I probably know, I would probably figure it out pretty quickly. So it’s a matter of like, setting yourself up for success,

Ilan Bloch  

you should definitely definitely apply even if you don’t match any of the criteria. That would be my my bottom line. Because on the one hand, where when you define a job profile with requirements, I mean, it’s for a reason, there’s a lot at stake, obviously to when you’re recruiting, it’s damn expensive to to make a bad recruitment. So, for instance, for linguist positions in regard of the ISO standard framework, you need to prove the qualifications of the linguist. On the other hand, what you know, maybe you’re not a fit for that position, you’re applying for it, but your profile will catch the eye of the recruiter and you will be offered something else. And my advice is don’t assume anything ever period in life, don’t assume just just go for it. Worst case, it’s not going to work.

Senem Konuklu 

Yes, of course, they should apply, even if they don’t met all the criterias. And especially for entry level positions. So it is not very likely for a candidate to match all the criterias. And an ideal candidate would be someone who should be able to grow with the role. So rather than who are presenting all the skills and experience so I think it is important to present in the resume and that interviews that have you developed your existing skills and competencies and how eager you are to grow.

Vera Richards 

I would say if you’re interested in a job and you do have experience for that particular job, even if you don’t check off all the requirements apply the way I look at resumes. Yes, experience is the big one. If I see that you have worked a different language service provider companies or on the client side within the language sector, I would definitely want to talk to you and oftentimes the companies you joined have their own training. So even if you don’t check all the boxes since you would be trained on the tools you might not be familiar with or the process in the given companies. So I wouldn’t discourage you to not apply if you if you’re interested. To me the passion is 90% of the success. Everything else you can learn. So if you are really excited about the role and you are willing to To learn as you go, then I would say definitely.

Olga Gulla-Kowalik 

And then I think the second reason is even more important to me. And that is that, you know, practice makes perfect. And I think applying to job adverts and taking part in the recruitment process, that’s an art in itself. And I think if you’re doing it frequently, you’ll get used to the process, you’re now more or less what questions to expect in the next interview you’re gonna have. And I think you can also learn how to manage stress that is hard to avoid during interviews. So I think if you practice a lot, I think even if you’re not successful at first, probably that just means that you can handle any future interviews even better,

Beat Stauber 

let’s say it’s, it’s a position for a DTP specialist and localization, you would want them to have a good foundation with some of the tools. So if it’s a lot of Adobe bass, work, Illustrator, Photoshop, you would want probably want people that already have a pretty good working knowledge of those tools that really help so you don’t have to train them on on those basic things. You know, a good job posting obviously has a clear distinction between these are absolute must haves, and these are, you know, additional nice skills to have. So I think that that’d be helpful. If everything is kind of listed on the same level, then maybe one thing to think about is, you know, what is this role? What is this? What does the description tell you about the role and then you can kind of tell which items are most important. But yeah, I would definitely if you like the position and you think you’re reasonably qualified, I would certainly apply this is maybe more my personal preference, I prefer talking to people, I find that I get a lot more information from having a conversation with the person. So I, you know, we might screen out three out of four candidates, just because we get a lot of applicants, they don’t, they’re not even close to meeting any of this, but I needed to requirements, but the ones that do, I prefer to just take a little time and talking to people rather than just going by what they’re writing, because to me, the most important skill is communication.

Camila Pedraza 

I know that women tend to be particularly impacted by this bias, where they feel that they shouldn’t apply if they don’t meet every single requirements. And the reality is that men are going out there and getting those jobs. So you really need to put yourself out there and stop feeling like every single one of those boxes needs to be checked, what you need is to like generally, as a whole feel like you could see yourself in that role. And that whatever gaps there are, are not gaps that you you know, you would need for years to overcome, right? If they need you to have a degree in neuroscience, that’s not going to work. But if it’s like maybe learning a tool that you don’t know, maybe getting more in depth into a language that you know pretty well, but it’s not necessarily one of your main languages, you know, these are things that can often make them work. So yes, I would definitely say take it as a guideline, but don’t take it too seriously. And definitely apply

Ilan Bloch 

oh, I want to share a personal story, which is real life, it’s not very personal company personal story. A real life example of just that it did was back in 2008, or nine, we had an opening for a sandwich your student attend, it’s not a big salary sandwich here at sandwich week, I’d be able to call that it’s a type of internship where the student is at school every other week, and at work every other week, alternating, we call that LTL nose. So comes that gentleman we’re calling Fred and is applying for that program actually is applying with us because the way it works is that you need to apply for university once you have a job in hand. So so he’s applying with us and instead of a CV, and we send a test and the CV has nothing like nothing, one line of experience, not even very remotely related of language teacher a couple of years. And that’s it. And and then we get the test back. And that’s the best test ever. We had I think we should have framed it. But we didn’t do like web plus, bless whatever you want to call it. So I called the guy and I told him like don’t waste your time, your time at school. It’s useless. I mean, you have talent, just go for it. Go straight to their freelance position you want because that’s what he wants to do. And we have worked for you 15 years we’re still working with the guy

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