Connor Wertz started his MA program in Translation and Localization Management at MIIS in 2020 after working for the Peace Corps as an English teacher in China. He is scheduled to graduate in summer of 2022. Between his first and second year at MIIS, he worked as a Project Manager Intern at Idem Translations. He is currently the Teaching Assistant for Professor Adam Wooten’s Translation Technology class. He sat down with me to share his career management journey in the last year.
- How did you decide to pursue an MA degree in Translation and Localization Management?
After finishing Peace Corps, I decided that I didn’t want to work for the government, but I still wanted to work in a language-related career field. The TLM degree caught my eye because of its heavy emphasis on technology, which I think is the most interesting part about localization. Now that I am in my second year, I can really appreciate how everything in our degree program revolves around learning hard skills, which makes us much more employable.
- Looking back at how you felt a year ago when you first started the TLM program, could you have anticipated how your career preparation has evolved? What do you think were your greatest growth areas?
When I entered the TLM program I had no prior localization experience, so I really felt the pressure to get something on my resume. I spent a lot of time networking with second year students, who were gracious enough to help me find freelance jobs. I grew the most by meeting with our career advisors, Winnie Heh and Edy Rhodes, who helped me polish my resume and prepare for interviews.
- What part of your academic preparation do you think have helped you the most in both developing your freelance translation work and in securing an internship?
I think one of the key reasons I was able to secure an internship with Idem Translations was my knowledge of Trados. When faced with translation homework, many students are tempted to work in Google Docs or in Word, but I would highly encourage everyone to translate using Trados. After spending an entire year working inside Trados, I was able to ace the Trados technical interview for my internship because I knew about features and key processes that some of my peers weren’t aware of. We learn a lot of cool stuff in our classes, but it’s on us to find real-world applications for these tools!
- Share with us the most valuable lessons you have learned in the past year as a freelance translator and as a project management intern?
Many of the freelance projects that I worked on were pretty small, and for companies that weren’t as mature. Idem Translations, however, has been around for 20 years and has very established processes and procedures. By working in these two different settings, I was able to learn how I should and shouldn’t work.
The most valuable thing I learned is that the more time you spend upfront on a project, the less time you have to spend fixing problems downstream. For example, if you rush a project out the door to translators, you might have to spend hours fixing formatting errors that were caused by a poorly formatted file from the client. However, if you spend just a little time upfront getting everything formatted nicely, you won’t have to spend nearly as much time fixing problems later!
In other words, the more time you spend setting up a project, the fewer problems you’ll have later on!
- Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give to the current first year students in terms of career preparation?
Make appointments with your career advisors! They’re awesome and extremely helpful. Also, reach out to 2nd year students and TLM graduates! People love talking about themselves, so just reach out and ask if people in the industry are willing to share some stories about their work. I’ve learned a lot about the localization industry this way. People are usually really receptive to these kinds of informational interviews, so be brave and ask!!! You can do it!
Winnie Heh
Career Advisor, MIIS
