LocRecruiter: Q2 2018

LOCRE RUITER Q2: 2018

YOUR LANGUAGE SERVICE NEWSLETTER

INSIDE: Five lesser-known conferences for BDMs An in-depth look at Alpha as we catch up with Paul Mangell The Best Employers in Localization Awards are back!

PLUS: Top 10: weird & wonderful job titles

WELCOME TO THE NEWEST EDITION OF

LOCRE RUITER

Brought to you by Adaptive Globalization, LocRecruiter is a newsletter focused on the topics of career development and recruitment in the Language Services industry, both from the employer and employee perspective.

Published quarterly, LR aims to be a forum in which Adaptive Globalization's network of business owners, leaders and professionals can share their expertise to discuss a range of issues and hot topics.

Within the coming pages you'll find industry insights, interviews with some of the biggest names in the business and a few highlights from the Adaptive consulting team - not to mention some of our hottest jobs within the field at the moment.

We hope you enjoy our latest edition and gain some valuable intel from this publication.

David James - CEO Adaptive Business Group

2

HOW A COMPANY REBRAND CAN HELP

LOCALIZATION EXPERTS EXPAND Paul Mangell has been with Alpha for 21 years - providing expert solutions in the localisation industry. In his current role as Global Commercial Director with the specialist agency, he was part of the team that masterminded the company's re-brand - to tie together and emphasise their primary messages.

Adaptive Business Group's CSO, Tom Newman, caught up with Paul to find out a bit more...

TN: Hi Paul! Long-time no speak! I love the re-brand and your website looks great; what was the motivation for the change?

PM: We wanted to be very clear and ensure that our core beliefs and strengths (as defined by our trademark ‘Human. Smart. Global’ ) should be at the heart of our website – the new design is all about our faith and trust in ‘human translation/transcreation’ , technology put to best use, and our global production offices.

TN: Your expansion into transcreation, multilingual content creation and ecommerce localization are a move from Alpha’s years of more technical localization services, how has progress been in these new areas?

PM: Whilst we still have a very significant and growing localization practice, our biggest growth has been in global content, brand

transcreation and copywriting. We now act as the ‘International Brand Guardians’ for some of the biggest companies in the world.

TN: If I’m an ecommerce business looking to grow into several new markets and needed my website localized, what’s the process and how long before I’m fully adapted and ready to sell?

How do you then support me going forward?

PM: Each new market needs to go through the same process to ensure that it’s not just the website that is localized, but the whole ‘end-toend’ ecommerce process leads to growth in profitable revenue.

3

"We have expert in country resources for real-time, up-to-date language requirements all under our control."

So market research needs to be aligned to content, the right platform needs to be thought about, and digital assets should work seamlessly with the content and payment technology.

Then there is logistics and client-care for the territory. Depending on the new market, and amount of content, things can be turned around in around eight weeks, but it can take much longer to set up the whole process for a large new market from scratch.

TN: Do ecommerce businesses increasingly think about localization at an earlier stage in their development to facilitate future growth, or do they look to adapt when fully established in one market?

PM: More and more they are thinking of this in the early stages of the process – and they are looking at it as international content from the start, rather than translations.

TN: Am I right in saying that Alpha have 16 offices? That’s an amazing infrastructure for a business with 500 full-time staff. How does that global coverage benefit you as a business?

PM: in fact we’re just opening production in Taiwan, so we’re up to 17 offices now! All the global offices are production based, that means we have expert in country resources for realtime, up-to-date language requirements all under our control, working with the same tool sets, and aligned to client requirements.

TN: You obviously employ a great deal of inhouse Translators. In your opinion, how different will a Translator’s job be in say 10 years’ time?

PM: We still very firmly believe in the human linguist – but for sure the role will change.

Opportunities are already presenting themselves for, on the one hand, linguists who manage quality, processes and tools to achieve optimal output and appropriate quality. On the other hand, linguists can become Global Storytellers and Brand Enthusiasts using creative skills for not only translation, but 4 also new multilingual copy.

TN: In terms of the profile of these Translators, are they mainly from graduate level or experienced people?

PM: Most are indeed graduates, but there are many linguists who are simply experts in a particular field (e.g. Fashion, Games, Automotive) and here it’s their deep knowledge that wins through, and that may be with or without a graduate degree.

TN: You’ve been in business development within this industry for many years, Paul. What would your top three tips be for an aspiring business developer within language services?

PM: 1. Strive to understand the client requirement that your company’s expertise will meet .

2. Ensure that you have defined with your client what a successful outcome, or deliverable, actually is.

3. Try not to list to your client every feature and benefit that your company brings, focus on the precise client requirement and your solution.

TN: When hiring for salespeople at Alpha, must candidates have experience within language services or are you open to hiring from elsewhere and then providing training?

PM: Very open to elsewhere – the industry needs to attract and retain a range of individuals from other industries.

"Strive to understand the client requirement that your company's expertise will meet"

TN: And finally, what does the next ten years hold for Alpha?

PM: We aim to continue growing in our key verticals through deep focus on global content, eCommerce and Brand Management to maintain our status as industry leaders.

You can reach out to both Tom and Paul via their LinkedIn pages.

Interested in a job in translation/localization?

Check out what hot jobs are available on the Adaptive Globalization website: www.adaptiveglobalization.com/jobs

5

ADAPTIVE GLOBALIZATION'S

HOT JOBS USA VP of Operations – Growing Translation Agency – Utah: $120k base BDM – Strong European Translation Agency – NYC: $80k base Strategic Account Manager – Top 10 Translation Agency – NYC/Remote: $90k base + 20% bonus Enterprise Sales Exec – Fast growing LT Agency with Cloud Based platform – Remote: $90k base Strategic Account Manager – Top 5 Translation Agency – Seattle: $150k base

EUROPE: Project Manager – Leading Tech LSP - Dublin/Remote: €35k - €45k base Senior Project Manager – Mid-sized LSP - London: £28k - £31k Project Manager – LSP with friendly work environment- Tunbridge Wells UK: £18k - £20k Project Manager – Leading Blue Chip LSP - Madrid: €25k - €29k Project Manager – Fast growing global LSP - Luxembourg: €40k - €45k Business Development Manager - Mid-sized LSP - Manchester/ Remote: £35k - £45k To find out more about Adaptive Globalization, and to explore our current job opportunities, visit our website or get in touch with our recruitment team directly by emailing: info@adaptiveglobalization.com

6

THE TRANSLATION AGENCY INDUSTRY’S

TOP-EARNING CAREER PATHS Adaptive’s recruiters are often asked by candidates how they can build their careers to raise their market value and earnings. Here Ray Green, of Adaptive Globalization New York, shares our map of the paths which lead to some of the top-paying roles in the global language services industry.

First things first - you don’t have to be a salesperson to make big bucks.

Often when Adaptive is approached by candidates looking to up their earnings in the language services industry, there’s an expectation that only the high-flying BDMs and Csuite management are making top money.

After all, BDMs are on commission plans, and signing big customer deals can be very lucrative. And it’s true – top BDMs and sales managers can be making as much as anyone on this list.

But salespeople are not the only ones with strong pay packages in the language industry.

In fact, we’ve left sales out of our list below to offer alternate options to translation and localization industry professionals looking to build their careers.

So here we go - four routes to top-paying roles if cold calling isn’t your thing...

7

1. Business Unit Leadership (VP Life Sciences, VP Engineering etc.)

Broad-ranging VP titles usually signify a role that is a mix of client relations, operations and specific expertise in a particular area. Professionals in these positions are in charge of ‘business units’ which operate like mini-companies within the larger organization, focused on one specific area – such as services to the Life Sciences market or engineering services.

This means the VP’s responsibility is wide, often covering a separate profit and loss account for their unit. VPs leading these areas can come from a variety of backgrounds, but have often worked their way up an internal hierarchy where their increasing experience makes them more and more valuable.

They head up hiring, account management and ensure that their company’s service offering continues to be competitive and evolves with the market.

Career entry point: Project Manager, Account Manager, BDM Key skill: ability to combine rounded business skills with deep subject-matter expertise Average salary range: $100,000 - $160,000 + bonus

2. Internal Technology Management (e.g. CTO, VP of Technology) At the highest level, technology managers need to be more than just experts in localization workflows, and lead areas such as networking, security, compliance, training, technology change management, data recovery and more.

Their focus is on the role technology plays in helping the company reach strategic goals and impacting overall P&L. Localization career paths typically go from specialist to generalist with candidates building a base in CAT tools, internal and client workflows and then rounding out generalist IT competencies to continue progressing.

Career entry point: CAT Tools Specialist, Loc Technology Manager, Loc Engineer Key skill: ability to visualize and implement technology changes which make high-value improvements to the global organization Average salary range: $120,000 - $180,000 + bonus

8

3. Operations & General Management (e.g. VP Operations, General Manager) A great goal for Project Managers!

Many of the industry’s top-paid professionals in operations (production) leadership started ‘in the trenches’ as PMs. Growth in this career channel comes from deep first-hand knowledge of internal workflows, aptitude for working directly with key customers and versatile operational skills – organization, planning, financial management and personnel leadership.

As operations candidates move up the career ladder, they broaden their generalist business skills and combine them with their expert knowledge of localization processes to eventually step up and take overall responsibility.

Career Entry Point: Project Manager, QA Manager Key skill: ability to design and maintain efficient teams and workflows to deliver reliably and profitably for customers Average salary range: $120,000 - $150,000 + bonus

4. Client Solutions Development (e.g. VP Client Solutions, Global Solutions Manager) A specialist team within most LSPs, solutions professionals focus on bridging the gap between sales, production and IT. Many client solutions experts get their start in engineering and are well versed in CAT tools, but also work to develop strong client relationship skills throughout their careers. Often professionals in this space work on the client side for at least a few years, building inside knowledge from the buyer perspective.

At the top of the tree, global managers for solutions teams build some of the most advanced workflows in commercial localization.

Career Entry Point: Loc Engineer, CAT Tools Specialist, PM, Account Manager Salary range: $130,000 - $150,000 + bonus Key skill: ability creatively create unique technology-based workflow solutions

9

TOP 10:

WEIRD & WONDERFUL JOB TITLES

by Alex Ross-Scott - Director, Adaptive Globalization UK

Here at Adaptive Globalization, we spend our days and weeks searching for perfect candidates and it leads us to look in some of the dark corners of the job-seekers section of the internet.

As we search through many webpages, job boards and speak with a lot of our clients and candidates, we come across some fantastic job titles – from Mischief Maker to Wizard of Lightbulb moments. I recently discovered that there’s a market for an Emoji Translator – what a job that would be, especially as Adweek reported in 2017 that more than 60 million emojis are used daily on Facebook, with a further 5 billion (plus!) on its Messenger platform.

In the localization industry, it’s important that we’re across every single language, even emojis!

So, after a few laughs in the office, we thought we’d share our top 10 picks of the weird and wonderful we’ve discovered across a range of industries and have translated them for you… do you fancy doing any of these?

10

1 Wizard of Light Bulb Moments – Marketing Director 2 Emoji Translator – Not sure where to begin…

3 Mischief Maker – Content Creator 4 Chief Evangelist – Brand Ambassador 5 Sales Ninja – Sales Executive 6 Disruptor in Chief – Head of Daily Business Operations 7 Problem Wrangler – Counsellor 8 Talent Delivery Specialist – Recruitment Consultant 9 Digital Overlord – Website Manager 10 Great Service Agent – Receptionist

I’m sure all of you have seen some weird and wonderful job titles in your time, why not share with us your favourite ones?

Better still, find out if we can get you a new job with an even better title. Get in touch at alex.ross-scott@adaptiveglobalization.com, or check out what we've got on offer over at our jobs section.

11

BRANCHING OUT IN THE

LANGUAGE SERVICES INDUSTRY Joanna Oseman is the Head of Client Services at Avantpage Translations and has been with the company since 2016 where she started as a Project Manager.

Since then she has moved into an Account Manager role and now is the Head of Client Services for the company - Shelby Crane, Recruitment Consultant at Adaptive Globalization in New York, caught up with Joanna to just to see what every day life is like at Adantpage, and how she managed to branch out within language service industry.

Here's what we found out...

SC: How did you get into the localization industry?

JO: When I moved to the US after living for several years in France, I wanted to keep the language going and so I looked for work as a translator. I started with volunteer work, and eventually built a freelance career translating from French to English for a few core clients. After years of doing that I expanded to working with a team to offer other languages, creating my own small company.

I found that I loved the project and client management aspects that came along with this, but was ready to work with a larger company and move away from the solitary life of working for myself. I joined Avantpage as a Project Manager, moving to Account Manager before heading our Client Services department.

SC: In your role, what is your day-to-day like?

JO: Pretty non-stop and very rarely the day I thought it was going to be!

A mix of fielding client inquiries, answering new sales requests, checking in with my team and our Operations colleagues, planning for upcoming projects and contracts, etc. All of our teams work closely together, so there are a lot of meetings.

12

We’re also working to become a more data driven company, and so I have several long term projects underway that have to do with tracking and measuring various information and processes throughout our company.

Face to face client meetings are definitely my favourite part of the job, so I also spend time scheduling and preparing presentations and business reviews.

Everyone here works with Avantpage because they care about the industry and about the LEP communities that we serve, so we’re constantly brainstorming and working to power through our workloads together.

Our team is pretty spread out (Davis, CA; Reno, NV; Mexico City, Mexico and Warsaw, Poland) but despite the distances, we work really closely together. It’s an interesting way to get to know people from other places and cultures and we’re a close-knit group!

SC: What’s your vision for the industry in the next few years?

JO: Obviously there’s a lot of automation heading our way, which is really interesting to be part of. We always have this top of mind when looking at the optimization of our processes, but also in terms of what Project Management will look like down the road.

SC: What makes Avantpage Translations an exciting place to work?

JO: The fast paced environment leaves no room for feeling bored or wondering what to do next - I can’t remember ever experiencing that feeling here. And we really have a great team of fun and passionate people.

PMs are already taking on more roles than they had five or ten years ago, and I’m sure this will continue to evolve. At Avantpage we also stay very aware of immigration trends and how this will affect what we do.

Because we work in highly-regulated fields (healthcare and elections), we see the demand for our work increasing as the needs of LEP populations in the US develop.

13

SC: What advice would you give to people who are interested in what you do?

JO: My best advice is to get as much experience as you can in all aspects of the industry that interest you, in order to figure out your best fit. I’ve worked in several different areas, from translation to project management and vendor recruiting - all of that led me to the role that I have now and continues to inform decisions that contribute to the overall success of our client partnerships.

SC: Avantpage has recently gone through a rebranding. Can you tell us a bit more this?

JO: This process kicked off to mark Avantpage’s 20th anniversary in 2016 and was an opportunity to take a step back and look at who we are and why we do what we do.

We did a lot of story-telling and the entire process was a collaboration between our various teams.

During the rebrand we identified our three core values: rigor, empathy, and opportunity. Working from this basis, we wanted to use the occasion to take a stand for what we really believe in at Avantpage - helping our clients to empower immigrant communities through language access.

Our Head of Marketing, Sabra Rubinstein, coordinated all aspects of the re-brand, which involved a complete revamp of our website, social media, and outreach/marketing materials. We’re all super excited about it and we’ve been getting great feedback from our partners and clients SC: What is the best advice you've ever received?

JO: I have a couple of colleagues in particular at Avantpage who give me so much daily advice that I couldn’t pick one piece as being the best - it’s one of my favourite things about our team here. A practical bit of wisdom that I always try to follow is to be wary of making rash decisions, especially when feeling fired up or emotional.

I have a tendency to be impulsive, but with business as well as life decisions, I am careful now to take a bit more time - to let something sit overnight, talk it through with others, and look at things from all angles. It’s definitely a balancing act as I’m constantly working on projects where acting quickly is key, but taking a deep breath first is never a bad thing!

You can reach out to Shelby, or Joanna, on their respective LinkedIn profiles.

Check out some similar roles to Joanna's, Adaptive Globalization is always looking for top candidates across many aspects in the Localization industry - see our jobs, here.

14

BEST EMPLOYERS IN LOCALIZATION AWARDS Being a services industry then saying “you're only as good as your team� is very relevant.

For our industry to continue its growth and push the boundaries of communication across the planet.

It is imperative that we attract talent from other sectors, inspire graduates to pursue careers in Language Services, and retain the fantastic global talent in this industry today.

These awards recognize those LSPs who make it a priority to support their staff to achieve more than they thought possible. LSPs that ensure staff is provided with the right tools, platform, and environment to perform at the highest level and to provide an exceptional service for their clients.

15

The awards acknowledge those that provide a continuous opportunity for learning and development, that creates a stable and secure work atmosphere where the wellbeing of staff comes first.

We are lucky to be working in such an attractive, diverse, multicultural, exciting and fast growing industry.

But as employers, we must ensure that we also offer excellent working environments and opportunity to allow us to attract and retain the best talent.

This will enable us to continue pushing the industry to new levels. It is Adaptive Globalization’s goal over the coming years to promote Translation and Localization as a great industry in which to have a career. Recognizing and promoting top employers in the industry will be at the heart of doing this.

Important dates for your diary: bela submissions close: August 13, 2018 bela judging commences: September 10, 2018 Winners announced: November 1, 2018 To enter bela 2018 - click here.

16

FIVE LESSER-KNOWN CONFERENCES FOR LSP BDMs Along with industry calendar staples, here are some off-the-beaten-path conference options for translation and localization sales professionals For some it's one of the top perks of the job - company-paid travel opportunities to hang out in some of the world's top cities while enjoying good food and drink along the way.

For others, it's a dreaded few days of airport security, taxis, hotel rooms and living out of a suitcase.

Whatever your take on the travel aspect, there are few better prospecting opportunities than conferences, with hundreds of potential customers gathered together with the explicit purpose of finding ideas and partners to drive their businesses forward.

On the localization circuit, there are some established events. LocWorld, TAUS, ATC and the fast-growing Slatorcon among them. To dot the 'i's and cross the 't's, the guys at Nimdzi Insights have made a pretty comprehensive schedule here.

But when it comes to sending sales reps outside of the loc bubble, many companies struggle for direction.

17

With industry-specific conferences and trade events, results can be hit and miss.

Those targeting the gaming space swear by GDC, whilst those with their sights on the LifeSci space favor events such as DIA. On a more general footing, here are a few conferences Adaptive's loc agency customers have attended with good reviews:

1) Brand2Global Billed "a world leader in promoting education and training in the fields of Global Branding, Global Marketing, Global Digital Media, and Localization", Brand2Global’s conferences feature speakers and attendees who head up global marketing for major brands. 2017’s speaker list included representatives from Microsoft, HubSpot, GoPro, Gatorade and Citrix.

3. TechCrunch Disrupt “Before there were tech conferences, there was Disrupt.” Hackathons, ‘Startup Alley’… Disrupt is all about early-phase businesses and bringing together investors and innovators for discussion and collaboration. For BDMs looking to engage early with high-growth companies at a low level of localization maturity, this can be a great base and afford some valuable networking.

4. Websummit 2) SaaStr “The world’s largest community for B2B’ software” is held over 3 days and attended by 15,000+, the SaaStr conference brings together leaders and learners in the world of software-as-a-service, a favourite IT niche with localization BDMs looking to get in at ground-level with the next company poised for explosive growth. 2019’s lineup is already assembled and features luminaries from Box, Pinterest and Slack, along with plenty of VC and PE experts.

The accolades for this event are seemingly infinite: Inc. magazine calls it “the largest tech conference in the world”. Attendees top 70,000 and speaker numbers run past 1,000. An all-star featured speaker lineup includes C-level representatives from Booking.com, Twitter, eBay, Nestlé and Tommy Hilfiger. The sheer scale of the event means any brave loc participants need to plan carefully to find relevant sessions to focus on, but there’s no event with more tech heavyweights in one place at one time.

18

5) Dmexco The self-styled “global business and innovation platform of the digital economy”, dmexco focuses on digital commerce, marketing and transformation. Heavily attended by digital services companies for a while, increasing numbers of language service providers are adding this event to their conference calendar also.

Past speakers include Jack Dorsey (CEO, Twitter), Sheryl Sandberg (COO, Facebook) and Sir Martin Sorrell (Founder, WPP).

You can check out Adaptive Globalization’s current BDM vacancies in our job listings by visiting www.adaptiveglobalization.com/jobs