LocRecruiter: Q4 2018

LOCRE RUITER Q4: 2018

YOUR INDUSTRY NEWSLETTER

INSIDE: How to ace a translation sales interview Stand out in a billion dollar industry: Q&A with Locaria's Lindsay Hong Top 10 bizarre job interview questions How can M&A impact your localization career?

PLUS: The hottest jobs on the market

WELCOME TO THE NEWEST EDITION OF

LOCRE RUITER Welcome back to LocRecruiter, Brought to you by Adaptive Globalization. A newsletter focused on the topics of career development and recruitment in the industry, both from the employer and employee perspective.

Published quarterly, this publication 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.

It's been a crazy year in The Language Services Industry, with some of the largest LSPs undergoing some major merger and acquisition deals, the industry has grown to $46.5bn this year and is projected to grow a further $10bn by this time in 2019. It just goes to show the importance of emphasising what we are doing in this magnificent industry and hope our insights are helpful!

David James - CEO Adaptive Business Group

es David Jam

ADAPTIVE GLOBALIZATION'S

HOT EUR JOBS

Project Manager (Ideally Nordic speaker) – The Hague, Netherlands - €26,000-€30,000 Translation Project Manager – one of the biggest LSP in Germany – €30-35.000 Account Managers - Munich – Top 30 LSP – Salary up to €50,000 + commissions Dutch Translator – Luxembourg - €28,000 - €35,000 Business Development Manager – UK corporate market - £45,000-£70,000 base + commission Managing Director – Italy and Spain – €85,000 - €130,000 + OTE German Technical Translator (native ) – Amsterdam - Translation boutique - €28,000 To explore job opportunities, visit our website or get in touch with our recruitment team: info@adaptiveglobalization.com

HOW TO ACE A TRANSLATION SALES INTERVIEW - TOP TIPS FROM OUR CONSULTANTS

Preparing for a career move in translation and localization sales?

Here are five key steps to succeeding at interview.

dollars without a commitment to the company’s broader mission.

Striking the right tone is no easy task.

To help you showcase your experience in the best light, Sales professionals have a we’ve chosen our top five pieces delicate balancing-act to perform of advice based on hundreds of at interview time. language industry sales interviews.

Often employers are hoping to see a range of skills and 1. Understand the need personality traits, several of which overlap and a few of which To excel in interview it’s vital to seem to flatly contradict. know exactly what the company is looking for – and that’s You need to be determined, sometimes not as obvious as it focused and competitive when it sounds. comes to winning new business, but easy-going and collaborative Interviewers are, of course, as a colleague and member of the always vetting for someone who team. can fundamentally be trusted to hit a sales goal, but there are lots Employers want to see that of nuances and details beyond you’re driven by financial that which could be important incentive, but not just chasing clues as to how you should

present or discuss your experience.

Do they need someone who can upsell and expand existing accounts, or simply kick in new doors?

Are they on the lookout for someone with management potential, or is it a solo role?

Have there been issues with previous hires which have shaped the focus of this search?

Often interviewees can be so eager to share their accomplishments that – although impressive – they may be missing the mark and talking about issues that don’t resonate with the company’s more important needs.

Early on in the interview, try

and establish what the hiring company is really trying to find.

evolving circumstances and have done so successfully in the past.

Give examples of being a team player

Not only will this help you understand if the role is truly a match for you, but it will enable you to shape the way you present your achievements and background.

It’s great to be focused, but avoid coming across as rigid.

The translation industry’s most successful salespeople go beyond the basics of a standard sales role – they are company ambassadors, with great relationships across the organization they represent and the ability to engineer ‘win-win’ scenarios for their agencies and their clients.

2. Show that you can evolve In a fast-moving and competitive global market, translation companies are always changing – exploring new customer sectors, reacting to pricing pressure, implementing new technologies, hiring new personnel and adopting new marketing strategies.

3. Focus on growth Above all else, make sure that what shines through from your interview is your ability and drive to create top-line growth.

“If we hire this person, are we going to see increased clients and client spend?”

With so many other variables in play, it can be easy to get taken off track into a discussion about marketing, management, training or other areas of A recurrent concern among hiring conversation – and while it’s fine managers is whether sales to show a broad perspective and candidates will be able to adapt hold opinions on these topics, it and succeed throughout the mustn’t come at the cost of inevitable change ahead. convincing the interviewer that the net effect of your hire will be Sales candidates who set out to customer growth. demonstrate to an interviewer that they have a ‘tried and tested’ As a guiding principle, there are approach to sales risk few better ways to formulate inadvertently signalling to that your answers to interview interviewer that they are questions or to choose your own uncomfortable with change or anecdotes to illustrate your may struggle in a new experience environment.

The interviewer may decide While a company needs to know you’re smart, thoughtful, well that you have a formula for informed or a thousand other success, it’s important to make things – but if they don’t decide clear that you’re able to adjust to you’ll create new revenue, it’s all been for nothing.

Hiring managers want someone who is an asset to the business, and not just someone who can bring in their numbers (especially if that means disrupting morale, causing internal rifts or draining time from management). *** Showing your ability to collaborate with marketing colleagues, production teams and other areas of the organization goes a long way to helping set interviewers’ minds at ease.

Analyze what YOU do well Stepping into the *** one of the interviewer’s shoes, most important things they’re trying to figure out is how much of your performance in previous positions was down to the environment, team or market you worked within, and how much was down to your contribution and skill set.

This is critical – an employer isn’t buying your past, they’re hiring you for your future contribution.

You can swing the interview in your favour by actively helping the interviewer to make this distinction.

Go back over your previous roles and identify all areas where your impact influenced events, and analyze what you did well to achieve positive outcomes and hit goals.

Have you been successful mostly because of high activity volumes?

Working out your personal strong suits and ensuring they are clearly communicated during your interview lets a prospective employer cut through the distractions in your CV and understand the core abilities you offer, regardless of environment.

take calls late at night or schedule meetings on weekends?

This helps you understand exactly what you’re bringing to the table.

*** Determination?

Deep subject-matter understanding of client markets?

Rapport and relationshipbuilding?

Willingness to go the extra mile,

Adaptive Globalization fills jobs in Sales, Account Management and Sales Leadership in the translation and localization industry around the world – browse our full list of vacancies here.

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HOW TO STAND OUT IN A MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY: Q&A WITH LOCARIA'S LINDSAY HONG

WHAT'S LIFE LIKE AT THE TOP OF A

CUTTING EDGE DIGITAL LSP After being bought out by The Stagwell Group a year ago, Locaria has emerged as a leading digital LSP. Recently, the company has announced several big industry hires. To find out what trends and patterns are helping the success of the company, Andrew Jones, Senior Recruitment Consultant at Adaptive Globalization UK, caught up with Locaria's COO, Lindsay Hong, over a cup of coffee.

AJ: Lindsay, great to see you again, and thanks for your time at this busy time of year! Let's start easy, can I ask you where did the idea for Locaria came from?

Locaria and its performance linguistics offering evolved from our vast experience in the digital marketing space. Hannes Ben worked with a large hotel brand and extended the PPC offering, initially to the German market, leveraging complex data analytics insights with human language expertise. Based on the strong performance of this and subsequent international markets, the Locaria offering was born.

We have since grown organically and via referrals and now work with some of the most exciting global brands in ecommerce.

AJ: As the market is flooded with LSPs, how are you different? What’s your USP? We are immediately distinguished in the market as a specialised digital localisation provider with a strong legacy in search and media workflow. As the only LSP certified with all major search engines (Google, Baidu, Yandex etc), we are uniquely able extract complex data and build actual consumer-based insights into the localization process. Whereas we are still very much a human language service provider, our tech stack and data analytics drive high quality multilingual content that delivers measurable results. Therefore, we are very different from traditional LSPs offering ‘surface’ localisation of websites and campaigns.

AJ: You were bought by the Stagwell group a year ago, has this had much effect on the business?

Lindsay Hong (above) has been with Locaria from the beginning

It’s exciting to join a group so strongly focused on innovation in the agency space and there is substantial potential across all the group brands.

AJ: We know employee retention is so important these days, but you recently hired some big industry names, how is that shaping your business moving forward?

We have grown organically and through referrals until now, however the transcreation space is getting more competitive with more LSPs bringing the digital edge to their work. Growing our team is essential to expand our offering to new clients, and new markets, so we are now investing in sharing that more widely through focused marketing and business development activities.

Vendors are an important part of our network and we want to make sure we stay ahead of the

game and can welcome new linguists to the Locaria family as we grow. As such, we decided to add the Vendor Management role, in addition to the in-house production centres we are adding.

AJ: Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?

We want to be in top 100 on the CSA, maintain our position as leading digital content producers, increase our global footprint and work with a wide variety of brands with international ambitions.

AJ: How important is localization to a global company?

That’s a very broad question which we try to help brands answer with data. We look at the specific type of content and the business objectives of that content. When you understand what the client wants to achieve, then you should apply the localization methodology that matters. Localization is a complex and nuanced space and it is important not to mislead brands into thinking they must localize everything and do it all perfectly.

The reality is that not all localization is equally important.

It depends what the business goals are. Pre-purchase and postpurchase content is entirely different, legal content requires a different set of skills, and different markets have different

localization needs. What global companies need, is a partner who understands this complex landscape and can overlay a wide variety of localization techniques, be that machine translation or bespoke copywriting, to result in the mix of content that best maximises ROI. We call that Localisation Planning.

AJ: What is the most important part of keeping and growing existing clients?

A true spirit of partnership. We are not a traditional, reactive translation agency that just gets the file, translates it and sends it back. We consult with our clients to understand their goals, and proactively look at where they can improve their content and drive demonstrable engagement as a result. By sharing in the effort and excitement involved in achieving commercial goals, we build close and trusting relationships and enjoy great client and staff retention rates.

AJ: What are the most interesting things about being in the Language Service industry?

The people! The industry is so diverse and that keeps it interesting. In Locaria, for example, we only have three native English speakers, so we benefit immensely from the

different experience, backgrounds and approaches of our team members. Not to mention different media to localize in the ever-changing content landscape!

AJ: And what is the most frustrating thing?

I’m still a bit disappointed about the lack of female CEOs in the industry. CSA did research on female representation in the industry - only one CEO is in the top 10, and only two in the top 20. While a rate of 10% may not be as bad as the FTSE 500 overall, the localization industry is dominated by women at the bottom, so it begs the question why we don’t see this replicated further up the chain. This lack of diversity is the real question the industry needs to answer.

AJ: Where do you see the industry in five years?

There will be a continued focus on automation and cost reduction through improved NMT and AI solutions.

Automated solutions will drive up standards, as tolerance for errors decreases and as a digital agency, we absolutely embrace technology. However, technology may please localisation buyers and LSPs who use tech to drive efficiencies, but I do wonder how

much end customers will appreciate this, and we have seen a trend back to authenticity.

People want human touch and craftsmanship. Therefore, I expect to see that come full circle. A mature LS buyer sees value in copywriting with cultural understanding, which you don’t get with MT and automation.

Brands wants a great customer experience and if we over-focus on cost-cutting, we will lose that.

There is still a place for MT in the industry, but a human is still reading that content. Automated solutions are still a long way away from achieving the emotionally impactful, humorous content that drives customer intimacy. Just as there is a trend in retail towards personalised goods that demonstrate craftsmanship, our industry will also see an increased appreciation for the highly skilled linguist who creates artful, nuanced content that delights and amuses customers.

in the public domain and its success in driving customer engagement is measurable and indeed measured. This means there is a constant feedback loop. You need the passion of a Locarian to be comfortable with this direct feedback and willing to proactively come up with new ideas. In a traditional LSP, you may not be so close to the commercial outcomes of your content and take a more passive role in content delivery.

Locarians strongly believe in the value and power of international content. This passion makes them fastidious in their attention to detail and focused on doing a good job for our clients so that they can demonstrate impact.

Everyone also passes the linguistic test before hiring, as we are looking for people that love language. You can teach people digital marketing, but it is that passion for languages that is natural and cannot be taught.

AJ: What do you look for when you hire someone at Locaria?

AJ: How important is experience versus the right person?

Passion! Passion means you are willing to stick at something. We are different from other LSPs because we are constantly receiving and implementing feedback. People join Locaria because they want to be involved in cutting-edge problem solving for international brands. Much of the content we produce goes live

It depends on the role. If we are talking about our linguist network, then industry experience can be a huge advantage. We work with several Finance clients, so it is extremely helpful if a linguist already knows what a cryptocurrency is!

However, when it comes to our Content Analysts, it is important

that they have the right fit to be able to deliver a proactive and energetic service to our clients.

In the more cross-functional roles, having the right person with the right approach and passion takes precedence.

AJ: What are the biggest challenges to your recruitment?

The fact we do data alongside the linguistics can be an issue.

Finding a good linguist who can also read data and dig into the analytics and read a graph is our goal. More and more people are beginning to learn about Locaria and want to work for us, understanding that we are at the forefront of digital content creation, so we get some great candidates, particularly at the more junior level where there are more digital natives.

At the more senior level we can find it hard to recruit people with the right mix of linguistic excellence and comfort with data. A lot of the localization industry is about source-intarget-out, passively processing files with little understanding or exposure to the outcomes from that process. It can be hard to transform a traditional localization project manager into a proactive, data-driven content analyst, so we try to identify this capacity through our recruitment process. We also seek to further understanding of

"Be excellent. There is a genuine value in excellence as that is what the client wants..." digital marketing channels in the industry by running sessions like we will be doing at Foro Lenguas in Mexico City in January, teaching best practice.

AJ: Why do you have great staff retention?

There is a lot of passion in this company and a pride in what we do. Although it is demanding with high standards, it makes people really value their work when they can see the results. It is also a really exciting time for the company and we can offer staff exceptional opportunities for growth and development.

AJ: What advice would you give to someone who wants to join the industry for the first time?

After being bought out by The Stagwell Group a year ago, Locaria has emerged as a leading digital LSP

Be excellent. There is a genuine value in excellence as that is what the client wants.

Expertise in linguistics and the mindset to adapt to changing client requirements is a powerful combination. *** Adaptive Globalization fills jobs in Sales, Account Management and Sales Leadership in the translation and localization industry around the world – browse our full list of vacancies here.

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ADAPTIVE TOP 10: MOST INTERESTING INTERVIEW QUESTIONS...

In this edition of Adaptive Top 10, we look at some of the most interesting questions asked on job interviews, according to job seekers.

1 2

Asked at SpaceX "When a hot dog expands, in which direction does it split and why?"

Asked at Whole Foods Market

"Would you rather fight one horse-sized duck, or 100 duck-sized horses?

3 4

Asked at Dropbox "If you're the CEO, what are the first three things you check about the business when you wake up?"

Asked at Urban Outfitters

"What would the name of your debut album be?"

5

Asked at J.W. Business Acquisitions "How would you sell hot cocoa in Florida?"

TOP 10 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

6

Asked at HubSpot "If I gave you $40,000 to start a business, what would you start?"

7

Asked at Trader Joe's

"What would you do if you found a penguin in the freezer?"

8

Asked at Boston Consulting Group "If you were a brand, what would be your motto?"

9

Asked at Delta Airlines

Asked at Uniqlo

10

How many basketballs

"If you had $2,000, how would

would fit in this room?"

you double it in 24 hours?"

We're sure all of you have seen some weird and wonderful job interviews 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 info@adaptiveglobalization.com

HOW CAN M&A IMPACT YOUR LOCALIZATION CAREER?

M&A activity is shaking up the global language services industry as ambitious LSPs buy and sell to capture market opportunity - but what effect does this have on agency employees?

The translation and localization sector has experienced rapid consolidation in the last five years, with unprecedented levels of M&A activity: LanguageWire purchased Xplanation.

Technicis acquired AAC Global.

Straker Translations added Eule prior to their recent IPO In the mid-market, multiple deals are published each month.

Anyone with a broad network in the space will know someone whose company was bought out or merged with another LSP, and plenty more will have seen their company management in talks with potential buyers or private equity investors behind closed doors.

So what can you do to make sure M&A doesn’t detail your career, and what opportunities can it bring?

Look for opportunities to upskill Even when two companies are not formally merged following an acquisition, M&A inevitably brings about change within both the buyer and the seller as the two companies interact.

While for shareholders this rush of deal-making can mean exciting new opportunities to grow quickly and generate profits, the impact for employees While this change can be affected by corporate intimidating, it can also be a restructuring can be different. great opportunity for learning and personal development.

What managers describe as the ‘integration’ period following a Whether it means a new direct deal often translates into manager, working with new months of uncertainty, rumours, regional offices, adapting to new meetings, re-trainings and stress corporate cultures or working to over job loss. support a new client base, the

FOCUS ON WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL environment created as a result of M&A is usually one that opens multiple doors for ambitious professionals looking for ways to broaden their experience.

Often acquisition brings together two organizations with contrasting strengths, and this opposition offers plenty of scope for employees on each side to learn about the other’s domain.

technology platforms, or customer markets.

Although layoffs and downsizing can be part of creating an efficient new organization as two businesses merge together, acquisitions also create new business needs and can provide chances for promotion, retraining, travel and more.

Focus on what you can control

A lot of the tension following the announcement of M&A deals stems from employees not being fully informed of the changes Explore your new environment that lie ahead. This can be deeply frustrating – loyal and Employees have two options long-serving team members may when it comes to how they react worry that their jobs are at risk, to M&A: waiting in a state of and as much as management perpetual nervousness, following may wish to calm fears by rumours about office closures keeping everyone looped in on and speculating on the outcome evolving plans and discussions, of closed-door management there are lots of moving parts to meetings, or meeting the a post-acquisition integration situation head on and looking to and leadership can only see how they can benefit from the responsibly share what is certain situation. (rather than what is ‘likely’).

For those being acquired, opportunity can mean becoming part of a larger parent company with more extensive resources and a bigger global structure. It can also involve working beneath new leadership teams, often with decades of industry experience and expertise. It can include learning to work with new

Sage advice in this scenario, from Adaptive candidates who have been through disruptive M&A integrations, is to concentrate on the elements of the situation that you can control and avoid wasting energy worrying about the parts you can’t.

In practice, this means doubling down on doing great work and making a positive impact to the business.

Delivering results, projecting a positive attitude, building networks and working to close skills gaps are all positive steps that position you optimally to emerge in a good situation from any change, and if you are impacted by something outside your control – such as a restructure or layoff – then these things will carry with you into you next career step.

Keep your network warm Although there is often a lot of positive opportunity that comes with M&A, it may not work out perfectly in every case.

It’s better to be prepared than surprised, so it can sometimes be helpful to refresh contact networks in case the changes resulting from an acquisition make your position uncomfortable or untenable.

You may not see eye to eye with your new boss, may find yourself bumped onto a new team, or may simply not gel with the newly-established corporate culture the change brings about.

IT’S ALWAYS BEST TO " ALTHOUGH GIVE THE NEW SITUATION A CHANCE BEFORE JUMPING SHIP, LEAVING IT TOO LATE CAN ALSO BE COSTLY. Although it’s always best to give the new situation a chance before jumping ship, leaving it too late can also be costly.

You may not be the only person thinking about making a move elsewhere - if multiple colleagues all decide to take the same route, you don’t want to find that the best jobs locally have already been filled by the time you start applying.

Learn from the market Along with the micro-level impact that M&A can have on individual careers, acquisitions do offer insight into broader trends of where management and investors perceive value in the industry to be.

Although short-term adaptation when your company is bought or sold may be all about survival and making the best of an uncertain transition phase, there are long-term lessons to be learned in many M&A stories.

Why was your company acquired, and why did investors find it attractive?

"

around the world – browse our full list of vacancies here.substantial amount of data is available to LSP owners

What is the vision for the future of the business, and what kinds of skills will team members need to excel in delivering that vision?

who have not yet set their exit plans in stone and who wish to gauge the market temperature.

At the lower end of the valuation spectrum, some agencies change hands for 23x EBITDA, while buyers have

Look at who’s staying and who’s going as teams are re-engineered – who keeps their place, or gets promoted, and why?

paid as much as 10-20x in instances where a high level of strategic synergy between buyer and seller was identified.

Although not ‘on the market’,

Responding to these clues can help you build your professional profile to weather future storms and ensure you have the upper hand in guiding your career trajectory.

and often pursuing short-term goals of growth and profitability, most agency owners have one eye on the future, and are always interested to know what decisions they can be making today to increase their

***

agency’s valuation upon exit.

Adaptive Globalization fills jobs in Project Management, Sales, Account Management and Localization Engineering

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ADAPTIVE GLOBALIZATION'S HOT

USA JOBS

Senior BDM – Seattle – Up to $130k base/ $200k+ OTE Senior AM – Florida or Montreal – Base salary $50k-$60k/ $80k+ OTE Remote BDD - $75k-$85k base/ Year 1 OTE of $110k+ Project Manager Lead – Florida/Montreal LSP - $65K USD AVP of AI Enablement – Seattle Area – $145K OTE Project Manager – Boston based LSP - $55K

To explore job opportunities, visit our website or get in touch with our recruitment team: info@adaptiveglobalization.com