After completing an MA in Translation Studies, I strived to utilise in a professional context the academic skills I had acquired at University. I was also extremely eager to discover how a translation company works, how translation tasks are completed and delivered and what skills one must possess in order to contribute to the expansion of the clients’ network.

By giving me the privilege to complete a work placement at their Birmingham office, The Translation People have allowed me to pursue my post-graduate objectives and to feed my curiosity about working in a translation company. From the very first day I was given the opportunity to work on translation projects and to complete a variety of tasks. These included translating texts from different sectors and genres, proofreading, formatting and quality checking translations against source texts, preparing texts for freelancers, populating translation memories and supporting the Account Managers with administrative and marketing duties as well as with recruitment processes. In addition, I contributed to the company website by translating some of its pages into Italian and I was given the unique possibility of participating in a SDL Trados 2009 training session, which presented me the functionalities of the software’s latest release.

All the Account Managers have been keen to show me the different aspects of working in a translation agency. Each of them has contributed to enriching my translation background and to strengthening my professional skills. Their dedication and genuine passion for translation will definitely serve me as a model for the future. I was also extremely impressed with the enthusiasm with which all clients’ queries were dealt with and with the Account Managers’ promptness in helping each other in order to complete each task on time. In addition, they have always been very patient and helpful whenever I asked questions and have given me precious suggestions about my career development.

Thanks to this experience I also discovered the multitude of career options that translation offers and that I had never considered before. This work placement has reinforced my ambition to pursue a career in the translation industry and has trained me to exploit in a practical context my knowledge of translation theories, for which I cultivate an immense interest. I have also learnt how important an eye for detail is in this profession and how selective an Account Manager must be when assigning translation projects to translators. This experience has been very intense and instructive and I am very grateful to The Translation People for laying the groundwork for my professional growth.

Anna Chiara