Online Careers Fair

The event was hosted via Zoom and was split into four sessions, each with a different focus and different panellists. The event was via invitation and the students were welcome to join as many sessions as they liked.

Session 1 – Language Service Providers 1, with the following panellists: Louise Killeen, Company Director at Louise Killeen Translations; Allison Spangler, Head of Resource Management at Surrey Translation Bureau; Irene Martinez, Vendor and Quality Manager at Oncall Interpreters and Translators; and Sarah Kerkache, Head of Content Ops at Wordbank.

Session 2 – Career Advice Panel, with the following panellists: Inger Larsen, Managing Director at Larsen Globalization; Anja Jones, Managing Director at Anja Jones Translations; and Ana Guerberof-Arenas, Senior Lecturer in Translation and Multimodal Technologies at the University of Surrey.

Session 3 - Language Service Providers 1, with the following panellists: Jenni Lock, Senior English Linguist and Chris Cork, Senior Quality Reviewer at Morningside Translations; James Bradley, UK Operations Director at Mother Tongue; James Powell, Department and Vendor Manager at Transperfect; and Juan José Arevalillo, Managing Director at Hermes / Youth Ambassador at the European Union Association of Translation Companies (EUATC).

Session 4 – Technology Track, with the following panellists: Gabriel Fairman, CEO at Bureau Works; Jean-Luc Saillard, Head of Customer Success at Smartcat; Manuel Herranz, CEO at Pangeanic; and Robert Rogge, CEO at Zingword.

The event was very well attended by the students who took great interest in the companies, researching their websites and preparing interesting questions. A wide range of topics was discussed, including: in-house roles, internships, demand for into-English translation, specialisation, flexible and remote working/internships, the impact of technology on the profession and many more.

Here are some reflections from one of the MA Translation students, Helen Wagner:

Launching a new translation career during Covid lockdown feels like a poor choice of timing. What a relief to attend the CTS careers fair last week, for a great afternoon of virtual “networking” with a variety of potential employers, both in-house and freelance, large and small. They shared realistic, practical advice about how to (and how not to!) approach them and in particular, how to really stand out from the growing translator ‘crowd’. Whether looking for traditional translation and interpreting work or aiming at creative transcreation or project management, there was something for everyone. So following up on our guest employers’ suggestions, here’s how I’ll be spending the remainder of lockdown: avoiding the trap of blanket emails to employers and hunting out individuals to contact; preparing my portfolio of translation and transcreation examples from the MA course; volunteer translating for Translators without Borders. That’s if I have enough time after attending all those ITI webinars they mentioned! A huge thank you to all those who gave up their valuable time to talk to us – their passion for languages and insight into the industry served to remind me why I started down this road in the first place.

Here is a brief summary of what skills and knowledge MA Translation Students have been acquiring over the past year, from MA Translation student, Christine Richardson:

The event was a great success overall and the CTS hopes to repeat it next year.