Behind the scenes
Working in RM really does give you the opportunity to peek behind the curtain of the translation industry and see what really goes on ‘behind the scenes’. It is here that you learn about all the current industry trends and requirements by keeping a close eye on in-demand languages, standard rates and popular specialisms.
After some introductory sessions which walked me through the core processes in place at STB, I was given the responsibility of making sure all of our freelancers’ profiles accurately reflected their most current language pairs, specialisms and preferences. In an industry where linguists are encouraged to learn and develop their practice, these details can change regularly, which is why it’s imperative to ensure our database is up to date at all times. Having the right information ensures that, from our perspective, we are selecting the right linguist for the job in hand and, from their perspective, that translators are given work that they enjoy and best fits their areas of expertise; this in turn means that we can provide our clients the best possible quality.
It’s important for RM to keep an open and friendly conversation going with our individual freelancers, which has meant that I have been able to meet, engage with and learn from a wide range of professionals over the last three months. I have found this part of the internship particularly insightful and enjoyable. I have also had the opportunity to hone my organisational and Microsoft Office skills to make sure we are keeping track of this ever-evolving data. This has been a great learning opportunity for me, as I’ve had little experience in this area to date and I now feel confident in creating and distributing large quantities of data in a clear and methodical manner.
In it together
By nature, RM is focused on supporting and managing our existing freelancers, but it also involves helping our internal project managers to find linguists to continue to meet client demand. This means working in close collaboration with both the Project Management (PM) team and the Marketing department to search for and recruit new linguists. This has strengthened my research skills in a professional context, in addition to those I used in an academic setting. I’ve also found out all about the clear procedures produced by the Operations team, which ensure that we are compliant at every stage of the recruitment process and that we always work in line with our ISO certifications.
Although I have been working as a resource management intern, I have been able to ask for help and support from everyone at every level in the STB office, even if my questions were not specifically related to their department. This is indicative of the STB way, where everyone supports each other and every question is met with a smile and willingness to offer up time to help. The welcoming and friendly nature of the STB office has been a real highlight of my time here and is something that I hope to find again in my future career.
My highlights
The real draw of this role is that people are at the heart of it. Being able to help freelancers with questions and queries in turn allowed me the unique opportunity to form friendly professional connections, which will be so valuable in my career moving forward. I have also enjoyed welcoming new linguists to the team and supporting them as much as possible through their recruitment process.
In these three months, I’ve been able to expand my skillset in a welcoming and nurturing environment while being given the opportunity not only to gain invaluable professional experience, but also to work with some of the best in translation. The team have made sure that my time at STB has been fun, interesting and educational at every stage and I cannot thank them enough for that!
By Hannah Perl
Hannah joined STB in 2022 as one of our wonderful interns – if you’d like to hear more about our fantastic internship opportunities, please take a look at www.surreytranslation.co.uk/internships/ and feel free to get in touch!
