How can a translation project help your career, even if your career has nothing to do with translations?
A lot of BURG Translations’ growth comes from existing clients who change companies and then bring us into their new company. We’re extremely grateful for when this happens, and work hard to build the same level of trust and value with the new company and their team. When we talk to the people who have referred us and brought us to the new company to ask why they prefer us, we hear over and over that they see BURG Translations as part of the “strength” they bring to the company that they just joined. How can a translations project help your career, even if your career (as a healthcare, legal, marketing professional, etc.) has nothing to do with translations?
Many of these clients ask good questions about our capabilities and how best to they can “use us,” to make sure they leverage that knowledge at their new company (thereby helping to bring value to their new employer and look good in the process).
In this article, I wanted to share some behaviors that these wonderful clients have in hopes that it inspires others to see their ability to partner with vendors as a way of enhancing their own contribution to their current or future employer. Here are the four behaviors we’ll discuss:
a. Host debrief calls
b. Request pointers to optimize the process
c. Read from the Knowledge Center
d. Request articles related to a topic
Notice that the behaviors are proactive and are about absorbing information from various sources.
Host debrief calls
If you’re new to translation projects, start by hosting a call with your language service provider (LSP) after the project is over and start asking questions. Share how you feel the project went, ask how they felt the project went, and take a genuine interest in what happened.
Don’t feel the need to have a project in order to call and start learning. Want to talk about a project from a year ago? Want to talk about a future project two years away? It’s no problem! Call and start gathering information; your LSP will appreciate it.
Once you do this enough, and you feel comfortable with what to expect (and like it), then you can limit the debrief calls until more complex projects come along, or there is a specific reason such as, you feel a project could have gone better for either you or the LSP.
Request pointers to optimize the process
LSPs in general can be very accommodating to a client’s requests, but that doesn’t mean that an ideal approach to solving your problem is being applied. When you’re on the phone with your LSP partner, ask how you can improve your collaboration You might be surprised to learn that another approach might have been a more cost-effective option!
Did any additional costs come up during the project? Was not enough information shared at the start? What can be done to minimize the number of surprises or email exchanges during the course of the project?
Part of what defines “optimization” is your goals, such as the level of involvement you want to have, deadlines met, budget, etc.
Read from the Knowledge Center
BURG Translations has a Knowledge Center where we publish articles every month related to interesting case studies, technologies, processes and other information that might be applicable to your next project. If you subscribe to our blog, you’ll receive an email once a month with the latest articles. From there, you can skim the titles for anything of interest and dive in. We try to cap our article length to 1000 words, so they stay efficient and can be digested in a short amount of time. In total, no more than 15-30 minutes per month should be needed to keep on top of what is relevant to you.
Request articles related to a topic
Looking for something in particular but didn’t find what you were looking for? Let us know! We’re always looking for hot topics that our clients would find interesting. You can submit a request to literally anyone on the team, and it will get into the right hands. Chances are that anything you find relevant, will be relevant to other clients, too.
If you’d like to learn more about how BURG Translations helps you ensure high-quality translations, contact us today.