The Monterey Institute recently hosted its annual career fair. Around 100 employers, mostly from the translation, interpretation, and localization industry, came to recruit students. Ryann Hoffman, an MPA student, asked localization employers about the MATLM program at MIIS and summarized her findings. I was intrigued by what she discovered, and I share it here with her permission.
There is no question that MIIS's TLM program arms students with knowledge about the localization process and gives them a great introduction to major CAT tools. As I've thought about Ryann's report, I've looked for ways to contribute to the MIIS community as well as address some of the comments made by employers at the career fair. I am only one student, but with a lot of help from others, I am moving forward with two projects that will give students more experience and elevate the profiles of successful MIIS TLM alumni.
The first project is an alumni spotlight campaign. Networking is so important in the professional world, and as a student I often struggle with finding something to offer back to those with whom I network. Now I can offer them a chance to be spotlighted here on this blog, and across MIIS's official media channels.
The second project is an in-house video localization "company" here at MIIS. Student teams will localize videos from MIIS's YouTube channel. Not only will this project give students extra-curricular experience in project management and the localization process, but it will extend MIIS's marketing materials to a greater global audience.
Join the MIIS TLM subgroup on LinkedIn here.
I'd love to hear your ideas on this. What's the best way for TLM students to break into the industry? To get experience when many employers require it, but don't provide it for beginners?