Clizia Ballasina
The best way to learn a language is by going to the native country of that language, right?
So, after completing my BA degree in Interpreting and Translation in Milan, I decided to move to London in 2012 to improve my English and to start a master’s degree in translation. I always knew that I wanted to work in the language industry, however, there are many different paths and I had always been unsure which one to take.
The master’s definitely helped me to narrow down my choice because it gave me an overview of both Translation Project Management and the world of a freelance translator. As part of my master’s I did an internship as Translation Project Coordinator at a translation company based in London and I quickly realised how much I enjoyed that job. There was a lot to learn and good career progression so when I got offered a position at the end of my internship I didn’t have any doubts and accepted it.
After a few years, I started thinking more and more about how it might be to be a freelance translator, managing my own time, working my own hours, being able to visit my family whenever I wanted… and within a few months I decided to leave my full-time job to become a freelancer.
Little did I know that from there in a few months we would be hit by a global pandemic! I worked as freelancer for about 2 years (one and a half of which in lockdown) and the more the time passed, the more I changed my mind about my career choice. I started feeling lonely, I missed working in a team, talking to my colleagues and, believe it or not, my 9 to 5 routine!
At that point I decided to look for a Translation Project Manager position and found Dialogue.
There are many skills involved in being a project manager, from being able to work in a team to tight organisation and having to well under pressure. On a typical day I spend a good part of it interacting with clients and linguists. It’s critical to build a good relationship with both – strong relationships lead to better end results and smoother processes.
My job is to manage translation projects from A to Z – so, I raise quotes, establish clients’ requirements, brief the team, follow the progression of the project, attend client meetings etc… just to name a few. One of the most challenging parts is managing the time efficiently; this involves multitasking, strong prioritisation skills and sometimes this can be overwhelming due to tight deadlines. However, it is also rewarding, especially when you get positive feedback from a client, when you see a translation that you delivered published on a website or when you complete a difficult project successfully.
The translation industry is evolving continuously and to keep up to date you have to move on, learn new technology, new processes, new systems. This is the best part of it, the non-stop learning process.
I couldn’t be any happier about my decision. Dialogue is a great company to work for and my colleagues are the simply the best!