Top tips to secure that sales job in language services

24th April 2018

Adaptive’s recruiters often get asked for tips and advice on interviewing by sales candidates in the language services space. It’s a very interesting topic, as client interview processes have changed and evolved, and preparing correctly for an interview is crucial in a competitive job market. In this post, I’m keen to share the reasons why clients interview the way they do, and what you need to do to get the sales job you want (and deserve). Let’s look at the beginning of the process: Your CV: What are you up against in terms of content on your CV? Have a think of the core part of your job working in sales, what is it? What does the employer want to see in your CV? They want to see how you sell, what techniques you use when selling, who you’ve sold to, and what you’ve achieved. Revenue – candidates often don’t show off the revenue they have brought to a company. This is the key measure of success in your role, so why are you not showing this in your CV? Often candidates who have missed goals or come in at under 100% are concerned with putting this in their profile. However, including no sales data at all can raise more suspicion in an employer than an honest track record. Reaching sales goals is a complex process that involves many factors – sales support, marketing, pricing, delivery, branding, resources… interviewers understand this and contextualize accordingly. Even if you are not comfortable putting your full sales quota attainment history in your CV, it’s a good idea to showcase key clients or number of clients won, major deals closed, contracts awarded and other quantifiable achievements. At the end of the day, if you are claiming a high salary and large commission package, you will need to show what you are capable of for companies to take your CV seriously. Grammar and punctuation – make sure that you have a polished CV without any errors, have it proof-read by a family member or friend. Are we back at school? No. But a lot of candidates throw together a CV with basic glitches without realising. This is the document that represents you – it gets you in the door when you’re seeking new employment and it determines whether a future boss will make time out of their diary to speak or meet with you. Consider what making these small mistakes will do when pitching to a new client for a large translation or localization project. If they noticed a spelling or grammar mistake from someone selling Language Services, will that supplier make it to the next round? Preparing for the meeting In your daily sales role, when you’re heading to a new client’s office to present to the Sales Manager, Sales Director, CEO and Marketing Director about your service, think about the process you go through – for example: Research the prospects Discuss the areas the prospect is looking to find a solution for Consider which solutions you can create to solve the issue for them Strategize on how you will add value to the prospect Why have you done this? Would you ever show up for a meeting unprepared? No, you won’t, so why would you turn up to an interview unprepared? Clients want to see that you have taken the time to research them. They want to hire someone who is diligent in their work, understands the process of finding information and how to use it in a real-life situation. (By the way, the interview is a real life situation of winning business. That business pays your salary and commission!). Do you turn up 15 minutes before your interview, or is this just a myth? Short answer; it’s not a myth. It displays you’re prepared and ready to go when the meeting starts. It also gives you time to catch your breath and get familiar with the surroundings and the feel of the place. You wouldn’t show up late to a pitch, would you? If there are travel problems, realise this early and make sure you are prepared for any delays. You never know there might be someone on the interviewing panel who has flown in that morning to meet with you. Don’t make them late. In the meeting Keep answers focused You’ve come in, met everyone, then you sit down to the first question. You’re feeling good, looking smart and well prepared. Then, you end up talking too much and stray away from the point of conversation, even after the first question! It’s not just junior staff who do this, it can happen to the most seasoned sales pro looking for ways to make an impression and showcase knowledge. Think about taking a deep breath and consider your answer carefully. In quite a few cases, we hear feedback from candidates who listened to the question and dived straight into the answer without thinking. Before you know it, you’ve answered something completely different to what was asked of you. Short and concise answers are key. Show that you are listening. Answer the actual question and if asked for an explanation which will be a longer answer, then breathe and deliver. Don’t forget body language and eye contact This is absolutely key - keep eye contact, be open and confident in yourself. If you were sitting on the other side of the table, staring at yourself and asking the interview questions, which version of you would you want to see? The one looking at the table, speaking quietly, not showing much ambition or drive for that job? Or the smiling, happy, confident, professional version? Present your plan In almost all sales interviews the future employer will ask you to take part in a presenting task, maybe a 30/60/90-day plan with a forecast for revenue and areas you will be looking to approach for new business. When you are presenting, think of the following; Keep it straight to the point of what you have been tasked to do The presentation does not need to be 50 pages long, just remember, you will most likely have 10-15 minutes to present. Do not be surprised if you are stopped to be asked a question, this should not throw you off though – breathe and continue Bring out your personality when doing this – you need to get their attention and they want to know if they can work with you. Enthusiasm & humour - bring this to the interview, if you are not enthusiastic the client may doubt your interest and they will switch off immediately. Make sure you are excited about what you are doing and saying. This will lead to you being more comfortable and better able to show your personality alongside your knowledge. Q&A – make sure that you back up everything you have said during the presentation to answer the questions the employer will ask. In short, make sure your presentation doesn’t raise obvious questions you can’t answer! Questions – what to ask and why? So, you are getting to the end of the interview and you get asked: “Do you have any questions for us?” A few areas to think about, to help prepare for questions: Why are you applying to work for this company? From the research you have done so far, what do you want to know? What solutions are you expected to sell, in which territories/markets? What about the internal side to the business, what is the culture like? What are their values? Career growth, how do you grow within the company? Be interested enough to ask how the next three-five years of your career will look like from a personal and professional standpoint. Master the close: How do you close the interview? First up, don’t put the interviewer on the spot. We advise asking for initial feedback, and asking when you can expect to hear from them next. Maybe ask the client about the points of your interview that stood out to them, and why. What are the next steps to the process, do they (the employer) have any further questions for you? With this, you will be able to gauge where you stand. Keep the meeting positive, don’t ask for negative feedback - look at the positives and keep the mindset of the meeting in that same manner! Lastly, just enjoy it! This is your chance to get yourself your next big career move. Getting a new job can be stressful, but the interview stage is a process everyone has to go through and it should not be looked at as a daunting prospect. This is where YOU can better yourself by gaining that next job that can propel you to greater heights than you expected of yourself! Lastly, best of luck in your interview stage – go get them!

Making a career switch in the language services industry can be a complex process to undertake alone

12th April 2018

#Translation/Localization Project Management & QA

With an ever-growing community of agencies, M&A activity consolidating the commercial landscape and new opportunities on the client side springing up as the localization strategies of high-growth companies mature, even finding the right companies to talk to can be a challenge, let alone the right role and fit. Add to that a variety of multi-round interview schedules, dead-end and mis-matched processes, misaligned offer negotiations… a job search can quickly turn into months of distracting and stressful effort. Whilst working with a professional recruiter is often seen as a great way to get the ‘introductions’ to active hiring managers in the market, candidates who build a strong partnership with their recruiter can hugely improve their overall experience and get much more out of working together than a simple introduction. Savvy candidates put their recruiter to work on their behalf, and collaborate to secure faster processes, actionable feedback, cleaner negotiations and a better end result: the best role for their skills, interests and financial goals that the market has available. Here are a few ideas on how candidates in the language services industry can get maximum benefit from working with a recruitment specialist: Managing feedback and identifying areas of improvement – throughout each round of interview discussions, a strong recruiter will be debriefing with both candidate and hiring company to provide feedback, ensure key questions are on the discussion agenda and help both sides to advance a productive dialogue. Undertaking an interview process solo can mean moving through interview rounds with zero feedback or insight into what the hiring team’s thoughts, concerns and motivations might be. Setting time expectations – much of the frustration in an interview process can stem from a stop-start rhythm as everyone tries to juggle busy schedules. Recruiters can keep candidates notified about time-frames, any likely delays, and ensure that all parties know exactly where they are in a process so that they can manage their career search with confidence. Providing key insight – Adaptive Globalization has recruited within the language services industry for over ten years, and our recruiters offer candidates valuable intel on how to approach interview processes, details on hiring companies and individual hiring managers. A good recruiter will be able to brief candidates on interview formats, interviewer styles and preferences and guide a candidate to deliver a standout performance that truly represents their potential and capabilities to the hiring company. Managing expectations – negotiating is a major part of any process, and it’s not just salary. Benefits, vacation, pension, job title, flexible working, promotion time-frames… it’s all part of a complex conversation, and nothing is more frustrating than reaching the end of a long interview process only to be disappointed with the final offer. Professional recruiters are there to re-qualify expectations on both sides at every stage, ensuring that nobody invests time in mis-matched opportunities. The recruitment industry is an introduction business, and Adaptive’s network helps hundreds of translation and localization industry professionals each year find their next career step. But the introduction really only scratches the surface in terms of what we are able to provide candidates in their job searches. Remember, your consultant is there for you throughout the entire process, there are many ways that you can get the most out of recruiter at Adaptive Globalization outside of the introduction to a hiring manager, I encourage you to use as many as possible! Looking for the next step in your career? Get in touch - alex.balme@adaptiveglobalization.com

Welcome to our new website!

23rd March 2018

Welcome to Adaptive Globalization's new home online! Our rebuilt site offers candidates better access to our top jobs and showcases Adaptive's growing range of recruitment services across the Language Services & Technology space. Throughout the last year Adaptive Globalization has continued to build recruitment partnerships with new translation, localization and interpreting agencies around the world whilst continuing to recruit actively for clients we've supported for up to ten years. We've seen plenty of change across the market, as the M&A scene within the sector heated up, technology innovations continued to unlock new possibilities and clients have faced new challenges in recruiting essential skills and talent into their teams. Adaptive itself has also grown - in addition to supporting our LSP customers, we've helped more client-side language teams recruit than at any previous period, and have also grown our support capabilities for customers in areas such as Natural Language Processing, Multimedia Localization and Language Training. Our new website aims to provide clients with a more comprehensive vision of Adpative's capabilities, and offer digital job-seekers an improved and more intuitive interface with better accessibility to top jobs. The site also brings an enhanced job alert feature to help candidates stay up to date with new vacancies as they enter our networks. We look forward to continuing our role in providing the global language community with expert recruitment solutions to meet every challenge. Head over to our jobs page or get in touch to see if your dream job is out there.

Building Culture in Language Services Companies: An interview with Mark Brayan, CEO of Appen

26th February 2018

Adaptive Globalization speaks with thousands of professionals in the language services and technology industry every year about their career ambitions and development. Alongside job specifics such as responsibilities, location and pay, corporate culture is one of the major topics raised by of those exploring new career options. Often when discussing job opportunities Adaptive’s recruiters are questioned not only on culture as regards the local office space in which a candidate would be working, but on the role that corporate culture plays in the hiring company’s business operations and overall identity. For some organizations, culture is only peripherally addressed at a leadership level, with top and bottom-line considerations driving daily decision-making. For others, culture is a foundational component of business success and a key aspect of strategy. Defining and implementing corporate culture can be challenging, especially within a global business where international offices and local cultural differences must be factored in. To learn more about how to address these challenges, Adaptive spoke with Mark Brayan, CEO of Appen. AG: The first step in building a successful corporate culture is to have a clear vision for what culture means within an organization. How is this interpreted at Appen? MB: Culture is how people work together, how they get things done. If the culture isn’t going to achieve business objectives, it will fail. Strategy needs to be supported by culture – you can have the most elegant strategy in the world, but if you don’t have an enabling culture, that strategy won’t get implemented. When developing business plans, culture is a fundamental consideration as both culture and strategy have to be aligned in order for the organization to be successful. AG: How is culture created at Appen? MB: You can’t write down culture on a piece of paper and make it so – you have to create conditions, and culture creates itself within those conditions. Conditions can be formal, such as business structures, or informal, such as respect for the customer. As a business, you don’t create culture – you create conditions for culture. Where the business can help shape, culture is through creating the right structures and via the leadership of the business displaying the desired cultural behaviors. To reinforce this, Appen does have formalized culture and value statements, which in fact preceded my joining the business. These do have a physical and online presence around the business, and there is a system of encouragement to adopt these standards via employee awards based around the values. AG: Is culture within Appen static, or does it evolve? How is this evolution managed? MB: We shape the direction of our culture through ongoing feedback. We try to continually integrate employee input through tools such as engagement surveys. The primary values which emerge from these as important to Appen’s teams are respect for each other and respect for customers, and we work to ensure these are built into our norms and behaviors. Another major way in which culture should evolve is in accordance with shifting stakeholder requirements. When Appen transitioned from a private to a public company, a new group of stakeholders had to be integrated. From staff and customers, we then had to ensure that investors were considered and positively impacted by our culture. There are internal leadership meetings to discuss cultural goals and propagating culture – understanding what people value and what binds them to the company. it’s talked about, it’s an active part of dialogue, but it’s up to leadership to adopt it and work to implement it. AG: The first step in building a successful corporate culture is to have a clear vision for what culture means within an organization. How is this interpreted at Appen? MB: Culture is how people work together, how they get things done. If the culture isn’t going to achieve business objectives, it will fail. Strategy needs to be supported by culture – you can have the most elegant strategy in the world, but if you don’t have an enabling culture, that strategy won’t get implemented. When developing business plans, culture is a fundamental consideration as both culture and strategy have to be aligned in order for the organization to be successful. AG: Much of the discussion around corporate culture happens from an internal viewpoint. How does Appen’s cultural and value mix impact customers? MB: There is a definite benefit for customer, with regard to quality of work, time-frames, responsiveness and other aspects. Appen’s corporate culture is, in many ways, almost more customer-facing than internal-facing. The mindset is “how do we help the customer?”. There are direct links between culture, how Appen works with customers, and how the company performs. Good corporate performance is good for culture – it attracts talent, provides challenge and opportunity, and strong financial performance feeds culture. But if a company is struggling, then strong corporate culture is also vital – culture can be relied upon to support periods of poor performance. AG: What allowance is made for international variance in corporate culture? MB: Appen has offices in Australia, the Philippines, the US and the UK. That gives us a very rich set of cultures. However, there is consistency in those core corporate cultural elements that define Appen as a business. We have a wealth of cultural nuance around regions of the world which are a benefit in adding color and diversity to our teams. However, how people work together, how we treat each other, how we get things done – that’s the variable we work to keep consistent.