Apr30200911:32 am

Turning a love for language into a career

An intriguing profile in the Wall Street Journal of Paula Shannon, who started her career with the language firm Berlitz International and is now an executive at Lionbridge Technologies, “a global firm based in Waltham, Mass., that provides international companies with translation services in over 100 languages.”

Two things from the profile that stuck out for me. One: even though Paula was having trouble getting her foot in the door, she jammed it in there anyway:

I researched the company when I was looking to enter the language translation industry after college and (at first) could not get an interview for the management trainee program locally. So I (reached out to) a senior vice president in New York and asserted that my profile was perfect for their program. I guess he agreed.

And two: her career path, like most everyone else’s, has not been straight and planned:

Never worried about taking detours and accepting lateral moves.

Tags: ,

Categories: The World at Work | Follow responses via RSS | Leave a response | Trackback

One Response to “Turning a love for language into a career”

  1. Some people may seem to have just landed on luck in their successful careers. But whatever it is, it takes determination and utmost perseverance in getting to where you want to be like Paula.

Leave a Reply