A week in the life of our project manager Svetlana Hilder
Our multilingual project management team – who handle everything from Afrikaans to Zulu – are sharing some behind-the-scenes insights into their day-to-day work. In our first article, our team member Laura talked us through various pharmaceutical, legal and public service projects. Below, Svetlana, who has worked in the localisation industry for over 15 years, gives us a rundown of her eventful week.
Monday
This was my compressed day off, which was very welcome after a very busy weekend with my two toddlers! I spent it enjoying some relaxing family time which included a frosty morning walk to the playground, followed by a spot of lunch and then some crafting, playing with a train set and having a surprise tea party organised for me by my daughter (sadly the cake was made of wood…).
Tuesday
I had a busy day juggling a pharmaceutical update to summaries of product characteristics (SmPCs), labels, and patient information leaflets (PILs) into Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish. Alongside this, I handled a from-scratch translation of SPCs and PILs for a new medical product into the same Nordic languages involving translation, revision and lots of queries as our eagle-eyed translators made sure everything was correct and alerted us to some source text inconsistencies.
Alongside these two projects, I also
- helped a regulatory industry client with translating documentation from the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce (KVK) and Central Information Point for Healthcare Professions (CIBG);
- supported a solicitor with a Mandarin-to-English translation of bank documentation for court;
- assisted a printing company who needed some business cards translated into Arabic;
- issued an urgent quote for a death certificate translation into German;
- organised the translation from Turkish into English of a post-mortem and toxicology report for a coroner’s office; and
- assisted a local tech company with localising their app into Latin American Spanish and Tajik.
Wednesday
I had a meeting with a colleague to discuss a couple of projects and some admin matters, then continued work on some of the projects from Tuesday. Around midday, a new request came in for the translation of a decision from the Croatian Agency for Medicinal Products and Medical Devices (HALMED). Later on, I organised the translation of some business cards and prepared a quote for translating newsletters into seven languages for one of our pharmaceutical clients.
Thursday
Today started with a translation of a document from Läkemedelsverket, the Swedish Medical Products Agency. There was also administrative work to be taken care of, e.g. supplier and client invoicing. We also had our weekly staff meeting, which is a great opportunity for us to discuss ongoing projects and occasionally have training on new features of our dedicated translation management software. In the afternoon, I attended a webinar on technological innovations in the localisation industry and handled an urgent English proofreading request.
Friday
Today was a day of many deliveries, which meant I dedicated most of my time to quality assurance (QA). At First Edition, we conduct quality checks on every project before it reaches the client. Since our project management team speaks a mix of world languages, we’re well equipped to scan for issues or raise final queries before the final delivery.
During my QA checks, I ensured all files were correctly named and formatted, all instructions had been followed, all scripts displayed correctly, numbers matched up, and spell checks had been carried out. I wrapped up the day by assisting a solicitor who needed a court statement translated into Tetum.
Interested in what Svetlana and our other team members can do for you? You can easily reach us at enquiries@firstedit.co.uk