Milica Stamenković has been translating software, engineering, and other technical content from English into Serbian for 17 years. Here, she shares what makes technical translation so interesting to her and what she sees as the most important factors in establishing a successful and fulfilling career in the field.

Why do you enjoy reading MultiLingual magazine? 

It gives me plenty of insights and the opportunity to step into other people’s shoes and try to understand how they see things. The localization industry is a fragmented place. To put it jokingly, it is so busy bridging communication gaps that it often forgets to communicate within itself. My work is solitary, and one or two conferences a year are not enough to meet all the professionals I would like to learn from. So MultiLingual magazine is a perfect place to read the viewpoints of various stakeholders. As a big fan of long reads and in-depth coverage, the main topic of every issue is the part I usually read first. 

How did you get involved in the localization business?

Purely by chance! I studied foreign languages to become a foreign correspondent, and I worked as a journalist during my studies, but realized it wasn’t quite for me. In 2006, SDL International needed additional linguists to join their small team in Belgrade. It seemed like a dream job, but I knew that there would be hundreds of applicants, so I had no expectations. It turned out, though, that my newspaper editor had taught me more about the technicalities of proper writing than my literature studies had. A part of that were ALT-code sequences. Using the right quotation marks in my test pieces was what set my tests apart from the others and landed me the job.

Since you entered the localization industry, how has the business landscape changed?

It has changed significantly, but mostly in terms of tools, technologies, and processes used. I would say that, from the mid-2010s onwards, these have been the industry’s main focus. At the same time, integrity in our core work has given way to large volumes, and in my case, relying on experience only while working happily for a handful of huge clients became unsustainable in the long run.

Since I firmly believe that the whole point of any business is to provide the best possible product or service — and charging accordingly, upskilling, upserving, then doing it all over again, all while having fun — I had to rethink my position within this new reality, reshuffle my client base, and diversify my services. It has been a long hit-and-miss journey, but it opened some new avenues and helped me make it thus far; this October, I’m turning 18 as a translator. Nowadays, my clients are smaller companies, but the work is more fulfilling.

Could you share your experience working with your first client or on your first project?

The SDL office in Belgrade was set up exclusively for MS Office 2007 localization into Serbian. My first task was to translate MS InfoPath user assistance files, followed by the UA files of other programs. But it was only when we had to test builds and check that items in the user assistance files matched those in the user interface, and were in line with SG guidelines, that I realized that localization was for me. From our perspective today, it seems like a lot of manual work. Think of LocStudio, where there was no translation memory (TM) and hardly any automated quality assurance (QA) checks — just human eyes. But that massive project was done by a tiny group of curious and detail-oriented enthusiasts, so it wasn’t tedious at all. On the contrary, seeing it installed and adding the final touches to the product that so many people had worked on for so long felt incredibly satisfying.

Do you believe it’s a good time to enter the localization business?

It depends on the side you enter it from. If we’re talking about non-computational linguists, it might be a tough path. Having said that, I must add that it’s usually better to regret things you have done than things you have missed out on. If someone is talented and prepares for it, why not? Just as with any other line of work, there is always the luck factor, and, as we all know, luck is when opportunity meets preparation.

Where do you see yourself professionally in the next 10 years?

I will always remain a technical translator at heart. Notwithstanding the ongoing technological shift and the automation trend, localization has always been a nerdy craft. Like photography or sound engineering, it is based on both technical knowledge and creative wizardry. If we remove either of these elements, the result would be an unusable product or a waste of electricity.

In a recent app localization project, I dealt with code that was in a very unfriendly format. But the text was lighthearted and cheerful, so I looked for inspiration in American humorous poetry and the comics of André Franquin. I spoke with teenagers to learn the latest slang among the target audience. And I had to double check some regulations to ensure compliance. After all these years, I still learn something new every day, I am rarely bored, and it is hard to think of a better job for curious-minded people. So I hope it will stay that way for the years to come. However, just to be on the safe side, I’m also brushing up my skills in localization engineering and technical writing fields.

What predictions do you have for the future of the localization industry?

My assumption is that we will see changes everywhere, and further segmentation. 

I expect an explosion of content that is humanly impossible to process, followed by near-complete dehumanization in the enterprise world. It will be a venture capital playground, and there won’t be any room for smaller suppliers. That’s a bit of a fallacy, though, because the premise usually goes something like this: time is money, attention is the new currency, and it’s great that we can quickly generate massive documentation in whatever language we want. The problem is, the reader’s time is also money, and they are rarely rich enough to waste their currency on never-ending documents. However, this ship has already sailed.

I also expect to see a shortage of reliable providers in small premium segments where specialized experts and high-touch service are required.

However, the market in between, where most of the buyers and providers are, remains a mystery and only customers and time will tell. This is a classic moment where marketers sell quarter-inch drills to people who need quarter-inch holes. They sure are shiny things, and some customers will enjoy the novelty and possibly liberating feeling of battering walls. Those who need many holes will love them. Others will toy with them briefly, then forget them. Some will remain skeptical and recoil from the sound of drilling. The changes probably won’t be linear, as human reactions and behaviors are generally unpredictable, and we might see lots of regrouping.

It’s also important to note that we don’t operate in a vacuum. The laws of business, economics, logic, and nature apply to us, although we sometimes choose to pretend that our work is somehow above all that. In reality, we are but humble editors. Whatever new crisis, breakthrough, or outlook that affects our clients will also affect us. Staying alert and deciding how to adapt — that will be the job.