The 4 Pillars to Implementing a Successful Internship Program

Did you know that Avantpage has hosted seven interns since 2015? Want to hear another little known fact?

Localization is an industry made of freelance and contract work across many cities, countries, and time zones. This can make building successful internship program a daunting task. But not for Avantpage!

Avantpage now offers internships every quarter thanks to the dedicated and thoughtful work of Dr. Serena Williams, our Linguistic Quality Manager. Our interns receive ownership over projects through intentional industry work. Dr. Williams and her internship program will be recognized for industry excellence in San Francisco at the American Translators Association’ (ATA) 57th Annual Conference.

ATA, one of the top professional development and collaborative associations in the translation and localization field, honors Dr. Williams as a guest speaker. She will present “Role-Based Internships: A Model for Successful and Sustainable Student Partnerships” on November 3rd.

What makes internships at Avantpage so unique?

Here are the main pieces:

• The Project: Each internship is based on a project assigned to the intern. They own the project from start to end, master new skills, and develop a finished product to add to their resume. Projects are a great way for undergraduates or recent grads to show their skills and build a work portfolio.
• The Title:  Having ownership of a title and project builds credibility, authority, and confidence.Each intern is given a specific title and job description within the Avantpage team. This gives them a stake within our company by giving them responsibility to their team of coworkers.
• The Timeline: Deadlines allow interns to see how projects work in the real world. A project timeline helps interns practice time-management skills. They learn project management skills and how to be self-sufficient in the office.
• The Report: At the end of their project, the intern will write a report on their learning process and the benefits of their project for Avantpage.By writing down their reflection, the intern now has a document to look back on. This will be useful in future interviews, applications, jobs, etc.

Past internship projects have included a comparison between manual and automatic terminology extraction, developing training materials of readability for various languages, evaluating and recommending translation brief procedures, and developing vendor feedback communication systems.

Internships are not about running around the city to get coffee and office supplies! Internships like this are neither cost effective nor useful to anybody. Instead, internships should be a positive, shared experience. Through relevant and responsible work, interns can give back to companies with fresh perspectives and real results.

Interested in learning more about a career at Avantpage? Check out our Careers Page!