MA students of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation at work!

MA students of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation prove by their personal example that the language skills, diligence and enthusiasm open endless possibilities. Indeed students-interpreters luckier than other students are because a variety of career opportunities on the labor market is available for them. This fact was confirmed by the 2nd year MA student of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation Kulova Karina, who joined the team of the successfully developing on the international market project on wireless automation of residential and non-residential premises. That’s what she says about her experience:

“Apart from the interpretation practice, I became a representative, a kind of “ambassador”, of our company which is a member of the Federal Technology Accelerator. The participation in the Accelerator presupposed the international experience as well: we were invited to Berlin to explore the infrastructure of Europe, to discuss the opportunity of entrance to the European market. In Berlin, I, in the quality of “Ambassador” of the company, had a stiff but involving task – the project presentation and the discussion of the opportunity for cooperation with the representatives of various organizations at different meetings. There were many meetings of this sort! In such a way, I have learnt many judicial nuances after personal communication with the representatives of the Commission of Electrical and Information Technology DKE (Germany), I have got acquainted with the work of the “Adlershof” international innovation center, I have learnt about the latest technological trends after having visited the Fraunhoffer Institute Innovation Center of the development of 3D-images and tracking technologies of various objects. In Berlin I also presented the project to prospective investors and partners, who are top managers of corporations like Deutsche Bahn (German Railways), METRO, Siemens and many others. Of course, it was very emotional as it was my first experience in that kind of work. But German consulting company rendered us mentoring assistance. We were told about the peculiarities of the German business culture, business-communities and about the experiences of cooperation with large corporations. But the most important thing is that I was taught the art of pitch. Pitch is a short project presentation to potential investors. Pitch penetrated profoundly into the European business culture. In Europe it is a common practice to pitch a stranger at a party or a conference or to be pitched. It is in virtue of this the very exchange of ideas vital for the existence of the local economy occurs. Of course, the chances to get an investor in such a way are not very good but it is highly possible to get a piece of sound advice or contact, to meet future like-minded person or to agree on an unexpected partnership. The knowledge gained at the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation helped me a lot. While presenting the project I remembered once again all our teachers’ instructions that we should maintain the eye contact with the audience, adhere to timing, that we shouldn`t read the speech but at the same time it shouldn`t sound learnt by heart, that we should prepossess the listener and many other things. The practice obtained during our classes helped me in real work. The more especially as after Berlin I had the next task – to present the project in Moscow at a major investment forum at the PJSC “Moscow Exchange” platform. My audience was the representatives of investment funds, municipalities and corporations (IBM, Intel Software, Microsoft).

The work in the project has become a useful experience for me, and I made sure once again that we get practice-oriented knowledge at the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation! “