Jamie Cox is a Localization Producer at Blizzard Entertainment with years of experience on both the vendor and client sides of the localization industry. His October 2020 post on LinkedIn was on an issue near and dear to my heart – with two degrees in Japanese literature, how he “stumbled” into localization and how liberal arts and foreign language skills can translate into a successful career outside the classroom. I am always on the lookout for role models for language students, hence this conversation on lessons learned in navigating his career path.
Q: Please tell us about what sparked your interest in Japanese literature.
In high school, my family hosted an exchange student from Japan for a couple of weeks. This student taught me about Japanese culture and sparked my interest. I then was able to visit him in Japan a year later and I fell more in love with Japanese culture and the language. Japanese literature was the available major at my undergrad university (University of Montana), and so that’s where my passion for Japanese literature began.
Q: You used the word “stumble” in describing how you got into localization. How did it happen?
After graduating with my MA in Japanese Literature from Portland State University and moving to California, I didn’t know what to do next. A friend suggested I do some freelance translating for a company called Gengo. I noticed Gengo had an office close to where I was living at the time, and I reached out to see if they had any internships available. As luck would have it, they were looking for a project management intern at the time. That was over seven years ago, and I’ve been a localization project manager ever since!
Q: Have your two degrees in Japanese literature helped you in your career in localization? In what ways?
In the localization industry, it’s definitely a plus to know an additional language, even if you don’t actually use it for your own work. In my case, my knowledge of the Japanese language helped me secure the internship at Gengo, because Gengo is a Japanese company with its main office in Tokyo. In a practical sense at work, I don’t often use Japanese, but in the past I have occasionally done a quick check to make sure characters are appearing correctly in a delivery, or line breaks are accurate, those small types of things that every project manager will do from time to time.
Q: In addition to one’s language skills and cultural knowledge, are there any additional skills that can help one’s career in the localization industry?
I think soft skills that one tends to learn from education around language (like foreign language learning or other liberal arts degrees) help tremendously in being able to accurately and easily convey information, either written or verbal. Additionally – at least for project managers – organization and documentation is paramount, so learning how to stay organized in your personal life will help you in your professional one as well.
Q: Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently in terms of managing your career?
The more you can offer to a company in terms of the skills you bring to the table, the better. There have been times I’ve wanted to streamline or modify a workflow but haven’t had the technical knowledge to do so, whether through Excel macros, database queries with SQL, or something similar. If I could do things differently, I would try to focus on cultivating some of those more technical skills to be a more well-rounded project manager.
Q: What is the best career advice you have ever received?
The most important thing to know about the localization industry is that it is a small one – you never know when the person you worked with (and hopefully made a great impression on) will pop back up later on in your career. Networking is very important, and so is making sure you’re always putting your best foot forward at work. We work in a great industry with amazing people from all over the world, so be sure to enjoy the connections you make.
Winnie Heh
Career Advisor
MIIS
