By Plamena Todorova
This is a story about an unconventional career journey. A journey that started in Torino, Italy, went through San Francisco and Portland, USA only to end in Torino.
Giulia D’Agostino’s has managed to combine her passions for the mountains, travelling, and adventure with a successful career in the language industry. This is her inspiring career journey.
My name is Giulia D’Agostino. I was born and raised in Italy.
In 2007 I moved to San Francisco, and that is where my US adventure started! I moved a couple of times and went to school with a focus on art and digital art.
When I moved from San Francisco to Portland, I found a job working for a competitor of Welocalize as an Italian Quality Assurance tester. After I learned about QA-testing I went online to see if other companies were looking for those skills, and I found Welocalize.
In July 2012 I started collaborating with Welocalize joining the Portland QA team, performing on-site testing for content translated into Italian.
In 2014 I was promoted to QA Lead spending 2 years in that role.
I had expressed interest to join the project management team, and thanks to the amazing support received by my directors I was allowed to manage a new product line for a Fortune 500 company.
It was 2016 when I got the Project Manager title which later developed to Senior Project Manager.
At the end of 2018, I moved back to Italy. I am currently based in Torino, my hometown, and I work from home. As of 2020, my title is Project Manager EMEA Team Lead, I work with an amazing team of very dedicated people located around the world.
Everything in life can be defined as a project. A project manager manages time, cost, and quality through collaboration and follows all development steps: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and closure.
For example, making a cake is a project, and we need to see how much time we need to make it, what our budget is, the ingredients to add to make it yummy and who owns each step of the process. We plan the process together by buying the ingredients, executing preparing the cake, monitoring it while it bakes in the oven, and we eat it once ready to conclude the baking project!
I’m very thankful to Welocalize for allowing me to grow within the company; they believed in me, trained me and trusted I would succeed.
In 2018 I decided to move back to Italy, the Welocalize family supported me to ensure a smooth transition.
Welocalize is a company in which everyone cares about their colleagues, even through difficult times as it was in 2020; the openness and honesty of the executive team, in addition to global teamwork, made 2020 a successful year.
Being part of a global team teaches you communication skills given that colleagues are all over the world and from different cultures.
Within Welocalize there is a meritocracy; if you work hard and take initiative while keeping a positive attitude, you are awarded recognition.
Everyone is treated equally, and there is no favouritism based on your position in the organization.
When I first started working in the language industry I was surprised by the number of steps and people involved in finalizing a translation project. With globalization, the work done by localization agencies and linguists has increased, and we have an essential role as protectors of cultural heritage through the transmission of knowledge.
I would describe it as a great place to work, where you feel included, respected and part of a big global family. Due to my high opinion of Welocalize, through my years I have recommended friends or acquaintances who were hired.
I enjoy spending time in nature, almost every weekend I go to the Alps hiking and/or backpacking and I also like to grow my own food. I fill my life with adventure trips around the world, and I spend time with friends and family.
I tell myself “Go girl, you got this!”
I would be working on a different project related to sustainability, probably building an eco-village focusing on green architecture and practices, with a team of like-minded people from all over the world.
It would be teleportation! It would save time and money giving me the possibility to explore the world and all its cultures.
Success is personal, and it is defined based on our life mission and work goals. Accomplishing what we had predetermined gives a sense of confidence and well-being, something to feel proud of in retrospect.
Plamena’s eclectic professional journey encompasses digital marketing and strategy, talent acquisition, and lately employer branding. The red thread connecting all her professional experiences is her passion for creating novel solutions and working to solve complex problems. She is always busy building something, be it bridges between people and ideas, or bold visions for a brighter future. She currently leads the Employer Branding & Culture Program, where she finds creative ways to tell the world why Welocalize is a great company to work with.