Internships

Interns / Students

Polaron Language Services welcomes enquiries from interns/students to participate in the Polaron Internship Programin the following areas:

Translation and Interpreting
Marketing and Advertising
Accounting and Finance
Administration and Management
Graphic Design
Project Management

This year, we have already hosted two interns from France, and placed students from Poland, Italy, Japan and Germany. Please apply via email, fax or mail with a cover letter and resume. Please note that only selected candidates will be contacted for an interview.

My internship at Polaron, by Simon Jolibois, France - 01/10/09-01/02/2010

Mrs Eva Hussain, Polaron's CEO, gave me the opportunity to do an internship at her translation services agency between October 2009 and January 2010, in Clayton, one of Melbourne south-eastern suburbs. Over those four months, I was involved in the translation management processes. My job was to assist in contacting translators for new multilingual projects (brochures in fifteen languages for instance) and coordinating their work. This task involved a lot of phone calls and emails. I also assisted in laying the translations out in InDesign, a graphic design software, and made sure all (say fifteen) versions of the document were consistent.

The working environment was nice, quiet and relaxed enough for people to be able to work efficiently and without disturbance. It was also positive to be able to work with such a small and young team, two factors that ensured openness and quick adaptability when needed. I was also able to follow Mrs Hussain during her interpreting assignments at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on a couple of occasions. Those were a very interesting opportunity to learn more about the work of an interpreter and the working conditions. Working at Polaron was overall an interesting experience, during which I certainly learned much, about translation management processes, graphic design software and interpreting in particular. Oh, I almost forgot to mention a nice perk: coffee there is great!

My internship at Polaron, by Elisa Boscolo, Italy - 3/02/09-13/02/2009

My name is Elisa Boscolo and I am a Technical Translator. My native language is Italian and I work with English and Spanish. I graduated as Interpreter and Translator in 2005 and obtained a post graduate degree in Technical Translation in 2007. I am currently living in Melbourne, where I work as a freelance translator. I came across Polaron's site while searching for work. Whilst at Polaron, I was involved in translation, editing and project management duties, and I helped with some office and administration tasks. Even though I worked for Polaron for a very short period of time, I had the opportunity to learn and see many aspects of my job which will be really helpful during my career as a translator and interpreter. The team at Polaron is friendly and helpful,open and professional. They were willing to help and give me many suggestions and tips which I will treasure. It has been interesting seeing how the office deals with customers and manages the translation flow.

The internship at Polaron turned out to be a very interesting and constructive experience. I don't regret a moment I spent at Polaron, every single minute has been worth everything. And guess what? Since gaining my NAATI accreditation, Polaron has allocated numerous translation projects to me. So the best thing about internships is that it sometimes turns into a real job!

My internship at Polaron, by Stefanie Thanhauser, Germany - 4/11/2008 - 04/2/2009

I am currently studying mathematics and economics at University of Passau in Germany where I am in my last year of a Master Degree equivalent. I am hoping to become a high school teacher. After I finished high school, I travelled around Australia and by the end of the journey I knew I wanted to come back here one day. I tried to combine my dreams with my studies and started looking for an Australian or New Zealand company where I could do my formal internship. After six months of submitting applications and getting rejections I almost gave up and was already looking for companies in Germany and Austria. As a last resort, I sent my application to Polaron. To my surprise, I got a reply from Eva Hussain, Polaron's CEO, with the invitation to come to Australia and work with Polaron for three months. This was the best email I ever received. During my first two weeks of internship with Polaron I set out the aims of the internship with Eva. These were to improve my English in written and spoken form, to advance my Excel skills and to learn MYOB. Other tasks I have performed were to assist in management of translation projects, format translations, and to provide office support tasks.

I discovered the differences between the German and Australian business culture. I already worked as an intern in a German company five years ago and when I first arrived at Polaron, I was surprised to be on first name terms with my manager. Australians are friendly, approachable and open, so it is easy to establish rapport and develop relationships. During my studies I learned a lot about finances, accounting, marketing and businesses, but it was all theoretical knowledge. At Polaron I could see it all in practice. But I also experienced what it makes a company successful. It is not only customer service, price and quality of the products, but also having concrete plans and implementing them, as well as a skilled manager. In processing translations and multi-lingual projects we always worked together as a team and helped and benefited from each othr. I am hoping that I can apply some of the team skills that I have learned to my teaching. I have never worked with the English version of Microsoft Office before but I had to as soon as I started working with Polaron. By creating flyers, PowerPoint Presentations and charts, formatting translations and writing summaries I improved my skills in that area enormously. I also had the opportunity to observe Eva Hussain during a cross-cultural training session. I found this experience very interesting and enriching. I learned how an impressive training session is organised and will remember many concepts when I am preparing lessons for my pupils in the future. It was the best decision to go to Australia again and experience it from another point of view apart from a traveller's viewpoint. I will go back to Germany with a lot of new skills, some sunburns and a couple of new friendships and hope to stay in touch with all the staff members of Polaron.

My internship at Polaron, by Emmanuelle Buono, France - 5/05/2008 - 01/08 2008

I'm a French student in my last year of translation studies. In order to complete my MA in translation, I had to undertake a 3-month work placement in a translation company. It would provide me with a new experience in the translation sector and allow me to apply my knowledge gained at the university. We are not required to carry out the placement in a foreign country but it is highly recommended. As I already went to England last year for my 1st year internship, and so decided to direct my efforts towards Australia and USA. I therefore sent resumes & cover letters by email, using translation company's directories such as translators associations or yellow pages. I received several replies from US companies and only a few from Australia. I then underwent interviews and started finding out information about the visa process. Polaron is a translation company that projects a positive and professional image. My first contact with the company was through the website that I found professional and modern.

It is very important for students to work and apply their knowledge gained at university. Before this internship, I've never had the opportunity to work in a professional environment. The reality is never the same when you have to meet clients' requirements. After the theoretical knowledge, we eventually face the actual issues that companies have to deal with everyday. I also hope that this experience will allow me to find an interesting job, that the French employers will perceive this placement as a good experience. I also had the opportunity to observe Eva Hussain during a court interpreting assignment. I found this experience really interesting. It encouraged me to think about becoming an interpreter and to consider the training options I could undertake. A new person in a company may have a different point of view about the organisation, especially if they come from another country. Students are mostly motivated and eager to learn. As it is probably their first time in the sector they would like to work in, they are really keen to gain the professional knowledge and acquire the skills required for their future position.The internship allowed me to improve my language skills because after 3 months of living in a foreign country, I ended up thinking in English. And that's a great achievement!Living in Australia, especially in Melbourne, is a really interesting experience as you meet so many people from different cultures. It really makes you an open minded person. An internship abroad also allowed me to improve my self-confidence because being all by yourself makes you rely only on yourself. Speaking another language, however, makes you more confident about your abilities. Internship is such a good experience! I feel stronger and more confident in life and future after this completing it. So those that are given this opportunity, should not hesitate and just do it! This internship has helped me to work out exactly the type of job I want and the kind of company I want to work for. I now know that I would like to become a translations project manager but, at the same time, do some translation work. Naturally, it will depend on the opportunities that will come my way, but I will definitely work in the translation sector. As I gained new skills and new knowledge, now I also know what particular qualities and competence I have to develop for my future job.