Susan Wang Alumni Profile: Communication is Key

 Susan Wang is a graduate of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center Certificate in Chinese and American Studies '16. She currently resides in both Oakland, California and Boulder, Colorado, working as a Solutions Architect for LanguageLine Solutions. 

How did you become interested in China and what drew you to the Hopkins-Nanjing Center?

My parents, especially my Dad, were always extremely supportive with my studies, and suggested I declare linguistics at the University of Colorado-Boulder. My undergraduate majors were Chinese & Linguistics, and I studied abroad in 2009 at Peking University for a year during a post-Olympics Beijing. A year later, I interned with 100+ American college students at the US Pavilion in the 2010 World Expo: Shanghai. A few months after undergrad, I ended up teaching Mandarin at Fairview High, which also happens to be where I attended high school. Over the next three years I worked to bring stability and structure back into the Chinese program there, but as the third year approached I realized a career shift might be needed.

What drew me to the HNC in 2015 were several friends who went through the program. "If my friends could do it, so could I", I thought. During my teaching career (’12-’15) I had intense imposter syndrome. I was very self-critical about the Chinese program I was managing and was convinced I could not handle the intensity of a graduate school program. When the e-mail came through notifying acceptance into the program I honestly was surprised. What did they see in me? It was then I realized I needed to work on NOT feeling like an imposter and though it took years to overcome, my POV/mindset is a lot healthier. I ended up at the HNC program in 2015 and the year after I drove out in my ’98 Subaru Outback to Monterey, CA to pursue a Master’s in Translation and Localization.

What are some of your favorite HNC memories?

 A) HNC annual events brought students and faculty together. Notably, Quinn Campbell and I emceed the Mid-Autumn Talent Show/Festival. We learned the choreography for Uptown Funk at the 11th hour. It really was down to the wire, just a couple hours before the event, but we pulled it off! It was fun engaging everybody on that yangtai and getting to see a lot of talented classmates showcase their musical talents, singing and comedic skills.

B) Halloween! That year The Banwei/Harry Potter houses initiated a pumpkin-carving contest. Through the magic of Taobao we acquired a decent of amount of pumpkins, but they weren’t the large pumpkins in a pumpkin patch. They were so tiny, but everyone got quite creative. One classmate managed to carve out the Totoro holding a leaf. Many participated and for many students, it was their first pumpkin carving.

C) One of my classmates Brendan Melchiorri initiated Hogwarts houses to unite students and faculty year-round. It was a herculean effort, and he managed it pretty much all on his own. He made WeChat groups, organized events year-round for all the houses. Initially, I was very skeptical, but I ended up participating (in Ravenclaw) and it brought so many people (students & faculty) together. Around 85-90% of us participated.

D) Placing third in the Dragon Boat competition was also amazing. We kind of went viral at the time. I don't think anyone expected us to win anything, and we also didn't expect anything either, just wanted to have fun, but we ended up placing third! I still have a photo framed in my office of the team receiving the trophy.

E) Madeline Albright visited campus. In the days leading up to graduation, HNC hosted a Q&A session with the former Secretary of State. It was such a pleasure to hear Albright share her experiences with us. I remember our career advisor passing me the mic to ask the LAST question before the talk was over. I was able to ask the importance of women in government (foreign service) and whether that remains relevant in 2015. To this day I still remember Albright’s response of, “That is a great question and yes, remains an important one.” She further dived into the importance and impact of women in the workforce and especially in diplomacy. It felt incredibly validating, and I will admit, the fan girl inside me was beyond the moon. I was beaming.

And to wrap up, F) Commencement Day. Prior to the ceremony, a group of us went hiking in Zijinshan. At the top was a lake and well, we all jumped in! We spent a couple hours there cooling off as the Nanjing summer heat approached. I don't know how sanitary that was, but it was so much fun. We all got to do something together one final time. It was one last hoorah before departing the HNC. 

Tell us a bit more about your career and your current role. How did you find yourself in your current position, or any of the roles you've had in the past? Did you always want to work in localization, translation?

Before my current role at LanguageLine as a full-time solutions architect, I did four years of contract work since 2020 starting with Apple. I was living in Oakland, CA at the time and then after a year, I was offered a contract role at Square, also known as Block. These roles exposed me to a lot of localization program & project management styles. I collaborated with multiple teams across the world managing and scaling language content for different products across 20+ global markets.

That's been the last four years for me. COVID -19 impacted everyone. When half of my team at the SF startup was laid off in early 2020, it was initially devastating, sudden and unexpected. But, during the Lunar New Year my Aunt kindly reminded me, "You are not a tree. You can uproot and survive. So, keep on surviving." I took those words to heart and set out to survive. During the height of the pandemic, I both freelanced and worked at Trader Joe's in Oakland. After six months, opportunity came knocking in the form of contract work at Apple's DCM team (Digital Content Management). I felt surprised and relieved thinking to myself, “Guess my localization career isn't over yet.” Anytime I come across people who experienced a recent lay off or termination, I share my experiences hoping that it can resonate. Layoffs are brutal and it takes a lot of time and compassion to navigate these feelings. You are essentially mourning one's livelihood. It's an aspect of career growth or career challenges we as a society are talking way more openly about.

The majority of my roles, whether contract or full-time, were secured through the added benefit of networking, including my current position at LanguageLine. Many ask me, “How do you get past the application process and secure interviews?” The answer is to be resourceful. Work smarter and not harder. Really embrace networking and strengthening your connections with people. You never know who you meet along the way that can help make an impact on your career trajectory.

How do you use Chinese in your current position or other skills you gained while studying at the HNC?

In my current role at LanguageLine I would say knowing Chinese is helpful when consulting implementation solutions for clients. Many companies need to localize website platform, documentation and marketing campaigns into multiple languages, especially Simplified & Traditional Chinese. Having language insight and walking clients through best practices is beneficial. Not everyone has language insight and assumes translation is fast and easy, but there’s more steps in the process to ensure accuracy and quality. Language skills are helpful interacting with others to build intercultural communication. When you speak to people in their mother tongue, they might not be as guarded or self-conscious. It does impress others, but more importantly it helps bridge the gap between non-native English speakers and monolingual colleagues. Building those bridges and being authentic, sincere, and empathetic are crucial with navigating through any career.

A key takeaway I learned from the HNC/graduate school is balancing impulse control. Ask yourself, “How do you respond to a situation, and what solutions and steps are you or your team going to take to remedy things and find ways out?” Setting and aligning expectations was also something I took away from the HNC. Graduate school re-solidified the concept of setting the tone for myself, setting expectations for a team to be successful. It's important to set expectations, and not just wish for something. What are some steps to do to make a process easier or more streamlined? In a group project, it's important to make sure everyone is aligned with the goal and be very clear with intention and communication. These kinds of skills will be important for your time at the HNC and beyond.

What is one piece of advice you have for current or future HNC students?

A major takeaway for HNC students is knowing how to interact with people face to face and not being shy about having a conversation. Communication is key. Don't think you're imposing, don't assume, don't hesitate to ask questions and stay curious. In addition, balancing and observing your own bandwidth. Think about your exertion, your mental health and bandwidth, whether you've used too much energy or the right amount. Finally, find opportunities to make yourself feel more confident and comfortable. If you're not feeling comfortable about your Chinese skills or other skills, you have agency to do something about it. Instead of sitting on the sidelines, find ways to help yourself and make yourself feel empowered. This also applies to your time overall at the HNC. If you start to notice certain behaviors, patterns or even processes that aren't helpful to your cohort, be proactive and respond. Advocate for yourself and others. Unite people and find authentic ways of connections. Over the last few years, I've learned that fostering a "planting the seed" mentality of bringing people together versus staging manicured gatherings can be more impactful. Create an environment that's inviting, where people can be themselves.  It could be a spur of the moment invitation, like having a coffee, lunch at the tangbao shop down the street with classmates or rallying people to go for a hike at Zijingshan last minute. Find moments to take a break for yourself! Your mental bandwidth and overall health are key to success!