From Newbie to Nintendo

Picture this: you are moving to a new country, trying to start a new chapter in your career as a translator. You don’t know any translators based in your destination, have no previously established connections, and are struggling to find local opportunities. That was my situation about a year ago when I first moved to the US from Brazil. A month later, however, I would attend the world-renowned ATA conference, which significantly changed my career.

I had heard about the ATA through Brazilian colleagues and online panels and decided to check out their website. Fortunately, the ATA63 conference was just one month away, so I decided to attend it despite my initial hesitation. I figured getting out there and meeting some people in my field couldn’t hurt. Little did I know; this event would change my career significantly.

I was sure I had made a good decision as soon as I attended the PLD’s virtual session. It was like being invited to a reunion of old friends who were excited to see each other and spend some time together, and I started looking forward to being a part of that as well.

The first day of the conference started out with the Buddies Welcome Newbies event, which is a great way to break the ice, have some laughs, and meet new people. I even heard that the ATA63 Buddies Welcome Newbies was one of the biggest ones yet. Being a part of that helped me feel more comfortable in the Welcome Celebration, which gave me a real sense of the event’s scale. That was also when I met my PLD peers, and we saw a beautiful Los Angeles sunset.

With so many people and sessions, the second day felt overwhelming at first. The ATA63 2022 app was vital for me to overcome that feeling and figure out what I would be doing each day. Once I started attending sessions and meeting other attendees, I began to understand how the conference worked and felt more comfortable.

The sessions at ATA63 were great. They covered various topics, from specific technical subjects to marketing oneself as a freelance translator. The speakers were experts in their fields and provided valuable insights and advice to attendees—in fact, I have the app installed to this day to check notes I took during different sessions. Each day, we had a networking session with a different twist, which was a fantastic idea, particularly for first-time attendees.

Looking back, I realize that attending ATA63 was a turning point for my career. The conference allowed me to make significant connections and prompted me to learn about fields in translation that I didn’t even know existed. Seeing our profession in a new light, I left Los Angeles, emboldened to find my place in the video game translation and interpretation field. A few months later, when I moved to Seattle to start my dream job at Nintendo (via Aerotek), it became even more evident that everything I had learned at the ATA63 bore fruit.

Here’s to many more ATA conferences!

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Editor’s Note:

#ATA64 will be held in Miami, FL, October 25-28. Ew hope to see many of our PL members at our happy hour on October 25, 6:30, at the Riverview Bar & Grill (in the hotel lobby).

You can learn more about #ATA64 and register here.