Meet the Acclaro Interns: Ellie Wu
In our “Meet the Acclaro Interns” series, we introduce you to undergraduate and graduate students who held intern positions with us during the summer of 2022.
Zhiqing (Ellie) Wu was born in Shanghai and grew up in many different cities around the world. She enjoys going on train trips and spending time with her pets.
Ellie’s Acclaro internship
Ellie is a project management intern at Acclaro. She was assigned a self-managed project to use data analytics to help the Project Management (PM) team improve processes and make informed decisions. She analyzed task assignment data to spot trends in linguist allocation and diversification. These findings were used to create a report on diversification, which guides the PM team on root cause analysis.
Ellie’s typical work day begins at 9am. The first thing she does is check her Outlook calendar for training sessions or meetings. “Then, I open the project tracker that I made to see the tasks that I need to complete that day, whether it be data collection, processing, or analysis. In the afternoon, I meet with my supervisors to share my current project progress or any findings from the data analysis report,” says Ellie.
When her reports are complete, Ellie also meets with the PM team to discuss the reports’ findings and initiate root cause analysis.
Ellie’s college journey
Ellie is a rising second-year student at Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) in Monterey, California, where she’s studying Translation and Localization Management. After graduation, she plans on pursuing a professional career where she can continue to make the most out of her multilingual skills and multicultural background.
Explaining localization to a family member
When asked how she’d explain localization to a family member, Ellie provided this answer:
“To me, localization is a lot more than producing translated output. It is a process that combines language services, marketing, business cultural adaptation and other work required to make products and services relevant and successful in various markets around the globe.”
Ellie’s take on the Acclaro internship experience
Because Ellie’s internship focused on a data-driven approach to project management, she learned valuable skills related to formulas and functions in Microsoft Excel. “Besides the technical skills, the most valuable lessons I learned during my individual project were to break down a large process into smaller increments, stay self-motivated by setting goals and deadlines for each part of the project, and ultimately, curate a personalized, streamlined work process that works most efficiently for my work style,” says Ellie.
Working with the PM team, Ellie found that communication was transparent and candid, and everyone’s input was taken into account during the decision-making process. With members of the team living in different time zones, Ellie appreciated that the scheduling of meetings was always done thoughtfully, with respect for everyone’s schedule.
According to Ellie, “I believe Acclaro truly lives up to its mission of building an equitable, inclusive company and global community where each person’s unique background, identity, and talents contribute to the betterment and beauty of the whole. Acclaro is committed to improving communication, bridging cultural differences, and bringing globalization solutions. The PM team is a prime example of a great multicultural community and the most effective way of creating change is from within.”
