How I Got Hired: Founder and CEO, VeritasTranslate

My name is Rob Xia and I graduated with an MA in Conference Interpretation from the Middlebury Institute in 2012. My language pair was Chinese-English. Prior to coming to Monterey, I earned my BA at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. I am now founder and CEO of VeritasTranslate in Shanghai, China.

My focus as CEO of VeritasTranslate is providing interpretation and translation services, negotiating contracts and maintaining clientele, networking to develop business, delegating work to contractors, and managing various workflows. I founded this company in the summer of 2017 as part of my freelance endeavor.

During my time at the Institute, the practicum and internship program gave me lots of hands-on interpreting experience and confidence. I really appreciated the advice from and mock interviews with the career advisors throughout the entire two-year program. The Middlebury Institute alumni network in China has also been very instrumental for me in terms of getting job leads and opportunities, and this was especially true during the first couple of years of my freelance career.     

Explore, Experiment, and Learn Good Lessons

My best advice for current students is this: if you are not sure about what you really want to pursue, then try as many different things as possible (listening in on classes from other programs, talking to and hanging out with people of various backgrounds and expertise, doing volunteer work, taking part-time jobs and internships, reading extensively, etc.). The best time to try stuff and make lots of mistakes—and learn from them—is now!