Women Of Today: In A Position To Change The World w/ Valeria Nanni

The more women I get to interview along this journey and learn about their stories and career paths, the more I love how much value Women Of Today brings to me as a person but also to many women in the community who deserve to have their voice be heard.?

Valeria Nanni is an incredible woman who has always been fascinated with different languages and cultures. Living abroad has enriched her life in so many ways and widened her horizons regarding her personal development, as well. Her passion for languages came from music, as she would translate all the lyrics of her favorite songs and then learn them by putting all her heart into it.

Two very special women influenced her life: her grandmother and her mom, which gave her the wings to be independent, try new things and improve each day.?

Besides being an incredible woman, Valeria is also a Principal Localization Manager at Skyscanner.?

I hope you enjoy reading her story as much as I did. It reminded me why empowering women is a cause so close to my heart and why we need to share these stories.

Isabelle: What do you believe has influenced you the most to embark on a career in the localization industry?

Valeria: Having been raised in a super tiny village in the center of Italy, I started feeling very limited in my options when I was a teenager. Have you heard the story about the lobsters and how they grow? They have a hard shell and they grow inside of it until they become so uncomfortable and they break it. They feel unprotected, hide, and in time grow another shell that eventually becomes too small again and they go on and on. I was uncomfortable, just like the lobsters.

I kept telling myself there was more to life than what I knew, that the world was big, and I started feeling the urge to get out there and explore it to find my place. I was lucky enough to have met language teachers who teased my curiosity since I was a child and opened my eyes on other cultures, and in my teens I used to take my mum’s old English dictionary and use it to translate late 90s songs (yep, you guessed it, Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys.)

In those years I thought I’d be a language teacher or a flight assistant when I grew up, so it was a logical step for me to enroll in a school focused on languages when it came to choose secondary education, and since the passion for languages kept growing, I went into translation and interpreting at Uni.

I: If you look back from this perspective, what is something valuable and life-changing that your job has brought you?

V: The possibility to live abroad, integrate with different cultures and get to know, and learn from, so many people from all over the world. It’s been (and still is) a very enriching experience on both personal and professional levels. Most importantly, it gave me self-confidence and taught my old perfectionist self how to be more flexible and accepting with others and with myself.

I: What have been some make or break moments in your career?

V: Let me tell you about the make or break moment that started my career! (smile)

After I finished my studies I decided to go to London for a few months to improve my spoken English. I left with one suitcase and 2 nights booked in a hostel, not much else. Didn’t have a job or a place to stay. I had always heard that in the UK it was easy to find a job, so what could go wrong?

Well, it was 2009, recession was sweeping through Europe, and I wasn’t even aware! Despite everything, I did find a flat in 2 days and a job shortly after. For 1.5 years I did what I could, working on several different jobs unrelated to localisation, when eventually my last contract came to an end and I was tired.

Going back to Italy seemed the only reasonable option, when a university friend I had met by chance in London a year prior contacted me to see if I was still in town as they were looking for an Italian translator in her team. It was a paid internship to start with and that’s how my career began - Alessandra if you are reading this, thank you again for thinking about me that day!?

Another one was when the team I was in was made redundant. I did some freelancing after that happened that made me realise that freelance life wasn’t for me, good I could try that for a few months to understand that’s not my cup of tea. Also, that pushed me to look for an in-house job and that’s when I landed in a tech company where I could learn a lot and where I built my career in localisation management.

"I believe in the power of building positive relationships as a base to create a happy, healthy environment for people to express themselves and develop."

I: You went to France at the age of 18 and started working there a month before you enrolled at university. What is something meaningful that you took away from that period of time and incorporated in who you are now as a person?

V: My parents were making sacrifices to make ends meet and raise my brother and I, so we had never been able to go on holidays as a family. Going to France at 18 meant I experienced for the first time seeing another country and living outside my parents house for quite some time. It was eye-opening for me, I deeply loved the experience and it reinforced in me the realisation that yes, I was right, there was more to see in the world and I liked what I saw! I feel that experience proved to me that I could follow my intuition, that you can leave and come back, and that change can be a little scary at first but very fulfilling too.

|I’m now much more selective of the company I choose to work for. I want to make sure their mission and values are aligned to my own values and that they do good to people."

I: What was the greatest challenge you had to overcome to be where you are today? What strengths have you developed over time?

V: Self-doubt is probably my biggest enemy. I used to have a pretty critical internal voice and I was listening to it way too much. Over time I learned how to trust in myself more, and although that voice comes back from now and then as life throws at you new challenges, I’m much more aware of it and do this internal talk where I counteract the critical voice with more rational talk.

Observing others helped a lot to put things into perspective. For example, seeing someone I knew being promoted to a higher role or getting my dream job gave me the push that if they could do it, I could too. Another skill I developed through the years and that I’m always working towards is assertiveness.

I still struggle to set boundaries at times, but I’m much better at it now and it seems to become easier with time.

I: Have you found your purpose through your job or did your purpose find you even before you embarked on a professional career?

V: Very good question! It’s a complicated one, I don’t know actually. I have my internal debates about this one. On the one hand I feel I identify too much with my professional self, others that I lost my purpose, then I think about people management, which is the aspect of my work I like the most, and I feel I’m doing exactly what I need to be doing. By now you know I speak to myself a lot! (smile). So, I don’t know if I found my purpose at all but one thing is true: I’m now much more selective of the company I choose to work for. I want to make sure their mission and values are aligned to my own values and that they do good to people.?

I: It’s no secret the traditional way of leadership is being replaced with a more empathetic, open and supportive way of leading people. As a manager, what is something you are passionate about bringing to the organization?

V: Yes, this is a very much needed change and I personally align very much with the empathetic leadership you are describing. I believe in the power of building positive relationships as a base to create a happy, healthy environment for people to express themselves and develop.

We are first of all humans, with our own battles, contradictions and aspirations, work comes second. So I tend to be tactful, assume good intent, and work hard to build strong relationships.

When people feel safe it’s easier for them to open up about their struggles, at work or at home, and that enables me to support them the best I can. And, at times, growth for people means having to fly to a different company and I’d help with that too. To help myself be better at leading people I like thinking about the best and worst managers I had and all the informal leaders that I met along the way, what they did or said that made me feel better or worse, that helped me develop my potential or blocked me from growing.

So I strive to be more like the first and learn from the mistakes I’ve observed: I’d like people to feel they can be their authentic self at work and that I had a positive impact on their lives.

I: What do you believe we can do more to help women have equal opportunities in the workplace, especially in male-dominated roles?

V: There is so much to unpack here…I think there is a good change on how parents raise kids these days, we have become much more aware of how the unconscious bias society instills in children can influence their future choices, and that includes career paths too. I have big faith in humanity and I feel we’re learning and trying to do better. And I think this is what tackles the root of the problem.

This shows in the workplace as well, we see an increasing number of young female engineers for example, and this is reassuring we are going in the right direction. Also, in my experience, having strong female leaders in enterprises helps, women who made it and who help others get there, through mentoring, coaching, lean in groups, or with the mere fact that they are there and act as role models.

Another thing, companies should truly be transparent on salaries and perform regular reviews, to make sure that we reward people equally for the same type of work / level / experience.?

I: What women in your life inspire you the most?

V: I’d say my grandma was a huge influence as I was growing up, and so was my mum. My grandma was the 3rd of 13 children, worked a lot since she was a kid and didn’t have much. Needless to say she had very little education but was very resourceful and resilient, and managed to ensure a much better life for her children.

We used to spend quite a lot of time together and when she was reflecting on how life had changed, how different my childhood and teenage years were compared to hers, with all the comforts of modern life and the arrival of the internet, she used to say "The world would have been mine if I were in your position."

This was a constant reminder not to take things for granted, that I was lucky to have been born in Italy in the 80s and that I should make the most of it also in honour of the sacrifices she’d made.

As for my mum, she focused on raising the family and did it really well, she’s our rock! At the same time she regretted she didn’t have a career of her own and she repeated to me all the time as I was growing up I had to become self-sufficient, find my way, realise my potential and not be dependent on anyone. The combination of the two encouraged me to push myself, work hard, become independent fast and keep improving every day.

I: A piece of advice for all the women out there wanting to achieve their goals??

V: Keep moving, even if it’s a slow movement. Someone recently told me what really matters is the direction of the journey, not the speed - speed can be adjusted. Sometimes, depending on where you are with your life, you might want to take it slower or faster, but keep moving.

And challenge your self-doubt, try new things even if they scare you a bit.

For example, go for that job you really liked the sound of, even if you don’t feel you are completely qualified for it. And go to the interview with curiosity, even if you don’t get the job, you can still make valuable contacts and learn in the process.