I just got word from ForeignExchange Translations president Andres Heuberger that his company plans to add 27 positions this year -- which is an impressive 50% growth rate.

I used to work for ForeignExchange back in the early days and I want to point out two things this company has done extremely well at: focusing on a specific industry and adding value beyond translations.

The company focuses on the life sciences industry and has made quality control one of its chief selling points. Quality is a life or death matter to medical device and pharmaceutical companies and they will pay a premium for agencies that can demonstrate not just high-quality work but industry and terminology expertise. ForeignExchange is not the only agency to focus on this industry, but it is one of the best at marketing itself as such.

Second, ForeignExchange hosts regular paid Webinars featuring industry experts. These Webinars cover a variety of topics across the industry, not just translations. And these are not just sales seminars dressed up as educational seminars. How many other translation vendors serving the life sciences industry have hosted a seminar titled The Revised MDD: Practical Implications for Device Manufacturers? Nobody, would be my guess. And by partnering with other life sciences companies, such as Quintiles and Pleiad Devices, to develop these seminars, ForeignExchange develops a healthy lead-generation pipeline.

As the translations industry expands, translation agencies will thrive by focusing on specific industries and developing highly specialized services within these industries.

And now here are some immediate job openings at ForeignExchange:

1. Strategic Account Manager (Boston)
Support multinational life science clients: strategy, proposal writing, solutions development

2. Business Development Manager (Denver or Madrid)
Sell our specialized language services to pharma, device firms in the Rockies and on the West Coast

3. Analysis Manager (Boston or Denver)
Bridge sales, operations to scope work and formulate ideal service-delivery approaches

4. Document Localization Lead (Boston or Denver)
Coordinate multilingual DTP projects and provide TRADOS expertise

More information on all of these positions is available at http://www.fxtrans.com/careers.