Unsung Heroes: A Day in the Life of a Project Manager

By Alan G

Sep 9, 2022

A Day in the Life of a Project Manager

8:50 A.M:

PM walks into the office with a beaming smile and a pocket full of sunshine, time to seize the day!

8:53 A.M:

PM opens up the kitchen cupboard to find their coffee mug is missing! “Oh well, no problem!”. Unshaken enthusiasm at its finest. PM proceeds to make their coffee using a clearly inferior mug without Garfield on it.

8:57 A.M:

PM boots his PC and heads over to Spotify, playing his perfectly curated playlist. What better way to start the week than with some Bee Gees?

9:02 A.M:

PM’s inbox looks slightly more bloated than when he left it.
“22 different emails from over the weekend? Not good…” A sea of URGENT! in the subject lines mock our poor PM.

9,120 words needed by the end of the day! – sent at 4:15 pm.

How experienced is your copywriting team with Aerospace engineering?

We need you to transcribe and subtitle this audio recording. It’s in Primitive Quendian, the language of the Elves from Lord of the Rings.

“Oof!” the PM nervously chuckles.

9:25 A.M:

Having waited the appropriate amount for his coffee to cool off, he takes a much-needed sip. A grimace overtakes his face, this is disgusting! In a tale as old as time, our dear PM accidentally added a teaspoon of salt instead of sugar. Someone clearly never watched Mary Poppins. PM heads back to the kitchen and dumps it down the drain. No point in making another, too many emails to reply to.

(Enter Sales Director, stage left)

10:11 A.M:

With the exuberance of a lioness on a hunt, our lovely Sales Director pounces upon her prey, a bewildered PM still wondering where they’re going to find an Elvish translator.

“I NEED A WORD COUNT!”

The words jolt him awake.

“No problem, send me the file plea-“

“Already did. How many words is it?”

Our PM checks his inbox and opens the message. He releases a loud exhale upon noticing something in the attachment.

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“It’s pictures, isn’t it?”

A collection of blurry, grainy pictures (taken by the world’s shakiest hand, apparently) of what looks to be different legal documents in Tagalog.

“Client wants these translated to Esperanto. What’s the ETA?”

One single, noticeable drop of sweat meanders its way down our poor PM’s face.

“I’ll get back to you.”

11:25 A.M:

Spreadsheets. Spreadsheets. More spreadsheets.

11:52 A.M:

Time for a quick snack break? Our PM brought a slice of delicious apple pie from home. “Let’s try the coffee again, sugar this time”. He cheerfully opens the fridge door and finds… nothing.

Impossible, it was in the fridge not even an hour ago, he’s sure of it.

“You should try some of this pie man, fantastic”. The words echo through our PM’s ears, taunting him. Of course, the Content Writer, unappeased by his 10 A.M. granola bar, decided to deprive our PM of the joys of his own pie. Betrayal.

1:45 P.M:

Almost lunch time, as our PM’s stomach’s growls remind him, still recovering from the absence of a promised apple pie. He orders some chicken noodles (broccoli and mushrooms? Feeling bold today).

25 minutes to delivery. Perfect timing.

2:40 P.M:

Three phone calls later and lunch still hasn’t arrived.

“Skipping lunch today?” No Karen, he could devour a full Christmas feast if he wanted to.

2:50 P.M:

Finally, with the food at his desk, our PM has a moment’s peace. Three bites later, he notices an incoming email.

URGENT!

Ten minutes of peace, that’s all he asks for.

4:10 P.M:

An unusual scenario is brewing. One of the Spanish translators isn’t responding to our PM. “That’s unlike Juan…” he thinks. “But I guess it takes Juan, to know Juan.” He laughs to himself. After a flurry of pings and texts, Juan reveals that his girlfriend has left him, and he’s too depressed to work today. The pitfalls of love…

Juan has a project due today. However, our PM also knows that a broken heart is not easy to mend. It is up to our PM to be the shoulder to lean on, all while convincing Juan to finish what he started. A few cheerful messages later, our PM has built Juan back up, plenty of fish in the sea! The project will be delivered by the end of the day.

5:20 P.M:

“I sent you a-“

“Word count. I’m on it.”

6:02 P.M:

64 processed projects, 58 language pairs, 52 satisfied clients, 28 different Bee Gees songs, zero apple pies, and more salt than he’d have liked, our PM can finally exhale.

You see, project managers are built different. They are the unsung heroes of the localization and content industry. Every language, every project, every platform that can possibly be used during the process goes through them. We take great pride in our PM team that ensures smooth sailing from the first client query all the way to delivery. You guys are the backbone of our success.

From all of us at GTH to all project managers out there, thank you!

Disclaimer: GTH would like to make it clear that certain elements of this blog post were fabricated for entertainment purposes. Under no circumstances did our Content Writer steal anyone’s pie.