Deborah
Job Title
Director
Company and location
JD Approach
Industry sector
ICT
What does your job involve?
I founded the company with my business partner Jessica two years ago. JD Approach provides IT solutions to small businesses - anything from designing customer databases and websites to developing entire systems. We employ two staff and we’re about to take on more.
Why and how did you get into that area of work?
I didn’t go to university straight after school. I worked for about ten years, in the UK and abroad. One of my jobs was for a big telecommunications firm, Alcatel, where I got really interested in IT systems development.
I decided to do a degree in Business Information Systems; that’s where Jessica and I met. We used to talk about how great it would be to have our own company. When I was doing my MSc, we entered an Enterprise Challenge competition at Sheffield Hallam University to write a business plan and were runners-up! At that point we decided to quit our jobs and set up JD Approach.
How did you gain your language skills?
I did German at school and wanted to learn French but not enough people signed up so the course didn’t run. But in my early 20s I went to Israel to work on a kibbutz, where I learned some Hebrew - and met a French man. I ended up living in France and learning the language, but it would have been so much easier if I’d studied it at school! I worked in various places, including Disneyland.
I also worked for a while for a timeshare company in Tenerife. Knowing French, I found I could get by in Spanish.
How do you use your languages at work?
We recently won an important contract to help a British company that was opening two offices in Paris. They needed someone who had the right IT expertise coupled with French language skills. If I hadn’t been able to offer them that – well, we simply wouldn’t have got the work.
I spent four months setting up their IT and telephone systems. All the employees were French and they didn’t know very much about IT! French working culture is also very different to the UK’s. Researching their needs, negotiating contracts with suppliers, training staff in using the new systems... none of it would have been possible without understanding French language and culture.
What next?
Well, the company who gave us the Paris contract are hoping to open offices in Spain and already have them in Israel so I might get to use my Spanish and Hebrew skills again!
Most embarrassing moment using languages?
When I was working at Disneyland Paris, there was a day when the hotel bar got really crowded and people were trying to push their way to the front. I decided to take control of the situation and shouted out what I thought was ‘Get to the back of the queue!’ Unfortunately, I mispronounced the word ‘queue’ and it came out sounding like the French word for ‘bum’. The entire room burst out laughing... took me a while to live that one down!
Any tips?
Spending some time in a foreign country helps you understand not just what people say but how they behave. Don’t be scared of making mistakes and don’t be upset if people correct you - it’s usually well-intended. Get used to saying words aloud and making different shapes with your mouth to help with the pronunciation. And be nosey! If you hear something you don’t understand, ask what it means: next time you hear it you’ll have another piece of the jigsaw.