This month’s guest author is Luba Davis, Workforce Mobility Counselor in our Texas operations center, who transformed her passion for language and culture, and her experience as a translator, into a career in relocation.
As a child growing up in the Soviet Union, I always had an interest in foreign languages and meeting people from different cultures. However, in those days of the USSR, that was not always a good thing. In fact, my mother, who worked as a nuclear scientist, had to agree not to speak to any foreigners.
By the time I graduated from high school, the Soviet Union had collapsed, and speaking a foreign language was no longer considered “suspicious behavior.”
I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Linguistics with an emphasis in Spanish, English and French from People’s Friendship University in Moscow, and then earned a Master’s degree in Linguistics and Intercultural Communication. From school, I embarked on a career as a translator for an oil company, where I translated financial reports, contracts and meeting notes.
I felt comfortable in my role, and felt I was putting my education to its highest and best use. But life had different plans for me.
I met my American husband through my job and within one year, found myself living in the United States. My career came to a screeching halt, but after taking some time to lament, I came to the realization that I had to reinvent myself. I looked at a few options: becoming a schoolteacher of Russian or Spanish, doing administrative work or getting into the immigration field.
For me, immigration looked like the best option, and I completed my paralegal certificate with honors. I held a few temporary jobs until I saw a posting for an International Counselor with a relocation management company. I wasn’t sure what to expect – the concept of a “relocation management company” was a mystery to me – but the job functions aligned with some of my skills. I applied and got the job; the rest is history!
I now live and work in Houston, Texas, and have personally relocated twice for my job. I have been with Weichert for over six years, working with a variety of international clients.
What I love about my job is that I get to draw upon my passion for foreign languages and cultures and immigration every day.
I also leverage my own experiences as a trailing spouse and a mobile employee, which gives me a rich understanding of and empathy for what the employees and families I work with are going through.
I think I found my home!
Subscribe to our Newsletter