Use Your Language Skills to Boost Your Career
Did you know that your language skills are a key asset to your career? When you speak more than one language, you open up the door to a world of opportunities that aren't available to your monolingual counterparts, besides boosting your salary between 10-15%.
In the business world today, companies are looking to expand their reach across borders by hiring multilingual professionals who can blend in easily with other cultures, and fill the communication gap between them and their clients.
Multilingual professionals are more valuable because they can manage international clients, go on business trips and do business abroad. Moreover, saving companies the cost of translation & interpretation fees.
If you're job hunting, the first important thing besides your skills is to have an impressive CV that makes you stand out from the crowd. After all, you wanna convince them to call YOU for an interview rather than all the other CVs on their desk.
No matter what job you're applying for, competition can be really fierce! Knowledge of a second or third language is a great way to make your CV stand out from the crowd, especially if the rest of your skills or experience is similar to other applicants.
This is especially true at international companies where staff are expected to communicate with people in other countries.
When you know more than one language, it also suggests to employers that you're motivated, up for a challenge & willing to grow professionally and personally.
When you’re at a job interview, your ability to speak a second or third language will definitely increase your chances of landing your desired job. Imagine that the hiring manager interviews dozens of candidates. All things being equal, knowing that extra language, sets you above all monolingual candidates. Your second language may be the only skill that separates you from other candidates with similar qualifications.
Companies are expanding and want to do business worldwide. So you see that’s why multilingual employees who can communicate with foreign clients are more attractive. Even domestic-based companies still need employees who can speak a second language.
In the business world today, there is an increasing demand for professionals with soft skills. Both public and private companies want professionals who not only are experts in their field but also have the ability to do meetings, presentations, negotiations, and so on, in a second language.
If you’re interviewing for an international job, besides the business skills, they might even require you to know the specialised jargon of the industry or related to your specific position in a second language. This is highly common among the Italian, French, German and Spanish companies that are expanding in the English-speaking market. As well as US or UK companies who are expanding in the EU.
Multilingual people are often considered more attractive and persuasive. Speaking different languages goes beyond just speaking to someone in their native tongue. It gives you the ability to communicate effectively across cultures, helps you relate with people from different countries and empathise with them on a deeper level. Speaking to people in their language breaks down barriers and makes them feel more confident and comfortable; you relate in a personal manner.
This type of relationship is especially ideal for any work environment or business setting. When you have to deal with clients who speak different languages than you do, Communicating in your client’s first language elevates your client’s professional and business relationship, which can inevitably get you better business results.
Besides helping out your clients and colleagues, multilingualism helps build work relationships as well. If you go to a conference, seminar, or fair, you can communicate with more people. Especially, knowing English well if it's not your native language, can help you socialise a lot at these events. As of course, English is the international language.
Companies prefer multilingual employees because they can manage international clients, go on business trips and do business abroad. All this plus cutting cost of translation & interpretation fees makes multilinguals more valuable than those who cannot speak another language. And of course, this comes with higher pay.
Here is why:
A recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics states that only 4% of Americans speak two or more languages—On the other hand, according to Eurostat, 24.8% of Europeans know at least one foreign language. So, it’s a basic matter of demand and supply!
Because there is such high demand for employees with language skills, and there are few of them out there, companies are willing to pay you more for being able to communicate with their customers.
Based on a study, knowing a second or a third language can boost your salary between 10-15%. Sometimes this can add up to 12k euros to your yearly income.
60% of European companies are limited in foreign trade because of linguistic & intercultural barriers. And there’s a similar problem with English-speaking companies that want to expand in Europe. That’s why English is the International Business Language and it’s fundamental for business success.
The majority of professionals in Europe, especially in countries such as Italy and Spain can understand and speak some English, but not good enough for a business setting. The majority haven’t studied English since school, and if they did, it was an unsuccessful attempt to follow some generic courses at language schools.
Even though English is the second language after Italian used by Italian companies, Italy is in 24th place in Europe in fluency in English. This costs the Italian PMI tens of millions of euros every year. This scarcity is caused by bad public teaching and a lack of occasions to practice.
Effective Business Communication is essential for the success of any business. It’s crucial that the top executives in your business would be able to do business in English with the same confidence they would do in their native language.
If you want to pick up a new language, there are so many resources available to you today— especially after Covid, there has been a boom in language courses online. If you’re busy or have specific needs, there are even companies like Premier English that offer specialised industry-specific coaching online. More and more companies are trying to make this process more accessible even for super busy professionals and flexible enough to fit into any busy lifestyle.
Book a free consultation call with us If you want to have an evaluation of your current situation, discuss your professional needs, and get CLEAR about the reasons your previous training failed, and the REAL career opportunities that you could have by improving your English communication skills, then schedule a FREE discovery call with us today:
