How to properly promote your bilingual business skills in interviews?

February 3, 2021 8:48 AM

I'm not sure the written resume always makes language skills clear. What is the best way to express proficient second language skills relevant to a new job if not directly asked? I don't think it's great to show off and begin speaking in an interview in language 2 when not invited to. Extra difficulty - It's Spanish. More inside.....

I have several years of work experience managing business development in Spanish-speaking South America. My Spanish is full fluent working proficiency.

The job opportunity I reference below is gone, but for future interviews......

Last week I had a job interview for a near dream job covering the Spanish-speaking South America territory. The interviewer had studied a semester abroad in the same city where I had lived for several years. Speaking Spanish came up, not so much formally in an interview sense, but just casually chatting about our experience there. She mentioned that she had trouble understanding regional Spanish accents from outside of where she studied. I commented that regional accents can be hard and that even to this day I have trouble hearing in large crowds and that Mexican slang is tough to follow. That was not good. I should not have mentioned any language skill weakness. There was no need to sacrifice any potentially perceived competency in place of establishing rapport. I'm worried that I planted a seed that maybe I only spoke very basic "study-abroad' level Spanish. Instead, I should have directly made it clear that I speak Spanish and left it at that. She never asked anything about Spanish directly related to the job. I assumed that my work history and resume made it clear that I met the English/Spanish requirement. When I heard that we had lived in the same city, I did avoid the temptation to start speaking to her in Spanish without being invited or cued. That's just ostentatious. Show-offey.

This morning I had a conversation with a European international business consultant and he mentioned to me, "You better improve your Spanish for what you are looking for in your career." He had never heard me speak, so I'm assuming that as an American he thought that I wouldn't speak a second language well. This got me to thinking about second language fluency and presenting that skillset when interviewing.

Spanish is tricky in the sense that there are many American's claiming to speak Spanish that really don't. Often American's think they speak Spanish because they took classes in high school or working in a restaurant and had to communicate with the kitchen. I think that some knowledgeable hiring managers are skeptical of bilingual/Spanish for this reason. On the other hand, there are a lot of people working in Spanish speaking regions that found their way into bilingual positions either through their own ignorance or "fake-it-til-you-make-it."

I definitely need to retranslate my resume into both languages and send copies of the resume in both languages when directly relevant to a job application. In the future, when the interviewer asks, "Tell me about yourself." I should probably (even if just casually) slip in right away that I'm fully bilingual in Spanish and English whether it's directly relevant to the job or not.


Last week I wrote about something that came up at an interview for a job I was really excited about in which I may have said something,..... not exactly to my benefit. Have a look back if you like, but I'm ready to address another issue related to interviewed for bilingual jobs (And try to forget that part of that interview). Ufff

posted by Che boludo! to Work & Money (17 answers total)

Response by poster: I once worked for an American guy who had lived 11 years in Costa Rica and I swear he only spoke 11 words of Spanish. He had also been in charge of a manufacturing plant in Brazil. He once told me that he didn't have time at that job to learn to speak "Brazilian" D'oH! I also would get messages and calls from our clients asking me to retranslate his Spanish emails into something readable. He was a good guy. I enjoyed working with him and he had some superpowers that cross all international and cultural boundaries until he tried to write or speak Spanish. He faked it til he maked it.
posted by Che boludo! at 8:53 AM on February 3, 2021

Response by poster: Also, I've been told many times that I don't promote myself enough. I need to brag a little more in these situations.
posted by Che boludo! at 8:55 AM on February 3, 2021

Are there any stories you can tell in response to questions that aren’t about language that would only make sense if you were really fluent in Spanish? Like, in a response to a question about how you overcame a difficulty at work talking about personally interacting with a completely non-English speaking coworker? I can’t quite figure out how you’d drag it in, but there might be something.
posted by LizardBreath at 8:57 AM on February 3, 2021 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: I should add at the same time, I'm finding that my international background is not relevant to many jobs I'm interviewing for. In fact, I'm a little concerned that my experience abroad is a hindrance. On Monday a woman asked me why I would want to work for them with all my international experience. This is a fine line I'm walking in interviews and although related, a topic for another day. Today I'm concerned about properly promoting bilingual skills.
posted by Che boludo! at 9:06 AM on February 3, 2021

This is basically what cover letters are for. Write a cover letter explaining that you lived and worked in a Spanish-speaking country for several years and that you not only speak "textbook" Spanish, you speak the local dialect and understand other dialects.

The thing is, if bilingualism is actually required for a job, the hiring manager/interviewer isn't just going to make assumptions. They're going to actually test you to make sure you know what you say you do. Think about a different kind of language - computer programming. I guess JavaScript would be the closest equivalent to Spanish, in that everyone says they have experience with it. I can list JavaScript on my resume, but if I'm applying for a developer job, they're going to ask me pretty specific questions about how to do certain things in JavaScript, and probably even ask me to write some basic code. If you're actually going to be required to speak Spanish for a job, you will have to demonstrate it during the hiring process. They aren't going to throw someone into a demanding professional role because that person once said "muchas gracias, amigo" to a guy at Taco Bell. And if they *don't* ask about it during the interview, it's not an important part of the job and your fluency doesn't matter.
posted by kevinbelt at 9:06 AM on February 3, 2021 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: With native Spanish language interviewers I pass the test when I'm thrown right into the pool. This person would not have been able to do that though.

I should probably get a formal language certification. I think that's pretty typical in Europe.
posted by Che boludo! at 9:11 AM on February 3, 2021

I'm a hiring manager. If I were hiring for a job that required or appreciated bilingualism, I would be impressed by a duplicated resume, in the second language, tucked right behind the first one, in the same PDF. So if you have a two page resume in English, literally write it again in Spanish in the same Word doc, and PDF the whole thing for a total of four pages.
posted by juniperesque at 9:13 AM on February 3, 2021 [16 favorites]

When I wanted to show that I was bilingual when applying for a job, I wrote both my resume and my cover letter in English and in my second language. As juniperesque suggested, I had one behind the other in a pdf. This did seem to impress.

Otherwise, I agree that if speaking Spanish is integral to the job, your interviewer is going to test your language skills. If they don't, that specifically is not what is keeping you from the job, though learning to brag about yourself is an important skill for interviewing!
posted by Blissful at 10:15 AM on February 3, 2021

This might be slightly tangential but I wonder if the European consultant's comment is that you are referencing your experience with Latin American Spanish, and he is saying you should work on or demonstrate proficiency with Castilian Spanish.
posted by sm1tten at 10:26 AM on February 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

I think you’re lucky that with Spanish you can include it on your resume and specify the regions with which you’re familiar. There’s certainly a difference between Spanish Spanish/Mexican Spanish/etc
posted by raccoon409 at 10:28 AM on February 3, 2021

I commented that regional accents can be hard and that even to this day I have trouble hearing in large crowds and that Mexican slang is tough to follow. That was not good. I should not have mentioned any language skill weakness. There was no need to sacrifice any potentially perceived competency in place of establishing rapport. I'm worried that I planted a seed that maybe I only spoke very basic "study-abroad' level Spanish.

You're being really hard on yourself, here. You actually have to be a fairly knowledgeable speaker of a second language to be comfortable casually chatting about different regional/colloquial nuances, and how easy or difficult you find them to follow.

This morning I had a conversation with a European international business consultant and he mentioned to me, "You better improve your Spanish for what you are looking for in your career." He had never heard me speak, so I'm assuming that as an American he thought that I wouldn't speak a second language well.

As you note, there are legit reasons to sometimes take an American's claim of Spanish fluency with a grain of salt -- however this guy sounds presumptuous and rude. A great answer would be a puzzled reply of "How do you think I need to improve it?" so that he is forced to explain his assumptions. But just confidently stating "I am fully fluent" is also a sufficient explanation.

Try not to let the interview process make you feel so defensive about your Spanish language skills. You don't need to automatically defend yourself against every bias that an interviewer MIGHT have in their head about other people who claim to speak Spanish.
posted by desuetude at 10:42 AM on February 3, 2021 [2 favorites]

+1 to working into answers to behavioral interviewing questions.

For me, I might do it not for language but for inter-cultural experiences, maybe to answer "Tell me about a time where you brought someone important around to your point of view." I might talk about how in a other-country technical context, Americans are often underestimated...and this one time I brought someone from this other country who was quite hostile to our product around to seeing me as a technical expert and buying our product. And I owe that to my cultural understanding, etc., etc.

I'm sure you could find a few examples that use your language skills as the thing that SAVED THE DAY! and work those stories into your normal set of responses.
posted by chiefthe at 11:19 AM on February 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

In some fields that are more strict (healthcare for example), you have to actually get formally tested / certified that you speak a certain language at a certain level. There are organizations that will certify your proficiency, and once you are certified, you can just list it on your resume as such.
posted by gemutlichkeit at 12:11 PM on February 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

I am a polyglot myself (English, Chinese, Cantonese, some Spanish) and so far, it hadn't come up in jobs thus far.
posted by kschang at 1:05 PM on February 3, 2021

What does your resume say about your language skills at the moment? I looked through and back through your question and couldn’t find this specifically.
posted by lokta at 1:53 PM on February 3, 2021

Response by poster: My current resume says:  Language skills: English (native), Spanish (fluent – full professional).
posted by Che boludo! at 2:57 PM on February 3, 2021

I would go ahead and do a proficiency test. Here is the one the federal government uses. That would give an actual answer rather than just a perhaps made up answer.
posted by stormygrey at 4:29 PM on February 3, 2021 [1 favorite]