Imagine that, one day, you leave your house to go to work and see a sign, in the public park nearby, that says “Nicht auf Gras treten”. You then turn the corner and see a bus coming your way, with the destination sign saying “Destinazione finale stazione Termini”. When you arrive at the office building, the security person greets you with a warm “Bonjour! Bienvenue!”. And then, when the phone rings for the first time, the person on the other end of the line asks: “Hola, ¿podemos hablar ahora?”
Would you feel puzzled living in that utopian multilingual city?
Even though you may think this scenario is too far from reality, when it comes to the recruitment world, this feels more and more real every day.
In the past, knowing a foreign language was not common, and language courses were not as widely available as they are today.
But nowadays, knowing only one foreign idiom can already be considered insufficient by some companies, considering their businesses are more and more immersed in a globalized market.
This means that a candidate who has more than one foreign language in their resumé is ahead of the others in the hunt for a new job. If you’re having second thoughts about investing in learning a new idiom, think no more – this is the kind of knowledge that is extremely valuable for your career and that will pay itself in no time.
Here at Randstad, we have a dedicated team dealing specifically with demands from companies searching for polyglot candidates. We meet candidates every day that speak different idioms than their mother languages, like English, German, Italian, Dutch, French, Russian, Chinese… the list goes on!
What about you, are you ready to be part of this multilingual world?
luís rodrigues
hr consultant