Languages on your resume

[YtownPolyglot]

I've only had one job where language skills were connected with the work. I was teaching ESL years ago. I had mentioned a bachelor's degree in French, and someone asked if that meant that I would be able to teach an ESL class in French. I said, "Of course, I could." The matter was never brought up again.

[talentgurujob]

Hi Everyone,

I always put the languages I am confident speaking example Spanish ( Conversational). That's my opinion as at the end of the day lying on a resume might get you a job but one day or the other you might have to use these skills and it will put you in a bad situation. So its better to be as honest as possible.

[Lugubert]

I'm a translator, so more or less by definition I have to be totally honest when mentioning which languages and on which subjects I'm confident with, and prove that by referral to previous customers. You will normally be challenged through test translations, so overstating your competence will immediately be challenged, and any fail will possibly be communicated to other actors in the business.

[tolgylop]

I work as an engineer, but I would not be sitting here in India typing this post and I would certainly not have visited 40 countries -at my employer's expense- if I hadn't included language study among my "other skills and interests".

[galaxyrocker]

I work as an engineer, but I would not be sitting here in India typing this post and I would certainly not have visited 40 countries -at my employer's expense- if I hadn't included language study among my "other skills and interests".

Could you elaborate on how you leveraged this? And what type of engineer?

[tolgylop]

I work as an engineer, but I would not be sitting here in India typing this post and I would certainly not have visited 40 countries -at my employer's expense- if I hadn't included language study among my "other skills and interests".

Could you elaborate on how you leveraged this? And what type of engineer?

First, let me make it clear that I'm not in the same league as the amazing polyglots who share their experience here. I just enjoy learning languages and have been hanging around this site, and its predecessor, for tips and inspiration. My point in posting here is to show that even mediocre language skills, when coupled with another specific skill set, can give you the edge over other applicants, especially when the job requires international travel.

Now to answer your question about my work/travel: I studied Manufacturing Engineering, but also learned a lot of useful skills through hobbies. My main jobs for the last 20+ years have been in International Sales/Service of machinery, and I have done consulting in offshore manufacturing and enjoyed a long-term assignment in Asia. My current job is in machinery sales for an American company and I travel internationally about 60%.

[Teango]

I wonder what Alexander Argüelles writes on his résumé...

[Iversen]

Again one of the good old threads from the graveyard which deserved to be resurrected..

Luckily I'm past the age where I need to write job applications, and I haven't written one since the mid 80s, but if I wanted a job that didn't really have anything to do with languages then I would mention, but not go into details with my interest in languages. I might write something similar to what I wrote on the form for the gathering in Bratislava 2019: Interests: I have worked with/studied "the Romance and the Germanic languages and a few more". I would however mention that I had an academic exam in French since that has been important for my choice of union and salary. But not more than that. And then I would add "Other interests: classical music, art, travelling" so that it wouldn't come as a total surprise if I later mentioned what I do outside the job - but not more than that.

PS: I only remember 4 cases in my 29 years of tenure where I did something in my job in other languages than Danish or English: I once was asked to translate the instructions for a Dutch board game into Danish so that one of our institutions could judge whether it was relevant for them to get the license to produce a Danish version of it, and the second time was when one of our suppliers by mistake sent us an Italian version of some software. I replied in Italian (on behalf of the receiver) that it was nice of them to assume that we could speak Italian, but that we would prefer a Danish or - if need be - English version. However the company got the better of us by also apologizing in Italian. And then there was the curious case of an employee in another department with a Romanian wife who had somehow heard that I had had courses in Romanian and who believed that I still remembered anything from them - but at the time my Romanian was rubbish so we ended up (of rather 'down') at the "buna ziua" level. And finally there was another employee who had a jubilee or something AND a South American wife - so I had a fairly long conversation with them in Spanish at the reception. That's all - in 29 years...

[Ug_Caveman]

I would only list language skills if I had a formal qualification in them, otherwise it would just go down in my hobbies section alongside a few sports I watch/play.

That being said, I have a qualification in GCSE French which is next to meaningless (Grade C, some 6 and half years ago, almost entirely forgotten), which if I were to omit, would be noticed if they asked me to present my GCSE certificates as it is listed under the same exam board as several of my other qualifications. BUT that being said, I've also got a Bachelor's degree (and could well have a Master's degree by this time next year), so I suspect they may be more interested in those rather than some pesky GCSE oversight.

Hoping I'll have a CNaVT Informeel certificate by the summer though, so it gives me a language qualification I can be a bit more proud of

[tastyonions]

The ones I feel comfortable doing business in without having my level inconvenience native speakers. So, French and Spanish, though the latter isn't that much use listing around here because native hispanophones are super common in Texas and they'll certainly be preferred if language skills are a core part of the job requirements.