Languages and Your Career: Is There a Link?

Languages and employability: how to be attractive in the eyes of employers

As it is today, it’s undeniable, foreign languages are a true assets on a C.V. especially with the internationalization of companies. Moreover, there is a rise in companies that communicate directly in the language of their collaborators. This is especially true for foreign companies with branches in another country.

To work at MosaLingua there is an absolute link between languages and employability: in order for people from Spain, Italy, Portugal and Germany to work together, knowing foreign languages is an absolute must!

So, does speaking English, or a foreign language really improve our level of employability? The answer is yes, of course. But let’s review this term “employability”. What does it mean?  Employability is one’s evolution in the labor market in an autonomous way. It’s our qualifications, knowledge, our know-how… In other words, what makes us different from other employees. This term just happened to be at the core of a project conducted by CIEP, and co-financed by the European Commission in 2014. A project which directly deals with our subject as it was resumed in two words: “Languages and employability”.

LEMP – Marie – Directrice commerciale par cieptv

As part of this project, surveys to find out whether languages are important for the companies were conducted in 801 companies (which recruit). What was the result from these surveys? Modern languages are an asset for the recruitment, career opportunities and for promotions.

Here are some numbers*:

• 1 out of 2 company look for competence in a modern language in candidates when recruiting. When equally competent, knowing a foreign language makes a difference.
• For 2 out of 5 job offer, mastering two foreign languages is demanded.
• According to half of the companies, promotion, mobility and remuneration are the principal effects for competence knowing foreign languages brinks to work.

And according to the director of a company which participated to the survey (anonymous):

Without the knowledge of English, we cannot do international career, and by giving an international dimension to one’s career, we have the possibility to obtain very interesting positions which are higher in the hierarchy and have much more interesting salaries.

Well yeah, if knowing a language helps you land a job, cool! But if it helps us to earn a hefty salary, things are starting to become particularly (or financially) interesting. Luca had previously mentioned:

At the beginning of my career, knowing various languages help me tremendously: I got my first job thanks to languages, and then I was also able to negotiate for better salaries by highlighting this competency which, in certain environments, are worth gold!

 

 

Languages and employability: being more specific (numbers!) about the financial interest of knowing foreign languages

 

 

So, how should we conclude? Can we say that learning a language is a good investment?
The question particularly interested Robert Lane Greene, journalist for The Economist. In his article Johnson: what is a foreign language worth?, Robert Lane Greene tried to decipher the ROI (Return on Investment) for language learning. We find out that an economist from MIT, Albert Saiz, had, after various calculations, come up with 2%:
2% is the annual bonus an American who speaks a foreign language wins. In other words, if an American wins $30,000 per year, 2% represents a $600 bonus. Not enormous according to the author of the article… Not enormous, but still! It’s not bad. And the 2% bonus is only an average, here are some more details:

• Spanish brings a 1,5% bonus
• French (for an American) a 2,3% bonus
•  and German a 3,8% bonus

 

But for Robert Lane Greene, this is not enough. Even worse, this calculation is apparently not a true representative of the reality. As a strictly economical point of view, the economical percentile is much more interesting. Because according to the author:

• an American freshly out of University will probably get around $45,000 (as apposed to 30,000)
• adding to this salary is the 1% annual raise
• and a true interest of 2% on, let’s say, 40 years

The result? The gain isn’t $600 per year but $67,000 at the time of retirement. An average of $67,000, because, to go back to what d’Albert Saiz says, not all languages give the same bonus… So, if an American chooses to learn:

• Spanish, he will have amassed $51,000 by the time he retires
• French, he’ll gain $77,000
• and $128,000 for German

 

Not only is learning a foreign language a good idea to land a job, but it’s also a good investment to get a more interesting salary.

 

But why are languages and employability so strongly connected? How can knowing a foreign language be worth so much?

Yes, why would knowing a foreign language help us get a bigger salary? And especially, why is it that knowing German (for an American) translates into having a bigger salary than knowing Spanish. Here, we’ve different answers (hypothesis, really).

 

The economical side of it

According to Robert Lane Greene, Germany is a global economic power. So being able to speak German is economically more interesting (for companies, that is) than knowing a language which isn’t so strong economically… such as Spanish. Overall, American companies tend to work more with German companies, and are thus more likely to hire individuals who know German.

 

The law of offer and demand: knowing how to make the difference

 

The more offers there are, the less important the demand becomes. The less offers there are, the more demands there are.
In the United States, Latino American who know perfect Spanish (bilinguals) are relatively less rare than bilinguals who know German. Speaking German is simply an atypical asset in the eyes of companies. Therefore, in the United Sates, a bilingual who knows German tends to win more because knowing German is relatively rare. It’s the same thing for Saffron, because it is so rare, it’s worth more than gold. And knowing a foreign language is an asset worth gold: it differentiates you from other candidates who may not speak a foreign language

English is an international language. When it comes to doing business, English speakers don’t tend to encounter a lot of problems due to language barriers. However, there is an economical interest for learning languages… According to a study by James Foreman-Peck, from Cardiff Business School, the lack of people mastering foreign languages costs Great Britain a whopping 48 billion Pounds every year! In other words, 3,5% of the gross domestic product. Crikey!

Our advice: forget that English is an international language, learn a language which is rare and sought after if you want to have a bigger salary.

Exportation

In order to become more interesting (in the eyes of companies) a good idea is to adapt yourself to demand. let me expand on that…
Multinational companies work with other multinationals. We all agree with that. So the type of companies that are prone to hiring you as a multilingual are multinationals. The idea is then to learn with which you’ll be able to communicate with these multinational companies. So, which language should you choose to learn? Look at the export countries! It could be both rare and interesting to speak the language of a country that tends to export a lot, such as Asian countries.
At MosaLingua, we know that many users learn languages for pleasure, trips, curiosity… And many users use it for school or work. It’s undeniable, now: languages and employability are linked, the former increases the latter – you’ve understood that by now – and consequently… it improves the weight of your wallet.
I want you to know, however, that this article is by no means meant to entice you into learning language with the promise of a better salary! I’m more in the line of thought that money shouldn’t be the ultimate goal or motivation for language learning. But… knowing that speaking more than one language could help you get a bigger salary is intriguing (No, I’m not a hypocrite. Reread what I said).
What do you think?