Do you speak another language?

 In a job interview, there is a big chance that, at some point, the Recruiter will ask you about the languages you can speak. For some positions, a foreign language (or even more than one) is mandatory, so you should be ready to answer this question eventually. Even if it is not a requirement for the position, your communication skills in a different language can still be used as an aspect that could make a difference in case there are two candidates with a similar profile, and we have to choose only one.

There is a funny thing I heard more than once in my interviews when I started speaking to a candidate in a language he wrote on his CV he had a bilingual level:  “I was bilingual, now my level is lower”. Whether you are bilingual or you are not! There is no such thing as “I was bilingual, now for some reason I will try to explain you, I am not anymore”. Please name things right.

If you have an official language certificate that confirms your fluency level in a foreign language, make sure you mention that in details on your CV. If you do not have any official certification for your language level, try to make your real level as clear as possible in your CV. Let me repeat that: REAL level.

What is the point of writing “English” on you CV with no other information besides that? If you write only the word “English”, the Recruiter can´t guess, by magic, if it means that your level is basic, intermediate or advanced. We can´t deduct if you can read better than you write, or if you just started taking classes related to that language 2 weeks ago. It´s better not to leave space on your CV for confusion.

If you write “English” (or any other language on your CV), please make sure you specify:

-  Reading, Writing and Speaking Level – some people classify the levels in “Basic, Intermediate and Advanced”, others use percentage (like English speaking 70%), and other use the European Language classification (like A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2).

-  Specify which your Native Language is. Make this information clear.

-  Mention language courses you have done (places and dates).

-  You can also mention relevant experiences you had related to that language – for example: I lived for one year in the UK in the year 2008; I have been using Spanish daily at work since 2013.

Don´t be surprised if the Recruiter starts the interview with you speaking directly in Portuguese, in case it´s written “Fluent Portuguese” on your CV. I have done it myself many times.

Writing on a document like a CV that you are “Fluent” in a certain language can be risk. If you write you are fluent in Russian, but you are not, and the Recruiter decides to switch languages and speak to you in Russian, it can make you feel nervous. You might lose your concentration and show without further doubts that you were not telling the truth on your CV.

If you write “Fluent” in any language, our expectation as Recruiter increases, and most likely, we will want to check that fluency during the interview. It is better to be realistic and fair with yourself.

Another interesting aspect about speaking a different language is that you not always need to speak it fluently to reach the level the Recruiter is looking for. Depending on position and requirements that the company asks for, if you are able to communicate, write and ready in a reasonable way, your language level could be fine.

If you can communicate in a foreign language and people can understand you; if you say or write something and people can get your message, sometimes this can be enough. I emphasize that the language requirement is directly connected to the job position you are applying for: the higher the position, the higher the expectation about your language skills.

Don´t panic if you are in the middle of a sentence and you can´t find the exactly word you want to say. If your mind goes blank, probably you will stop the sentence you were saying, and will keep trying to find “the” exactly word you want to say. This situation will probably increase your anxiety level, you might lose the idea you want to say, and the Recruiter will probably lose his interest on you.

So what to do in those cases?

- First, make your peace with that. Sometimes we can´t find the right word that express perfectly what we want to say. If it happens, we can always go for a synonym or a similar word that gets closer to the idea we had in mind, but could not express before. Not finding the word in the moment that you are speaking happens even when you are speaking your native language, so imagine when you are speaking a second or a third language! Do not be so hard on yourself.

- If you still can´t find a synonym or a similar word, try to explain your point in as many details as you can. Doing so, the Recruiter will be able to understand clearly what you are talking about, even if you didn´t mention the specific word for it.

- You can exercise that at home with any word you pick up, just to see that it´s possible to manage that.

For example: Imagine that I am a Cook and I want to say I was doing fruit carving at my previous job, but due to the nervous during the interview I can´t remember the word “carving”. I can explain my point saying: “I was using knives and other objects to create different shapes with fruits and vegetable, in an artistic way, making then look like roses, or animals, or even faces”.

- Last, but not least: We Recruiters understand that you are under stress during the interview, and probably won´t show your best language performance in that moment. So you won´t lose the job just because you made one or two grammar mistake.

We have been in the candidate´s position before, and we had to speak in a foreign language in front of somebody that was evaluating us, so we know how hard it is.

The worst thing you can do is to be blocked and do not say a single word in the language that you wrote in your CV that you could speak. It´s always better to try to say something, and show the Recruiter your positive attitude about it, then just say excuses like “Sorry, but there is a long time I don´t speak this language”, or “Can we just skip this part of the interview?”.

If you are thinking about saying anything similar to that to the Recruiter when he starts speaking to you in one of the languages you wrote on your CV you could speak, please review the language level you want to write on this document.

There might be also a background and references check about you during the recruitment process. That complementary information can show the Recruiter a different reality then the one you illustrate until now. Misleading the information you write on your CV or the one you give during the interview can cause automatically removal of your application from the process. Don´t play with that.

Do your best and go ahead!

As you know, English is not my native language. I use it because I can reach more people and share my experience with you. Feel free to visit my blog at julianarabbi.blogspot.com and find more articles and videos.

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