Editor’s note: This article was first published in May 2012. The figures are from then: unemployment up by 360,000 people in the previous quarter, languages requested in 25% of published job offers, and the 170 Adecco vacancies listed. None of them should be read as current.
Remember that every recruitment process starts from a job profile with a set of minimum requirements. In many cases, these are the basic qualifications for the role, while experience or knowledge of languages is an extra that adds to how you present yourself on the job market.
In this case, it’s the other way round. Knowledge of languages is the starting point for getting a job. Reports say there are 170 possible jobs whose basic requirement is speaking languages: English, Chinese, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Tagalog…
The statistics
A “mere” 360,000 people (note the irony) were added to the unemployment figures in the last quarter, and companies are betting on internationalisation to cut costs or open up new markets. That means looking for employees with language skills, which have become a basic way for today’s candidates to stand out through their additional training.
Languages are requested in 25% of the job offers currently published.
Adecco Outsourcing’s offer
This external recruitment firm is offering 170 vacancies that require knowledge of languages. The jobs range from telephone customer service to technical or administrative roles, and even translators and interpreters.
Some of the openings on offer are:
- 80 university graduates holding the CAP (Spain’s teaching qualification at the time) to mark upper-secondary school exams, with at least one year’s teaching experience and fluent Catalan.
- An unspecified number of Chinese and Tagalog translators.
- Interpreting and translation professionals for court and tax proceedings in the Community of Madrid.
- 70 university graduates with languages and experience in multinational companies for administrative and technical positions.
- 20 telephone customer service and sales agents who are native speakers of languages such as Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian or English, for financial companies.
Further reading
- Looking for a summer job? These are the most in-demand trades
- Carrefour creates jobs in Spain
- Learn how to look for a job through a comic
- 100,000 jobs in Germany until 2014
Featured image: FrDr, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
