THE BILINGUAL JOB FAIR BLOG

Resume Tips: Examples of How to Showcase Bilingual Skills

October 14, 2009

You can showcase your bilingual skills in your resume by stating your job-related experiences or by your non-related experiences, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, but you can also demonstrate it by including how you acquired your language skills as part of the education section, or describe a scenario where your language skills were an asset in the experience section of your resume.  Here are some examples:

Under the Education section, you can say:

- Studied English and Spanish from first grade through college; for 18 years.

- Spoke both languages at home for 20 years.

- Fluency – High (You can then explain whether you can speak, write and read in both languages).

Under the Experience section, you can describe a scenario, such as this one:

“While working at ____ (name of a retail store), I understood that the Hispanic population spends more on apparel than the general population. I provided a personal connection with the market and helped the manager to develop a loyalty program.  Developed advertising in Spanish as well as in English.”

You can also bring up in your career objective how you can help _____ (name of the company) to achieve a more personal connection with their clients by speaking in their customers’ language.  This is also showcasing your bilingual skills.

Why do companies need bilingual employees?  Because they want to connect with customers who feel more comfortable speaking in their native language to provide better information and service to those customers.  Plus, some of their customers may not be at a stage in which they feel totally comfortable speaking English yet (as I described in this post) and bilingual employees can be the link to those customers.

Your resume can help a prospective employer understand that you bring additional skills to the table and that you bring more value to their company.  Don’t ever take this value lightly, and make certain to include your bilingual skills in your resume.  Es muy importante.

Filed under: Resumes & Letters

Tags: bilingual skills, Job Hunting, resume tips