THE BILINGUAL JOB FAIR BLOG

Cover Letter Tips: How to Write a Cover Letter that Showcases Your Bilingual Skills

September 16, 2009

If you are bilingual, you might want to designate a paragraph in your cover letter to specifically highlight your bilingual skills. Here’s how to do it:

Cover letter tips for showcasing your bilingual skills if you have work experience: Provide two brief business experiences, in which being bilingual helped you in your previous company.

Example 1: You can say something like “Being bilingual and being able to write, read and speak fluently in English and in Spanish has been beneficial to my current employer, especially when we had business visitors from countries in South America and when the company was looking to purchase a plant in Ecuador. In both instances, I was able to help my company communicate better.” These extra skills and examples can set you apart from the other job candidates. Read my post titled The Advantages of Being Bilingual for more thoughts on this.

Example 2: If you are fluent, let’s say in English and Spanish, you can tell the prospective employer that research shows that Hispanics like to speak their own language when purchasing a product or service, especially if they are in stage 1 or 2 of learning English (see my post The Five Stages of Becoming Bilingual for more on this) and that you can help them connect more with their customers – because you can communicate in English with management and in Spanish with the clients. Please notice that in this particular case, you are bringing up your additional knowledge of the company’s clientele and you also mentioned a research study.

Cover letter tips for showcasing your bilingual skills if you don’t have work experience yet: Provide a personal experience in which being bilingual helped you assist someone, or helped you as a volunteer with an organization, or during your internship.

Describe your personal experience: You can designate a paragraph in your cover letter to your bilingual skills, and how knowing two languages can help the specific company. You can say something like: “When volunteering at the clinic, I was able to translate between the patients and the nurses, and the rest of the medical staff, and can help your company in the same capacity.” In other words, because you lack the experience, you can bring in your volunteer work and how you’ve been able to help as a volunteer. Here, you can also mention how you were able to help a company or an organization during your internship.

Remember, the cover letter is an introduction letter of who you are to a prospective company. You need to showcase an array of your personal skills, including your bilingual skills, because they can set you apart from other candidates.

Check back tomorrow for more cover letter tips, including sample cover letters that highlight bilingual skills.

Filed under: Resumes & Letters

Tags: bilingual skills, cover letter, cover letter tips