If you use languages for your job, what do you do?

[Okki]

My DD(13) wants to study languages, but she doesn't think she wants to be a translator. She's been brought up bilingually(Eng & Fr) and is about to start studying Spanish on an online course - paid for and supported by school as they don't offer Spanish - and she's done her GCSE French. DH speaks Spanish as well, so she'll get support at home. I've said she can do anything and find a job in a different country or for a multinational where languages are required. I know it's early for career planning, but she wants to do German as well, so I'd like to give her some ideas of different careers she can think about. She is more inclined towards the Humanities than the STEM subjects, but if she's interested, she'll succeed at anything as she's (currently) happy to put the work in. It may all change when she gets a love life, but I hope not

I was told that languages would open doors for me and there would be loads of companies begging to hire me but I found that really wasnt the case. In my experience the multi nationals all have staff who speak english and if they are looking for staff that speak other languages they prefer to hire a native speaker.

Its true that there are shortages of languages teachers and qualified interpreters but if she doesn't want to go down that route then I think she might struggle to find a language focused job where she is really valued. Where I am there is loads of low paid call centre work for language speakers or options in hotels working irregular hours but not much opportunity for promotion or development.

I speak english, spanish, german and french and I got my job because of speaking german. I work in accounts payable administration for an international fashion company. Honestly, the job is not challenging and most of the work is by email so there isn't a lot of opportunity to speak different languages. I would like to move jobs but I can't find anything that sounds interesting/challenging and involves languages.

I've lived and worked in Spain, UK, Germany and South America and I would say that in my personal life learnung languages has been beneficial but professionally I am not so sure.

In the UK I worked in low paid administration, in Germany in retail, in south america teaching english, and in spain administration. None of them are the type of roles that I was led to believe I would have by studying languges and none of them have been roles that I would have made a career out of.

Not trying to put your daughter off but I think languages don't open as many doors as people think.

Just to add that most people I studied with went in to teaching or roles that don't require languages. Obviously don't know what happened to everyone in my cohort but I can only think of one person who went on to work in a multinational company where she needed languages. She seems to be having a good career in advertising for a hair care company but I think the kind of position she found is rare and it took a lot of looking, she spend a few years in no language related jobs until she found what she was looking for.

One of my best friends from uni builds websites for foreign language groups in the UK using her three languages. So I think useful when combined with another skill. My DM used to use business French as a lawyer...she used to say that yes, everyone spoke English but being able to chat in French made the relationship much easier.

I'm a languages teacher - my degree was in French and German. Unfortunately German is pretty dead in English schools these days, so I am teaching myself Spanish in the hope that it will be easier to get a new job.

I was an investment banker for 11 years and had clients all over Europe who I spoke to in French, German, and Italian. Since then I have also learned Spanish and used that in my most recent job too. Now I make YouTube videos and Instagrammer in different languages (mostly French and Spanish).

My degree was in German and Spanish. I work for a large financial technology corporation. I would not have been hired for their graduate programme without fluency in at least one European language. I don’t use my languages so much as my career has developed but it opened the door of opportunity for me.

Im in marketing . I work for a company abroad where i use the language i studied to communicate with colleagues, stakeholders etc. I live in the country of the language i studied and definitely got the job because i speak that language.
Funny, because I wanted to study marketing, but my dad told me it was a mickey mouse topic and to come back with a better suggestion.

I know many people who studied marketing but who couldn't find a job because the competition was so high. I got my foot in the door with my languages degree. I love my job.

If she’s good at languages and wants to do something a little different she could do worse than the RAF. Have a look on their careers website for information about linguist jobs

DH has Spanish and Portguese and is a senior accountant for an international firm. He needs these languages as his staff are in another country and many don't have any English at all. I think the difference with his experience and @Sunny345H is that the languages are a crucial component to another career and not a career in themselves - without them he'd still be an accountant, but there's no way he'd have the role he currently has, which involves lots of travel. So if I was advising her, I'd tell her not to add more and more languages - there are probably limits to how fluent she can get in a language she starts studying now - and make herself as fluent as possible in two other languages only (French and Spanish I guess), while studying for another career in which she can use them. International development, law, I don't know what.

I’m a translator. It’s a hugely varied career so she shouldn’t dismiss it out of hand. She could end up doing games localisation or multilingual web monitoring for MI6.

I’d add she would be well advised to add a rarer language to her portfolio. Arabic or Korean would be my suggestions.

I teach English as a foreign language while living in Germany. I really enjoy it but it's hard to make a career out of it.

This is a recruitment agency for multilingual jobs - might be worth having a browse and seeing what kinds of things are on there.

www.eurolondon.com/

The blog section on that site is interesting :)

I agree with a rarer language. An Asian language would be beneficial.

I'm also a translator now, but my first job was with a travel company who needed foreign language speakers to liaise with hotels/suppliers etc. It paid peanuts though, so it depends on what sort of career she'd like.

On the plus side, I did get a lot of travel out of that job. But being a translator now gives me flexibility with the kids while they're young.

DD (didn't go to uni) uses languages as a hotel receptionist.
She's even got a name badge with flags on.

I didn't study languages in the end, but I seriously considered it, and I've got quite a few friends who did. I'm trying to remember some of the jobs they went into. Several taught English as a foreign language, either at home or abroad, and though I don't think it's turned into a career for any of them, it definitely opened some doors. Other than that, out of the ones I'm still in touch with who have language-orientated jobs, one is an academic, one works in publishing (language textbooks for schools in this country and English textbooks for other countries), one works in business in a country where his target language is spoken and one is a teacher.

Many international organisation jobs require a combination of humanities and languages, though she would require qualifications in a relevant subject as a joint degree/masters too, and the field is very competitive.

I work for a large international telecoms firm. I am based in the uk and work solely for the UK company, but work very closely with group colleagues who are largely Spanish and Latin American (although they are mainly based on germany, with some in Spain). Like others I would have got the job without the languages, but they are a useful addition to my skill set.

I actually started working in the field I am in because of my languages, as my first job was for a holiday company. However I enjoyed the job area (procurement) so much my career progressed that way, rather than via languages.

I started out as a translator/interpreter, but have also worked in travel/tourism. Now working for international organisation. The UN family is full of opportunities for those with English, French and/or Spanish. Working with langauges opens so many doors, and translation is an excellent way in to many international firms so I wouldn't dismiss that either. interpreting is another option, though a completely different ballgame and industry than written translation. Lots of exciting opportunities out there.

I agree that languages on their own give you limited choice, but they are valuable add ons to other skilled jobs. I am a teacher, but my friends are investment bankers, accountants, lawyers, headhunters, work in marketing or corporate communications, fruit/veg and car imports. They all use their languages on a daily basis.

I worked in international recruitment I really enjoyed it. A really interesting job and great if she has good people skills. I worked with cyber security engineers despite initially knowing nothing about it. I had a fab time working in Prague in a really young office with people from across Europe. It has good earning potential after a few years and I spoke in my languages everyday.

It really depends up to what level you speak a foreign language. Some people speak 3-4-5 whatever languages but on a very average or conversational level, so it doesn’t open lots of doors.
Modern Latin languages are kinda run of the mill, in a way that so many people seem to study (and speak) them. I agree with SheWranglersRugRats, if you want to stand out of the crowd go for an unusual language such as Arabic.

My friend did a language degree, worked abroad as a travel rep for many years then at nearly 40 became cabin crew, though that career is obviously looking a bit shaky at the moment.

I used to work at Immigration at Heathrow, many of my colleagues had other languages which came in useful. They didn't get the job because of their language ability though, it was more an added bonus if they were suited to the role. We also called upon casual interpreters who were paid very well, but had to be available at the drop of a hat day or night and obviously some languages were more in demand than others.

Urdu.

Actuary, but its more just handy for certain clients rather than actually needed for the job.