Advertising is perhaps the very best business for utilizing language skills because it provides a career path open to people with so many vocations in a high-value consultancy that gives your career global reach and scope with almost limitless potential. Today there is really no such thing as a home market. Even the most prosaic of small businesses has access to the global market through the Internet if you speak the language of your clients and customers.
Speaking more than one language is a valuable skill that will serve you well throughout your chosen business career.
Two key questions to ask yourself are just how fluent are you in your extra languages and how confident are you in speaking them as opposed to writing them. You will also need to decide if you are happy people-facing, or more comfortable in a more distant role such as translation. One thing is for sure, speaking additional languages will always be an asset that will stand you in good stead.
English may be the global language of business but even in the USA Spanish is spoken by a huge and growing section of the population. Europe may be one major market thanks to the EEC but it‘s a market speaking more than 30 languages. Traditionally, we have seen Spanish, German and Italian as useful languages to reach major European markets. Today Russia is the new powerhouse in Europe. Further afield, China and India have booming manufacturing-based economies which may soon see them established as the two biggest economies on earth.
In today’s global market, advertising is perhaps the most obvious profession where language skills will enhance your employment prospects. It is a business that went global decades ago. Today you are likely to see the same advertisement in Beijing and Mumbai as you are in New York or Chicago.
It’s also a business which is open to almost everybody. Men and women thrive equally. The more confident amongst you may want to consider client-facing roles in account management. Here you will be dealing face-to-face with demanding clients on a day to day basis. From very early on in your career you can expect to be using your language skills to develop vitally-important client relationships.
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