Bilinguals are Precious in Workplaces

Spanish has turned out to be the country's informal second language, and corporate America has reacted with taking diversity ideas that pertain to recruiting, understanding and attracting a Hispanic/Latino staff.

There are over 40 million Hispanics in the US presently and there is a projected annual growth rate of 4.65 of the Latino community which is poised to add 1.7 million people to its populace yearly. Thus there is a marvelous demand for bilingual job seekers fluent in Spanish and English. Experts opine that the top industries for bilingual demands comprise of healthcare, financial services, sales and marketing, social services and public service. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, states that there are various emerging professions in social services like cross-cultural counselors, bilingual teachers and consumer credit counselors. A number of communities where the healthcare staff serves require licensed clinical social workers, case workers and counselors and that too should be bilingual to cater to the families that require counseling, mental health and financial management services. Also, the Banks and mortgage companies require tellers and loan officers capable of dealing with their Latino clientele. Insurance companies require adjustors and administrative staff to help in processing claims for their varied client base. Hospitals and pharmaceutical companies are demanding bilingual employees to enhance their services to the patients. Further, in order to market goods and services to a multicultural market, corporations are induced to hire such workforce that understands the language and culture of their clients and their vendors. Apart from Spanish, companies having offices and clients around the world look for employees who can speak various languages like Russian, German, French and Mandarin. Those job seekers who know Japanese, Chinese and Mandarin are like hot cakes among employers, and more so in the West Coast. Truly bilingual candidates are capable of speaking two or more languages with equal or close to equal fluency, can speak and perhaps also read, write additional one language very well. Lastly, do include this skill in your cover letter and in your resumes career or skills synopsis. List every language, and also English. Mention your ability as having "knowledge of..." if you just had few semesters of any language don't overstate or devalue your expertise.