Language Does Matter

The quote for today's career tip has to be shared with Captain America. In the Marvel movie Avengers 2 "English..." was a running gag for reducing (well, trying to reduce) the use of foul language. But as with many things in cinema, there is a career lesson in it. And it is not just "Don't swear".

I just rejected a LinkedIn connection invite out of principle. The profile of the person inviting me was in a language I cannot speak or understand. And if I do not understand what a person is about, I do not want to get connected. Period.

As much as I'm willing to defend this principle, even if it constrains the growth of my network, I feel sorry for the other person, in this case an railway student from a country where English is not the first language. But here is the thing: Having a LinkedIn profile (or a CV, which is essentially the same in today's online world) in your native language may be totally fine for communications and career prospects within your own country. But if you want to play globally, it just has to be in English my friend. By the way, LinkedIn offers the great feature to have your profile in multiple languages, so that people can switch to English if they need to. So you don't even have to give up the native heritage of your profile, just add an "international" page to it. Simple, as many things in life and career.

Just for the record and to avoid any perception of discrimination: The above advice applies equally to all my connections with non-English profiles which I only accepted because I have the luxury of understanding at least the big picture (hello Germans, French, Italians, Spaniards).

And for all of you out there who had your connection invites rejected by me in the past, please follow the above advice and then try again. I'm sure there are many real gems for my network where I left invites on the table due to my lack of poly-linguistic capability, and I sure will consider your invites much more forthcoming once I can understand who you are.