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Language skills become a big plus on Software St

Sanjay K Pillai in Chennai

Somkanti Sengupta is a software professional working with i-flex Solutions in Paris.

Raised in Pondicherry, a former French colony, Sengupta was working with L&T Infotech in Mumbai, but was recruited by i-flex solutions because they specifically wanted someone who could speak French and represent their business interests in France.

Sengupta speaks French naturally and has learnt French right from the day he started school in Pondicherry.

With Indian software companies increasingly looking at Europe, Latin America and Japan as destinations to grow their business, they are looking at software engineers who have foreign language skills.

In these non-software countries the mother tongue is the business language.

At the moment Indian software companies hire engineers and management graduates and then put them through costly foreign language classes and then send them for assignments abroad.

This practice of course will continue but software companies will clearly prefer candidates who have a thorough grounding in a foreign language as this allows them faster access in markets like Japan, France, and Latin America.

The writing is clearly on the wall if you are studying to be a software engineer.

The chances of your getting employed in a bleak job market are likely to increase multi fold if you know a foreign language like German, Japanese, French or Spanish because Indian software companies need your language skills as much as your engineering skills to interact with their clients in these countries.

Says R Vidyasagar, Vice President, Human Resources, I-Flex Solutions, a company which at any given point of time has employees travelling to 40-odd countries across the world.

"We do business in 80 countries worldwide and it becomes very important for us to have employees who have a good grounding in the local language and can understand the cultural sensitivities of the particular country. Knowing a local language is very important".

Take the case of a market like Japan which is highly conscious of its culture. Either you know Japanese or you employ a local person or you do not do business.

It is very simple. In the case of Indian companies they would much rather prefer an Indian employee who is well versed with the Japanese language and the cultural ethos so that there are no cultural clashes or communication gaps.

Similar is the case with markets in Latin America where you would need to know either Spanish or Portuguese or the German market where knowledge of German would be a pre-requisite.

Admits R Chandra Sekaran, Senior Vice President, Cognizant Technology Solutions, "Yes, while hiring from campuses and at the lateral level, Cognizant does prefer professionals who have proficiency in a foreign language such as German, French or Japanese, but only if everything else is equal. We do not hire someone just for the language skills, compromising on other parameters that normally govern our recruiting."

According to Vidyasagar the day is not far when engineering schools will like management schools which offer international business degrees compulsorily get their students to go through foreign language examinations and certifications.

A move that could see students fortify their future job prospects.

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