How To Apply For Language Jobs In Ireland

With its rich cultural heritage and vibrant lifestyle in cities such as Dublin, plus its famously warm welcome and people, there are many reasons to base yourself in the Emerald Isle if you’re contemplating living abroad. What’s more, it’s worth bearing in mind that Ireland is now the EU’s only English-speaking member nation; plus it has the third-highest rates of pay in the bloc and its economy is growing. Equally, you won’t need a work permit or visa to get a job as a UK or EU citizen. 

In a post-Brexit world, relationships with non-English speaking nations are deepening, and Ireland is seeing an influx of international organisations basing their European HQs here.

Increasingly, employers are looking to hire those who have a second and maybe even a third language here, for multilingual vacancies. Figures published in the Irish Times in February 2023 show that the proportion of boys studying a foreign language for the Leaving Certificate fell from 72% to 64% during 2017-21, while for girls the drop was from 87% to 82%. The decline has been put down to teacher shortages and competition from new subjects, among other factors.

On one recruitment website, jobs requiring competency in a foreign language made up nearly 4% of job postings. Of these, more than a quarter (29%) asked for German, French, Dutch, Italian and Spanish. At the same time, demand for non-European tongues, including Chinese and Japanese, rose 40% between 2018 and 2019. Meanwhile one recruiter says languages like Norwegian, Danish and Finnish are also sought-after. Demand is especially high in sales and customer service roles.

So there are plenty of language jobs on offer in Ireland. If English is not your first language, however, you may need to demonstrate your proficiency level when applying for jobs.

Of course, competition for good jobs in Ireland can be stiff, as it can anywhere else. Here are some tips for maximising your chances. Clearly, the more you research and apply for jobs in advance, the greater the headstart you’ll have.

How can I find work in Ireland?

You’ll find the application process for job roles pretty similar to the way it works in the UK. Irish higher education qualifications are roughly comparable to their UK equivalents, so Irish employers will typically recognise all levels of university degrees (although if you’re not sure, there’s no harm in checking).

Find a job in Ireland online

As ever, the internet is your friend and you can apply for jobs abroad online in Ireland. You’ll find a growing number of job websites tailored to the Irish employment market. Along with vacancies, these feature advice about tailoring your cover letter and CV to opportunities in Ireland, plus interview tips. In fact, as elsewhere, more employers are deciding to advertise this way on recruitment websites such as www.recruitmentdirect.com. 

Find jobs in Ireland through recruitment specialists

The best recruitment consultants and job agencies Ireland save candidates time, provide personalised support and guidance and access to inside knowledge and jobs not advertised elsewhere. You can often develop a beneficial working relationship with your agency, and receive helpful feedback after attending interviews.

Networking

Work your own contacts and contacts of contacts, in person and online, as much as you can. One thing to bear in mind is that Irish culture is very warm, friendly and open. So, if you can, try not to come over as too shy or reserved, especially when meeting in person.

Open and recruitment days

Look online for events like this that may be coming up near you. You’ll forge new connections and learn about different organisations and opportunities, potentially even leading to a job offer. Take copies of your CV, remember that you’ll effectively be on show throughout, and treat these occasions like a job interview. Remember the point above about being sociable.

Tips for finding a job in Ireland

Your covering letter

Clearly, you’ll need to stand out, since jobs are competitive, despite the healthy economy. Write a tailored letter geared to both the employer and the position. Mention specific things about the business and why you want to work for them.

The CV

Follow the standard European CV format, writing your contact details and name at the top before going on to cover your educational history and achievements, your career history (starting with your most recent job) and references. Don’t make it longer than two pages.

If you’re applying for a multilingual sales role in Ireland make sure you have a minimum of one years telesales experience; and for multilingual call centre jobs at least six months in customer service.

The interview

This is something you’ll inevitably have to go through before you can be taken on by any employer. Be prepared, be on time, be honest and assertive and ask for feedback if the meeting doesn’t go your way, so you can improve for next time. 

For more hints and tips on CVs check out our candidates page.

Recruitment Direct has extensive experiencing hiring for language jobs in Ireland, especially in call centres and sales among other roles. Take a look at our range of current job openings in Ireland. If you would also like information on permits, taxes and finding accommodation in Ireland; we provide all of this in our post on Living & Working In Ireland.

What German-speaking jobs can I do abroad?

German, along with English and French, is one of three official languages of the European Union and the second most widely spoken language on the continent. So if you’re interested in working abroad with your German speaking skills, the good news is that there are some fantastic opportunities across Europe.

Where can I find German language jobs?

There are many German language job opportunities in Spain, Greece and Portugal; all of which offer consistently warm and sunny weather plus a Mediterranean lifestyle, with a rich history and heritage and so much to experience and enjoy in terms of cuisine and culture. You could find yourself working in any number of roles in any of these countries, whether you’re looking for German speaking jobs in Barcelona or anywhere else.

What careers involving German might be on offer?

• German speaking customer service jobs

Customer service representatives or reps are employed to provide consumers with service and product information. You could find yourself working over the phone or at in-person meetings, answering questions and helping to resolve any issues which may have cropped up.

• Telesales agent with German

A German speaking telesales agent uses their language skills to contact potential and existing customers about a service or product with the help of a pre-prepared script. You will learn the questions to ask to understand what the customer needs, and to close sales.

• Marketing consultants who speak German

In this position, you will be helping your company to understand its customers. You will identify effective marketing campaigns which reach targeted audiences efficiently and effectively. At the same time, you will provide guidance on how best to communicate with potential clients, via online and offline channels.

• German speaking quality assurance analyst roles

Quality assurance analysts are responsible for the final stage in the development of a website, software product, game or piece of content before release.

• Content associate with German

In this role, you could will be labelling comments and evaluating dialogue on text data to assess and improve automated translations. You will be expected to meet high quality and quantity targets and, as with all these roles, possess excellent communication skills.  

Get in touch

If you’re on the hunt for a German speaking job abroad, make us at Recruitment Direct your first port of call.

We’re a multilingual recruitment agency specialising in call centre jobs Europe, among numerous other fantastic openings. We provide everyone from small businesses through to multinationals across the UK, Ireland and Europe with high-quality search and selection services for temporary, permanent and contract positions.

Take a look at the many German language jobs we currently have available via our job search, and call us if you have any questions or need any further information.

How to find multilingual jobs abroad

If you’re lucky enough to be fluent in more than one language, there are some superb opportunities up for grabs. It’s a competitive jobs market, but speaking multiple tongues gives you an edge over other candidates, and opens the door to a range of possibilities. Indeed, there’s growing demand for bilingual and multilingual professionals in myriad different fields, from marketing to banking, law and beyond.

What’s more, first-class linguistic skills mean you’re not confined to living and working in a single country. If the grey chill and rising prices are getting to you, how about the warmer climates of the Mediterranean and a spell in a nation such as Spain or Portugal? In an increasingly globalised world, if you have more than one language under your belt, and can communicate across international borders, you’ll be in great demand with employers, potentially boosting your earnings and widening your professional and personal horizons by living and working abroad.

That just leaves two questions – where to start looking and where to go?

What countries have the best openings for language jobs?

Especially if you’re looking to work in a call centre, or in sales, cities including Barcelona, Dublin and Lisbon are full of opportunities for an array of language jobs. But clearly there are great multilingual jobs abroad in numerous other locations too, from Poland in the heart of eastern Europe to Malta in the centre of the Mediterranean.

Amsterdam is a thriving cultural hub, with many Dutch people speaking several languages and numerous multinationals based here. Elsewhere in northern Europe, Ireland is a welcoming land with some superb multilingual openings. Meanwhile, for the keen linguist on the lookout out for language jobs in Portugal, Spain and Greece offer a sun-soaked lifestyle together with some fantastic job opportunities.

How can I search for jobs with languages?

Narrowing down where you would like to search for your next dream languages job is just the first step. With so much information available, even knowing where to start can feel overwhelming. But there are a number of things you can do to find that multilingual role that’s perfect for you.

Here are some of them:

• LinkedIn – This is a great source of opportunities and a way to network and use contacts online.
• Use your own network – Think about the people you know: friends, colleagues old and current, even family members. Consider those you have met at events or worked for previously. Who can you contact who may be able to point you in the right direction?
• Recruitment agencies – For many, multilingual recruitment agencies are the safest, easiest and quickest way of finding multilingual jobs. They have access to extensive databases of current language vacancies, including some which are never advertised via online jobs boards or indeed anywhere else. This gives you the chance to be considered for multiple opportunities at once, and so could make all the difference between finding any old job and one that’s perfect for you. Equally, agencies often hire for temporary or contract workers, which could be an excellent way of finding out whether an employer is the perfect long-term fit for you. Finally, an agency’s insight into and relationship with employers increases the chances of a good match with multilingual job seekers.

Talk to us

At Recruitment Direct, we specialise in multilingual vacancies, especially in sales and call centres, on a temporary, contract or permanent basis. Get in touch or browse our multilingual vacancies here, or register here.

How do I recruit multilingual staff for my call centre?

In an increasingly globalised economy, a growing number of organisations are expanding their customer service operations to encompass different languages. Doing so shows you’re an internationally minded organisation, open to doing business across borders. And if you’re keen to develop your call centre operations specifically in order to win business in new markets, you’ll have to take on multilingual agents to reach a bigger audience, and boost sales and customer satisfaction.

But if you haven’t done this previously, you may not be entirely sure of the most effective way of hiring the best candidates for these roles. So recruiting multilingual agents for your call centre can seem a challenge initially. You’ll need to take into account customer service experience and cultural competency as well as linguistic abilities as part of your multilingual recruitment drive. But there are a number of things you can do to make the task easier.

Here are some of the talents to look out for:

1. All-round language skills

Clearly, call centre staff need to be able to speak the target language well and have a good level of comprehension. But they also have to understand different dialects within, say, Spanish or German. Equally, test for reading and writing as well as listening and speaking, for example using tests involving reading scripts and writing replies to customer enquiries. Be clear as to which languages you need, and the expected level of proficiency.

2. Customer service expertise

Fluency in Italian or any other language is one thing. But don’t forget that you require the same customer service experience you’d look for in monolingual call centre recruitment. Your staff need to be able to handle customer queries with courtesy and professionalism, whatever language they’re speaking in. They also need to be able to upsell and cross-sell products and services. Tests such as role-play exercises and the like can be invaluable here.

3. Look for cultual competency

Alongside an ease in the relevant language, successful candidates for your multilingual call centre require a good understanding of the cultures of the people they’ll be speaking with. That way, they will find it easier to build a rapport with customers and provide an optimal service. 

Hiring speakers of multiple languages for your call centre

You can ask current employees for referrals, spread the word on social media and post on international job boards to reach the widest possible pool of suitable candidates. These may be cost-effective methods in the short term.

But working with specialist call centre recruitment agencies can save you a lot of time and, ultimately, money in the long run. After all, agencies which are call centre recruitment specialists are ideally placed to identify the best talent. They know where to advertise the vacant roles, and may already know of potentially suitable candidates they can invite to apply, so they will make contact proactively. Some professionals, for example, may respond to this type of approach even if they’re not actively looking for a career change. Plus, they can negotiate salaries.

Agencies also have specialist expertise when it comes to interviewing candidates and assessing how good their language and customer service skills are. These professionals also screen candidates initially, so anyone who is unsuitable is eliminated very early on.

Additionally, recruiters will carry out background checks on applicants who are invited to interview, saving your HR team considerable time and effort. And when it comes to the final round of interviews, an agency will provide the best advice on the questions you should be asking.

We’re call centre recruitment specialists

If you’re looking into multilingual recruitment in Europe, whatever the country, talk to us at Recruitment Direct before you talk to anyone else.  Established in 1999, we supply first-class search and selection services to businesses of all sizes across the UK, Ireland and Europe.

Our main focus is hiring for sales and call centres, as well as multilingual recruitment. We can help with contract, temporary or permanent roles across multiple sectors, whether you’re looking for commercial, technical or support staff.

We offer a detailed understanding of our markets and, before we do anything else, we’ll take the time to assess your precise requirements. Call us on 028 90511220 or fill in this simple online form and we’ll come straight back to you.

Gap Year Jobs For Multilinguals

Figures from a website focused on teaching abroad reveal that up to an estimated 185,000 young people in the UK took a gap year in 2022, with nearly 30,000 deciding to defer their uni place for 12 months each year.

When you consider the potential benefits, that’s perhaps not surprising. After all, a gap year, either before university or after it, can help to develop transferable skills, provide invaluable life and career experience, and heighten cultural awareness. The resulting experiences also boost confidence and independence.

For many, a 12-month career break is the ideal chance to travel and take in new lands. Most will want to work for at least part of their gap year, for financial and career reasons. And a stint spent working abroad can certainly set your CV apart from the competition.

But if you have some proficiency in a second or third language, you’re likely to find more gap year jobs open to you than to someone who is monolingual. A European Commission study shows one in three employers has difficulties filling positions due to candidates lacking foreign language competencies. So being a linguist won’t just help you get by when you’re overseas. You just need to decide where to go and how to spend this precious time.

There are many language jobs potentially available to those seeing gap year jobs abroad, including in the following sectors:

• Contact Centre Management

Harvard Business Review estimates that turnover in contact centres can be as much as 45%, or roughly double the rate of comparable departments. Other research has shown this figure to be even higher in companies with over 5,000 support agents, so many are rethinking their staffing strategies. One way of doing this is by supporting customers in their native tongue – so if you offer linguistic talent, you’re likely to be snapped up.

• Customer Service Advisor

Clearly, if you’re multilingual, you can communicate with and serve a greater variety of customers, and draw in more prospective clients, making you far more attractive to a hiring employer.

• Administrative & Secretarial

There are some excellent multilingual jobs in this sector. Whether you’re meeting and greeting clients, handling foreign correspondence, translating documents, interpreting, fielding calls or taking messages, you typically command higher pay as bilingual secretary, PA or admin assistant than a monolingual one.

• Accounting

Linguists can obviously connect with clients in a tongue other than English and will be culturally sensitive. And if you work for a company serving global businesses, you’re more likely to be offered more interesting opportunities. Bilingual employees also demonstrate useful transferable skills for the profession, from decision making to an ability to quickly learn about new tax laws and how to apply them.

• Gaming

The online gaming industry is truly international, with games, casinos and sportsbooks built, managed and played worldwide. Yet players want games in their own language. So as a developer, tester or translator, you could find you have access to the best gap year jobs as a speaker of multiple tongues.

• Helpdesk Work

Again, multilingual jobs are typically plentiful in this sector, for dealing with written and spoken customer enquiries from across the world.

• Human Resources

As mentioned above, multinationals need to be able to communicate with staff and customers across the world, and not everyone speaks English all the time. There are numerous stimulating, interesting openings in HR if you’re bilingual and looking for gap year work.

Get In Touch

Talk to us at Recruitment Direct. We are a recruitment agency specialising in multilingual jobs, and have some great opportunities across the UK, Europe and beyond for those looking for gap year jobs. We have vacancies in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ireland and elsewhere, especially in sales and with call centres. Contact us whether you’re after a contract, temporary or permanent position, whatever sector interests you most.

Give us a call on 0289 051 1220 or email info@recruitmentdirect.com to learn more.