How to List Language Skills on Your Resume

One of the most valuable skills that job candidates can offer potential employers is strong fluency in a foreign language. If you have strong foreign language skills, including this fact on your resume will likely give you an advantage over most of your competition whenever the ability to speak another language is a prerequisite for the job.

The Most Requested Languages on Resumes

The level of demand for job candidates with specific foreign language skills depends on a few factors, including the industry and the geographical location of employers. According to the “Not Lost in Translation” study by New American Economy (NEA), the five most in-demand foreign languages requested by U.S. employers are Spanish, Chinese, French, Arabic, and Korean. 

Oftentimes, the second language requested depends upon the industry. Spanish fluency is frequently sought for customer service roles in the financial services and auto parts sectors. The hospitality and luxury retail industries have a high demand for Chinese speakers. French and Arabic, on the other hand, are desirable languages for job candidates seeking work with international humanitarian aid associations. Korean speakers, meanwhile, are targeted by the pharmaceutical, education, telecommunications, and banking industries.

Demand for employees with foreign language competencies also varies from state to state. The states with especially large immigrant populations—California, Texas, Florida, and New York—naturally have the most job postings for bilingual applicants. Other states with a high demand for second language fluency are Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oregon.

Jobs That Require Foreign Language Skills

There is a wide range of employers who list foreign language qualifications for consideration on their job listings. For some positions, candidates are expected to provide a standardized measure of their level of proficiency in a foreign language on their resume.

Customer Service Jobs

The vast majority of jobs where foreign language fluency is desirable are in customer service, sales, and medical positions—roles requiring extensive interaction with clients within our global economy. The NEA study mentioned above notes that bilingual customer service representatives are most in demand (7.8%), followed by wholesale/manufacturing sales representatives (6.3%), retail salespersons (6.1%), registered nurses (3.2%), and financial services sales agents (3.2%).

When applying for most of these sorts of jobs, it is fine to describe your fluency in general terms such as bilingual, native, near-native, advanced, intermediate, or competent. If you have a LinkedIn account, you can use the proficiency designations provided there (native or bilingual proficiency, full professional proficiency, professional working proficiency, limited working proficiency, or elementary proficiency) to add your language skills to your profile.

Here’s an example of how to cite your foreign language competency level on your resume:

• Foreign languages: English (native proficiency), Mandarin Chinese (full professional proficiency)

Federal Government and Military Jobs

Federal agencies that actively recruit personnel with foreign language skills include the Department of Defense, Central Intelligence Agency, Department of State, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Virtual Translation Center, and the Peace Corps. 

Foreign language skills are in high demand for these federal government jobs, and there is a shortage of qualified applicants. The United States Government Accountability Office reports that 23% of Foreign Service Officers appointed by the State Department to work overseas lacked the required language proficiency. 

The demand for talented foreign language speakers in the government sector is so great that many agencies now offer hiring incentives to job applicants with fluency in priority languages. 

Required proficiency framework: Candidates for federal jobs may be asked to prove their language proficiency by taking a test based on the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale. This scale ranks one’s language competency at six different skill levels (0-5). Here’s what a citation of this scale might look like on a resume:

• Foreign Languages: Spanish-Native/Bilingual (ILR Level 5); English-Native/Bilingual (ILR Level 5); French-Professional Working Proficiency (ILR Level 3)

Foreign Language Teaching Jobs

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there were approximately 27,240 foreign language teachers in the American workforce in 2017. Colleges and universities, junior colleges, and local governments are the leading employers of foreign language teachers.

Required proficiency framework: The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) has created a series of guidelines used to evaluate one’s functional language ability. This scale, commonly used both by teachers and employers to assess foreign language competency, analyzes proficiency in speaking, writing, listening, and reading. 

Here’s an example: 

• Foreign Languages: English (Native); Spanish (ACTFL: Speaking-“Superior,” Writing-“Superior,” Listening- “Advanced High,” Reading-“Distinguished”)

Jobs With European Companies

Most Europeans begin learning a second language early in their primary education. If you hope to work abroad for EU employers, a solid command of a second language may well be required. 

Required proficiency framework: Employers in the EU use the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) to determine their job candidate’s degree of language proficiency. A basic understanding of a language is ranked as “A1” or “A2” (“Basic User”), an intermediate command is scored as “B1” or “B2” (“Independent User”), and advanced competency is described as “C1” or “C2” (“Proficient User”). 

Here’s what a citation looks like:

• Foreign Languages: English (Native, CEFR C2); German (CEFR B2); French (CEFR B1)

Where to List Foreign Language Skills on Your Resume

If foreign language competency is one of the “preferred” or “required” qualifications on a job listing, then you need to mention this skill throughout your resume.

Although this might seem repetitive, multiplying the mentions of your language skills on your resume will ensure that it “passes” its initial review by the automated applicant tracking systems that many employers use to narrow down their pools of candidates. These systems are programmed to identify both the placement and the number of times specific keyword phrases are incorporated within your resume.

The best places to showcase your language skills on your resume are in an initial qualifications profile, a dedicated languages skills section or table, and within your “Education and Certifications” section. 

Qualifications Summary Example

The qualifications profile (also called a “summary of qualifications”) of your resume provides the important first impression to an employer, so it’s important to highlight your language skills prominently here. You can do this by mentioning them both in a resume headline and in the text of the profile itself:

Language Skills Section Example

Another good way to showcase your language skills is to set them off in a dedicated “Language Skills” section or table. This should be placed either directly after your summary of qualifications or (especially on federal resumes) at the end of the resume following the description of your education and training.

Experience Section Example

If you have used a foreign language frequently as part of your day-to-day work experience, be sure to highlight this in your “Experience” section.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Education and Certifications Section Example

Any academic or professional training you have had in a foreign language should be mentioned in the “Education” section of your resume, along with language certifications you have earned.

Resume Template to Download

(compatible with Google Docs and Microsoft Word) to use as a starting point for your own resume.

Foreign Language Resume Sample

Foreign Language Self-Assessment Tools

Not sure just how good your foreign language skills are? You can take self-assessments using the ILR proficiency scale (for federal jobs), the CEFR scale (for jobs overseas in the EU), and the 10-level ACTFL proficiency scale.