Multilingual + MBA?

Marketing, International Banking, Human Resources, Sales, Tour guide, translator, consulting, the list goes on. The question is, what do you want to do.

 

Are you already proficient in 4-6 languages? If so, which ones? And if not, how are you going about learning them?

 

pm scarlet on the "other" board, I think her MBA is actually a bilingual program- her classes might be taught in Spanish if I remember correctly. As to what to do with it? I don't know, I'm impressed and jealous just thinking about it.

 

A friend who was a Buddhist monk in Japan (he is non-Asian American) then went on for his MBA at Haas, and found that, with his "only" four languages, he was hugely in demand among international consulting companies. He earned big bucks with Arthur D. Little for a while, then went over to McKinsey & Company (the biggest; mckinsey.com) where he is well into six figures, and travels forty weeks a year, typically a 4 or 5 day assignment in one country, then on to the next one. (Side benefit: he was Chelsea Clinton's boss for a while when she worked at McKinsey.)

 

I just wanted to give an early "congratulations!" How exciting!

 

Maniac, first off, congrats on your upcoming accomplishment.

I would say that if you are planning on having a proficiency in several languages, try to find a MBA program that has an international business focus.

Investment bankers typically travel the world over trying to get new clients interested in new investment products. I could see you be in high demand in an area such as this.

Also, if you can get in with a good, big company, they'll often help you pay for your MBA, and then ask you to share your ideas. I think the general trend has been moving away from paying the whole thing, but some companies are at least helping to pay for the costs of an MBA thesedays. Good luck! Bonne chance!:arms:

 

I was thinking this too. Far as I know she speaks english/spanish but has managed to leverage that quite well in. She is genuinely kind and happy to really invest her time in trying to brainstorm stuff like this too.


Oh, and big CONGRATS on earning the Bachelors. Where did you go? What is your major(s)?

 

What is the "other" board? I just now this one...

 

MC congrats. I am one of those that believes multi-language fluency is not that big of a deal. Sorry to disappoint. Lets say you can speak English and Persian. How does that help you? Or perhaps English and one of the 100s of languages in India? I just don't see how it matters to most people. A specialized language is a niche skill so you might be able to find a specific job where they don't have people who have mastered English and know a bit of language X, but I can't imagine one other than intelligence agents looking for terrorists who speak Arabic.

 

I'm going to disagree strongly with ryoder. If all you want to do is to stay in the US and work here, then he is correct, foreign language skills are usually not critical (but even that is changing).

However, foreign language skills have HUGE benefits when you are doing international business. Everyone SAYS that English is the language of business. However, I have discovered from personal experience that if you speak the local language you have an EXTREME advantage over competitors who do not, even if they hire a translator. I work in both the US ad Latin America, and quite honestly, I would not have been able to access the Latin American markets so quickly and so deeply without my language skills. Even when I work with American companies that have offices in Latin America, my Spanish skills are very valuable.

Ryoder gave two examples, speaking English and Persian and Speaking English and some random Indian Language. The only thing the second example shows is that not all languages are equally valuable. If someone spoke English and Persian, that wouldn't be much use UNLESS they were trying to do business in Iran, then it would be critical. Lets say that you wanted to do business in Japan or China. Does anyone here doubt that speaking Japanese or Chinese would make the process easier and provide you an advantage over your monolingual competitors? Of course not.

I went to undergrad at a university that has extremely strong international relations programs. A lot of my friends got jobs paying ridiculous amounts of money because they spoke English and some other EU or emerging market language and became an analyst for major financial firms.

The one thing to remember is that language skills alone aren't as valuable as language skills with some kind of specialized business or technical skill. When you combine the two, you become awesome. If you want a taste of what multilingualism can do for you, just go to monster.com, type in some foreign language as a keyword, and do a search for the type of jobs offered.

Even in the US, multilingual skills are valuable. Back when I was working as a database guy for a large bank, the bank would make a note of the languages every employee claimed to be proficient with and tested them on it. If something came up requiring that skill, you got the call. Also, even a language such as Spanish can have HUGE financial benefits. I have known of nurses that get up to 50% hourly pay increases if they are proficient in Spanish. One of my best friends, who works in politics, is begging me to help her learn Spanish because it has become so important in local politics.

 

Get an MBA in International Business.

 

Google is pleased to announce that it will henceforth direct all keyword searches for ....Imagination Ignorance Inverse Relationship.... to the above quote.

 

If IRRC MC does interpretation work, so I’d agree the "multi-language fluency is not that big of a deal" is at least irrelevant in this case to this thread.:tongue-tied:

 

MC - another early congratulations!

 

Sorry about that MC. Mea culpa, maxima mea culpa for not realizing your objective. Multi-lingual abilities with an MBA certainly would be useful in international business development, banking, etc. :smokin:

Wish you much success in whatever route you decide to take.