Trainee Tales is a series of blog posts in which Silvia, PR & Content Marketing Trainee at ABCD Agency, talks about her journey, explaining what are the opportunities and challenges of a career in public relations and content marketing.
Living in a foreign country brings with it various difficulties, one of which is the language barrier. Language can often be an obstacle when you want to work in something heavily communications-based, such as PR and content marketing.
When I started looking for a Berlin-based job in this field, I initially tried to hide the fact that German is not my native language. I had the impression that in order to be successful in this industry and to be able to create quality content, native-level German language was a prerequisite.
Although I attended a German university and studied in German, I still didn’t feel qualified enough. I also tried to hide the fact that my mother tongue is Italian, and most of all, I dreaded being told: "we can tell that you’re not a native German speaker".
When I started looking for opportunities in the world of public relations, getting any kind of role at a German agency as an Italian native speaker who hadn’t yet perfected her Deutsch seemed like a long shot. It was beyond my wildest dreams that it would actually be an advantage that would help me to achieve my goal!
In ABCD, I found the right employer for me: an international team from a wide range of countries, speaking different languages, and yet understanding each other.
The agency's linguistic and cultural diversity is an opportunity for both personal and professional growth. The application process can be conducted in both English and German, allowing candidates to express themselves in the language in which they feel most confident.
Working in many different languages allows you to broaden your horizons, get to know different media landscapes, and improve your language skills. As well as refining my German, I’ve also practiced English every day with native and non-native speakers. This has made me much more confident, and taught me about British and American media.
None of my coworkers or supervisors made me feel that a lack of perfect German or English was a problem. Instead, they were patient with me, and embraced my Italian skills when it came to content creation and pitching. I’m delighted that my contribution helped ABCD get clippings in many important Italian publications like Corriere della Sera, Il Giorno, GQ Italia and Vanity Fair.
In this agency, diversity is not a problem, but an opportunity to be utilised. After all, communication is at the core of what we do here. And what agency can reach as many people as possible, if not one in which multiple languages are spoken on a daily basis?
In conclusion, I would like to quote Alexis Herman, former U.S. Secretary of Labor: Inclusion and fairness in the workplace… is not simply the right thing to do; it´s the smart thing to do.