Can one find a good job after learning Russian?
Russian is a Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is also spoken in by many people in other parts of the former Soviet Union, such as Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Estonia. Russian, like other Slavic languages, is an Indo-European language. Russian is one of the three main East Slavic languages; the others are Ukrainian and Belarusian. More people speak Russian than any other Slavic language. Written Russian does not use the Latin alphabet that English and the West Slavic languages do. (some people do, however, learn to write it in Latin letters) It mostly uses the Cyrillic alphabet, whose letters, like those of Latin, came from Greek, but are different from them. The other East Slavic languages and some of the South Slavic languages use the Cyrillic alphabet as well. Russian is an official language of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, along with English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Chinese.
Standard Russian is also called modern literary Russian, first appeared at the beginning of the 18th century. Peter the Great was then working to make the state more modern. Standard Russian grew out of the dialect of Russian that was spoken by people in and around Moscow. In some ways, Standard Russian was also like the Russian used in government offices in earlier centuries. Mikhail Lomonosov wrote the first book on Russian grammar in 1755. The Russian Academy of Sciences published the first full dictionary of Russian in 1783. The grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation of Russian became stable and were standardized at the end of the 18th century and during the 19th century. That was called the “Golden Age” of Russian literature because it was a good period for the subject, which became very famous across the world. All of Russia began to use Russian as the language of literature, education, and official communication. Until the 20th century, only the upper classes and people in cities spoke the literary language. Russians from the countryside continued to speak their local dialects. In the 20th century, all children were required to go to school. Many people had radios and televisions, which helped to spread Standard Russian. By the mid-20th century, Russian dialects had mostly disappeared. Standard Russian replaced them almost completely especially to talk to people from different oblasts.
Most people learn a foreign language with the intention of getting a job outside India. An important question however remains, whether one can get a job after learning Russian? In this blog, I will try to answer this question to my best:
Moscow and St. Petersburg make up for the chief economic centres of Russia, offering the best job opportunities. An overall unemployment rate in Russia was measured at 6.3% in July 2020, which is an increase of around 30% since the start of the year! That despite that it is largely down to the effects of COVID-19.
“Moscow has the highest employment rate in Russia and its labour force makes up around a quarter of Russia’s total GDP”
The service sector accounts for over half of all jobs in Russia, with retail, tourism, health, and education being the front runners! In the Industrial sector, Mining, manufacturing, and construction take the lead.
While learning Russian should be an important task to do, to be able to manoeuvre around the country, one can still find many English-speaking jobs with large multinational companies in the big Russian cities. such as Japan Tobacco International, EuroChem, Philip Morris International, Toyota, Volkswagen, Apple to name a few.
Gazprom (oil and gas), Lukoil (oil and gas), Sberbank of Russia (finance), Russian Railways (transport), PAO Rosseti (energy) are a few of the largest employing corporations in Russia.
While Moscow alone has a huge demand for trained professionals in sectors such as IT, Business Development, Finance, Human Resources, Medical and pharmaceutical, St. Petersburg is struggling to fill vacancies for, Sales professionals, Drivers, Engineers, Technical specialists besides other cities! Top jobs in Russia remain Instrumentation and Control Systems Engineer, Petroleum Engineer, Electrician, Biology, Web Developer, Software Engineer, Android Developer, Security Manager, Geologist, Senior Planning Engineer, the list is endless!
Russian language learners who aspire for a good job must consider all their opportunities and learn Russian with that in mind.
Get employed as a Translator or do your own freelance thing!
Russian language learners looking to be a professional Russian translator to translate your documents, website, or video between Russian must look for multiple resources online. There are tons of employers all across the globe employing over 100 qualified and experienced translators, providing high-quality English Russian translation services on time and on budget. You just need to ensure you are fully compliant with ISO and EN that ensures that all your translations will meet the most stringent standards for quality and accuracy. You could offer Russian language translation solutions for companies and individuals across all industries and deliver fast and reliable translation services at competitive and affordable prices with all required tools and resources, regardless of the volume and complexity of the text to be translated. Remember it pays well if you work hard with honesty and ethics. Translation depends on three crucial skills above all:
- Very high language ability (obviously).
- Experience or academic background in the field you intend to translate. Contrary to what a lot of people might assume, translators, don’t translate everything. They’re very specific on one or several areas of expertise (e.g. law, tourism, health and so on).
- Skill as a writer and translator (in your own language).
Believe it or not, translation skills are not the same thing as foreign language skills. You can be amazingly fluent in a language and yet still be a useless translator. You also need to be skilled at business and marketing if you’re going freelance because it’s a highly competitive field.
Get employed as an interpreter or do freelance assignments!
Translating and interpreting are different from one another. While translation requires changing texts, interpretation is an on-the-spot job! Interpreting is spoken and (I would argue) a much more challenging job than translation. This is because you have to deal with people who are speaking spontaneously and colloquially, and you need to be equally spontaneous and accurate! Interpreters work in dynamic roles where they have to interpret comments that can have disastrous consequences if interpreted incorrectly (e.g. interpreting between patients and doctors, between politicians of two countries, between a lawyer, defendant and judge, and so on).
Getting employed in Tourism Industry
The present Russian state that emerges from the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1990 has grown to become an influential economic force to reckon with globally. Russia now has a new middle class, which has spurred many to travel abroad and has become a significant aspect of the global tourism economy. Every year tens of thousands of Russians visit India, especially Goa, and the ability to speak Russian offers the chance to work as a linguistic guide in the tourism industry. It means that, if you are involved in the tourism industry, knowing how to speak would add more spice to your qualification as a tourist guard or operator.
Work as a Russian language trainer/teacher: The Russian language is a doorway to the unique and beautiful world of the mysterious Russian soul. In a world where often Truth has to be discovered in your own Russian language offers an interesting perspective. Centuries of culture, struggle and the search for beauty and spirituality are locked in the 33 letters of the Russian alphabet. Generally learning a language is better with a native speaker as a teacher. There obviously would be limited learning a non-native teacher can teach you, no matter how good they are in the language due to lack of common slang, expressions and colloquialisms that a non-native will miss.
However, remember non-native teachers do have their own special place because there is a lot that native speakers often cannot articulate or explain properly to learners. A very common thing native speakers cannot relate to is the challenges of understanding and learning their own language as a second because they’ve never had to do it themselves! They have absolutely no clue of the struggles of language learner goes through!
So if teaching a foreign language is your interest, get qualified to a CEFR C2 level and look into roles where non-native teachers are employed in support roles for native teachers.
That combination of native teacher + learner teacher can produce some very effective results for prospective learners.
Take up roles in a customer service position
While not every foreign language job will have a customer service option, yet it’s worth mentioning that customer service roles of just about every kind are increasingly in need of more multilingual staff! It could be with Airlines, Banks and so many more sectors that cater to international clients! Certain languages will get you further than others of course, but the mere fact that you speak another language will usually put you ahead of others who don’t, as many companies favour multilingual over monolingual applicants.
Finally,
Russia has diverse employment opportunities and ex-pats are often the best-paid professionals. Big cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg offer the best opportunities, especially for those speaking both English and Russian. Even though some multinational companies use online application forms, CVs and letters remain a typical way to apply for jobs in Russia. A cover letter is an essential part of the job application and is often considered more important than a CV. The letter format should be formal and illustrate how suitable you are for the job, what your ambitions are for the future, your qualifications, and your work experience. When you are called for the interview, do your homework and research the company very well to prepare yourself. On the day of the interview dress formally; bring a copy of your resume and all the additional documents like letters of recommendation, awards, or certificates. During the interview show with enthusiasm that you are interested in the position and have a few insightful questions to ask. If you are successful, you will be contacted by the company within a few days and offered the job. Expect to provide a minimum of two employment references. You can read more information in our informative guide to CV writing and interview tips in Russia.
There’s an amazing new way to learn Russian! Want to see what everyone’s talking about!
