Career Guidance and Opportunities

English Language Role in a career in Pakistan

English language skill is the most important factor of every professional life.  Having fluency in English language will help to excel in you career.  I have a master degree in computer science and am working as software engineer.  I have a total work experience of twelve years.  Unfortunately, my career progress has not been up to my expectations.  I realize that my problem is business communications in English. 

My English is not good and as a result I lost many managerial level job opportunities.  I joined an English language centre twice, and have completed six month courses.  I read many articles on the internet, but it is not effective.  I want to improve my speaking and writing skills.

English has become the lingua franca of the world, and the ability to speak and write fluently in the English language seems to go hand in hand with professional success.  But keep in mind that English proficiency only contributes to successes according to the nature of the job you are in.  If you write for an English daily newspaper, then English will be your core competency; however, if you are a software engineer, then English may be important, but more critical to success will be your actual technical competencies.  A classic study, skills of an Effective Administrator, by Harvard researcher Robert Kats, highlights the three skills required to be a successful manager:  Technical, Human, and Conceptual.  Interestingly, the study showed that the application of Technical and Conceptual skills varied between front line, middle, and senior managerial roles; however, human skills were critical both in obtaining a managerial position and in climbing the managerial ladder.  I suggest you keep working on your English language skills, focusing more on practice than theory, but do not neglect enhancing your human skills.  Human skills are encompassed within he competency framework of emotional intelligence: self awareness, self management, empathy, and interpersonal (not English) communication skills.