In the 21-st century, you can consider yourself a lucky person if you were born and raised in the English-speaking environment. But if you weren’t, you have no other option but to learn English from a scratch. In the recent decades English has cemented its status of an international language, and knowing it is a must for everyone involved in business, academic activity, or any kind of job that involves human interaction.

My students often ask me the same questions: “How much of English should I know?” and “How much time will I need to master English?” Well, the short answer would be: You’ll need as much English as you can absorb and you should never stop learning it. Because English has become a part (or rather, an indicator) of a person’s professional culture/competence; The way you communicate in English reveals a lot of information about you to your potential employer — just like your looks do when you enter the job interview room.

Earlier today, I ran across a video piece, published by a Russian senior programmer, who was explaining job interview ‘tricks’ to the beginners. Among other stuff, the guy mentioned that, “as a junior programmer, you won’t need to know English, so don’t worry about this when you go to your interview”. When I heard that statement, I stopped the video and left that blog forever.

Why? My reason is simple: professional culture develops through years and one continues to learn something new till the end of their career. As the ability to communicate in English has become a part of professional image of a modern specialist, the person should start developing this skill as early as possible and never stop or pause the process.

Just hours ago, I happened to attend a discussion of some latest management technologies among IT-related professionals. They spoke Russian, but they used so many English-based terms that the only Russian elements in their speech were some suffixes and endings of verbs and nouns. At the same time, it hurt my ear every time when a Russian expert mispronounced an English word. The professional image of an expert fades down when you hear him say “soopurt” instead of “support” or “a-jail” instead of “agile”.

This is why I am a strong supporter of continuous, non-stop training of English and communication skills among all specialists who work in international companies where English is the language of working communication. This is why I wrote “English for Your Job Interview” and “Get Ready for Your First Job Interview”, and am writing more courses for professionals, which are going to be published within months.