Portuguese Fluency, Tech Skills a Hot Mix for U.S. Firms in Brazil
Spanish may be the dominant language of Latin America, but corporate executives and headhunters say the real need these days is for employees who speak Portuguese.
That’s because Brazil--the biggest market in all of Latin America--has thrown open its investment doors and multinationals are moving in at a record pace. More than 1,000 U.S. firms now have subsidiaries there.
“We’re looking at Brazil as a strategic market with huge growth opportunities,” says Philip White, vice president and general manager of the satellite-based mobile communications group at Qualcomm Inc., a San Diego firm that makes advanced communications systems based on digital wireless technology.
White’s opinion is echoed throughout the telecommunications, computer, electronics, manufacturing and financial worlds.
“There’s a big demand for people across the board, both by local companies with Brazilian capital and by foreign-owned subsidiaries of American companies,” says Paul Levinson, an executive recruiter for Korn Ferry in Brazil.
The scarcity of employees who have the right mix of Portuguese language and technical skills has created a seller’s market that can drive salaries into the stratosphere.
For example:
“I’m looking today for a computer hardware company that needs a head of its PC division in Brazil,” Levinson says.
“We looked in the U.S. for possible candidates, going through our databanks in Chicago, New York and L.A., but couldn’t find anyone who spoke Portuguese. I started out at $90,000 annual salary and I’ll probably close the job at around $200,000.”
With tantalizing stories like these circulating in the business world, it’s no wonder that students like Alison Riches, 24, are avidly signing up for study-abroad programs in Rio de Janeiro.
“When I look at the employment ads, a lot of companies are looking for Portuguese speakers for their Latin American markets, and so I realized that to be competitive, I need to learn it,” says Riches, who attends the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at UC San Diego and plans to work in the consumer products division of a large company for several years before starting her own export firm.
“It’s assumed you speak Spanish,” Riches says, “but Portuguese will put you over the top when it comes to getting a job.”
It sure did the trick for Benjamin Nemo, 25, a financial analyst at the Bear, Sterns & Co. office in Sao Paolo. While still in the firm’s New York office, he spent a year studying Portuguese several hours a week. With his newly honed language skills, Nemo wrangled a transfer to the recently opened Brazil office and is having the time of his life.
“Brazil has sunk its teeth into me,” Nemo says. “Sure, you have to deal with things like electricity blackouts. But in New York, I’d be working 80 hours, seven days a week on client presentations and execution of deals. Here, my exposure to clients and the business environment is phenomenal.”
Brazil today is experiencing a golden era, led by the inflation-taming policies of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. As a result, the hyper-inflation of almost 7,000% annually that rocked Brazil when Cardoso took office in 1994 has plummeted and is expected to be a mere 15% for 1996.
At the same time, Cardoso has leaped into the global economy. A regional trade agreement opened up Brazil to imports and foreign investment. Multinationals have pressed for and won deregulation in high-tech industries and are poised to take advantage of expected deregulation in the telecom industry.
Likewise, the stable economy, 25% interest rates and surge in foreign investment has created a huge demand for the services provided by banking, finance and accounting firms.
ING Barings, the commercial and investment bank, opened in Sao Paolo in the early 1990s and is now seeing many of its competitors move into the market, says Thomas Atkinson, 36, a Portuguese-speaking American who works for Barings as an economist.
Atkinson, who has an MBA, arrived in Brazil with a suitcase, a laptop computer, four suits and a couple thousand dollars in his pocket. Now he attends cocktail parties with Brazilian ministers and U.S. congressional representatives.
“The opportunity to move into highly sought-after jobs in investment banking and consulting is easier here than it would be in the U.S.,” Atkinson says.
Adds corporate recruiter Levinson: “Two years ago, if I said at a cocktail party in L.A. that I lived in Brazil, it was a nonstarter as a conversation item. But today, everybody looks at me and wants to talk. It’s the big buzz in the business world.”
