Jobs for the multilingual in Quebec (sales, hotel, lawyer)

[Mouldy Old Schmo]

Besides working as a professional translator, what jobs in Quebec require someone to be multilingual (at least bilingual)?

[Acajack]

"Bilingualism" is not really a profession. You need another skill or trade in addition to speaking different language. So you can be an architect - and bilingual. Or an engineer - and bilingual. Or a lawyer - and bilingual.

People who are "professional bilinguals" are usually employed in lower-level service industry jobs like corner store clerks. If they are lucky they can be an auto dealer sales person or hotel front desk staffers.

Since I live on the border with Ontario a lot of people here have the "cult of bilingualism" and think that all you really need to be successful is to speak French and English. But seriously if that is all you have you may end up being a security guard in a government building or working the drive-thru at Tim Hortons.

I guess you would have a lower chance of being unemployed that an uneducated person who speaks just French or just English, but you aren't very likely to get a dream job just by virtue of being able to tell someone where the bathroom is in both official languages.

[Mouldy Old Schmo]

I'm not saying that being bilingual is a profession. What jobs require someone to be bilingual?

[Acajack]

There is rarely a hard and fast rule, with a few exceptions.

Federal employees like those who work in post offices, passport offices, etc: If you work with the public you have to be bilingual.

I believe that provincial police officers (Sûreté du Québec) who do highway patrol have to have some training in English. But municipal police officers generally are not required to be bilingual - though quite a few of them might be for other reasons.

Generally it is up to the individual company or business to determine if they want to hire bilingual staff, though there are some legal provisions whereby a person can challenge whether their employer's requirement for bilingualism is justified. This rarely happens in the private sector - but it sometimes does in the public sector, for example most famously with Montreal transit employees.

But it's not a given in most sectors that people have to be bilingual.

For example, employees in a souvenir shop in downtown Montreal will almost certainly all be bilingual. Even in Quebec City they will likely be bilingual as well.

Waiters in downtown restaurants in these two cities as well, and in Gatineau too. Other cities it is more hit and miss.

Gas station attendants on Autoroute 20 across southern Quebec (the main highway between Western Canada, Ontario and Atlantic Canada), have a higher likelihood of being bilingual than along other highways, though not always.

Supermarket cashiers in the western part of Montreal are more likely to be bilingual than those in the eastern part of the city.

[Mouldy Old Schmo]

How about journalism? Would you say that reporters and anchors on TV are required to be bilingual?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Mouldy Old Schmo

How about journalism? Would you say that reporters and anchors on TV are required to be bilingual?

Depends what they cover. If you cover the pro sports teams in Montreal - yes.

If you cover city council in St-Hyacinthe - probably not.

If you cover the provincial legislature in Quebec City (National Assembly) - maybe, maybe not, but you likely know a bit of English anyway because you travel with the Premier outside the province fairly regularly.