In a corporate culture often obsessed with polished English, one Mumbai entrepreneur decided to break the mould. Kanan Bahl took a calculated leap when interviewing a candidate from a Tier-2 city who possessed outstanding technical abilities but struggled to articulate himself in English. Rather than letting language barriers dismiss genuine talent, Bahl hired him for a client-facing role and encouraged him to speak comfortably in Hindi. Today, that candidate stands out as Bahl’s most successful hire.
“I interviewed a guy from a Tier-2 city whose English was terrible. But he was too good with his sample task. I was still overthinking about hiring him because his role involved facing the clients. I still hired him!” Bahl wrote on X.
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He continued, “I was tired of hiring people great with their English but terrible with their technical skills. Today he’s my best hire. I asked him to communicate confidently in Hindi with clients.”
Explaining his decision, Bahl further added, “People like Kumar Vishwas attract the highest speaking audience because he’s great with his Hindi. Never heard him speak in English. The Japanese, Chinese, Koreans – all speak in their native languages and they hardly know how to speak in English. Speaking good English is important but it isn’t the a barometer of your intelligence or capabilities.”
What did social media say?
The post resonated deeply across social media, sparking a discussion among people who shared their own experiences with language bias in hiring.
An individual commented, “Let me tell you. Here in Australia, hardly any hiring managers take English into account for any technical job, even if the job is client-facing.” Another posted, “In other countries, English is a language; however, in India it is treated as a skill. That’s a sad trend.”
A third expressed, “I relate to this one. I moved to the US without being fluent in English. You figure it out when you have to. Fluency can be learned. Curiosity, capability and the willingness to figure things out are much harder to teach.”
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A fourth wrote, “Companies expect English-speaking skills like a native English speaker from the candidates. How could anyone speak like native English speakers when we speak our mother tongue most of the time? The majority of Indian parents don’t speak English, so we can’t speak in English at home either.”